Epilogue

One Year Later

W illamina couldn't contain her excitement. She, Gwen, and Clarissa were gathered in the salon at Rosewood Manor. They sat at a table that had been set in the center of the room, an oil lamp in the middle glowed low. Incense burned and their eyes were all focused on the woman sitting in front of them, shuffling the cards that would tell them their futures.

It wasn't a seance. As much as she enjoyed hosting them before the whole Gerard and Esmerelda fiasco, she didn't want to revisit them. The past was the past. She couldn't change it and there was no one that she wanted to contact.

But their future? Now that was wide open. The women were giddy as they eagerly awaited Fiona to flip the cards that would give them some insight into what they could look forward to.

Gwen was first and clapped her hands in delight as she learned that Nicholas would successfully create a hybrid orchid that would bring him much notoriety.

"He will love that," she said proudly. "He spends so much time in his greenhouse, mixing seeds, caring and cultivating them. Thank ye."

"Your grace," Fiona addressed Clarissa. "Your wool harvest this year will be one for the record books, setting ye and your family for years to come."

Tears welled in Clarissa's eyes. It was just last year when they almost lost their flock of sheep and to hear that the Campbell wool harvest would be more successful than projected was a welcome relief.

"Congratulations," Willamina said, squeezing Clarissa's hand.

"Now, Lady Primrose."

Willamina straightened as Fiona studied the cards laid out before her on the table. The woman tilted her head to the left, then the right, still looking at the cards intently. "Ye have no wee bairns yet, nay?"

Willamina's shoulders sagged. It wasn't for lack of trying on her and Finlay's part. Heaven knows they had done more than their fair share, but to no avail so far. She shook her head. "Nay, no' yet."

Fiona smiled. "'Tis the correct answer—no' yet. Ye shall soon, dinna fash."

Her hopes soared at the thought. Could Fiona be right? She desperately wanted to believe so.

Later that night, after everyone said their goodbyes and left, and Finlay and Willamina settled into bed, he pulled her into his strong arms, wrapping her in his warmth. Fiona's words kept playing over and over in her head.

"What has ye mind so preoccupied, love?" He kissed her forehead and waited for her answer.

She wasn't sure if she should tell him. She worried that he was upset that she hadn't conceived yet. A year was a long time to not be with a bairn.

"Our future family," she confessed.

His eyebrows shot up. "Do ye have news?"

She shook her head. "Nay, no' yet."

"Well, then," he said, covering her body with his. "I think we should rectify that." In an instant, he disappeared under the covers, working her body into a heated frenzy and just as she was about to explode, he kissed his way up her body. Nipped her neck and sank himself deep with a groan. "Heaven. Ye feel like heaven," he said, pumping his hips.

She wrapped her legs around his back, pulling on his buttocks, urging him deeper. He obliged. Rocking back and forth, working her nerves into a frenzy and when he knew she was close, slipping his hand between them and circling the little bundle of nerves through her nestle of curls.

And she was done. Exploding out a release that had her screaming his name as stars shone behind her eyes and her breaths came in short gasps.

He was right there with her, pumping faster and faster, until he slammed into her a final time, swelling even more within her as he emptied his seed into her, stiff as he ground out her name, and she felt it.

Something different.

She just knew it. Her courses wouldn't come.

They'd just created a life.

And she couldn't wait to meet the wee one as she pictured a boy with the same handsome looks as his father. Or a daughter with those same ice-blue eyes and her hair color.

It didn't matter which. Just knowing that it had finally happened was all she needed.

"I love ye," she whispered.

"No' as much as I love ye," he countered, gathering her in his arms.

And in his arms is where she slept, with a smile on her lips, as she dreamt of their future family.

*