Six Months Later

Eagan presented his arm to Tessa, and they entered Gylin's great hall. She took it gingerly out of habit, but he laid his other hand over hers. "They don't pain me anymore," he said of his healed bullet wounds. He'd worked over the winter with Adam to strengthen both shoulders and arms again.

"Thank God they've healed well," she said.

Tessa wore a new rose-hued gown made of soft wool. The color brought out the healthy glow in her cheeks. Half her luxurious sable-colored hair was pulled up and woven into braids that circled her head like a crown while the rest fell in waves past her shoulders.

He leaned into her. "Ye're gorgeous, lass."

She smiled but turned her gaze toward the room full of people. "There's no time for you to be pulling me into a dark corner, so keep your honeyed words to yourself until after dinner."

He chuckled. "But 'tis true. Ye're truly lovely." Truth was that his vigorous bride pulled him into dark corners as much as he pulled her.

She smiled, and his heart clenched with gratitude that they'd survived against the odds and were together.

"Tessa!" Grace called, running over to them to twirl in her new petticoat. "Look what Mistress Ida sewed for me. Charlotte, too. And Bann has a new waistcoat." She pointed over to where Bann showed Ida Macquarie how well he played a game, catching a ball on a string into the attached little cup. Aunt Ida looked ten years younger since coming to Wolf Isle to live, mostly because she now smiled.

"'Tis quite bonny," Eagan said, and Tessa agreed.

The girl curtsied and ran back over to Charlotte, who was talking to Dora and Kat Montgomerie. The Macquarie family was all gathering for the Beltane meal after the all-day festival. The youngest children had fallen asleep by the fire, after the full day of running in the spring fields. The wolfhounds slept near them, guarding their small charges.

A second long table had been brought in and cloths covered both where pewter plates were set with goblets, eating daggers, and napkins. Bunches of spring buttercups and bluebells lay in ribbon-tied bunches down the center of the table. A cheery fire blazed in the hearth that kept them warm against the chill of a spring night in the Highlands.

"I think that's all of us," Lark called and started pointing out where couples could sit, the children mixed in with them. Rabbie, who had taken to trimming his beard and keeping himself washed, held out a chair for Aunt Ida. The woman gave him a narrow-eyed glare but smiled when she turned toward the table, letting him help push her chair in.

Kofi, Eliza's friend and cook for the castle, had created a feast. Maids brought out platters of meats, seasoned early greens, warm bread, fresh butter and jarred jams, and candied fruits. The grass was growing greener and lush on Wolf Isle, the berry bushes full of flowers, the gardens sprouting like never before, and the new beehives were thriving. The willow tree had lost its fall leaves and new buds had formed along the thin limbs. It was as if a veil had been lifted from the isle. Or a curse.

Adam stood. "Quiet down," he said. The murmuring and light laughter faded slowly.

Lark stood next to him, and he nodded to her. She brandished a bouquet of green above her head. "This is sorrel," she said, her smile mischievous. "When I came to Wolf Isle five years ago, I brought this, thinking I would be making a stew for my new husband. Little did I know that I had also married into a cursed clan with four unruly brothers."

Deep laughter rumbled through the hall.

"There were dirty dishes and tankards scattered along the table." Lark pointed upward. "Birds roosted in the rafters, and Callum and Drostan were wrestling on the floor."

"I won," Callum said.

Drostan snorted with a shake of his head. "Not how I remember it."

"I had to check my brothers' fingernails," Lark continued, "and remind them not to fight."

"Even though they did, and we were nearly banned from Mull," Adam said.

"I seem to remember you joining in," Lark said, looking pointedly at her husband. But then she waved her hand and looked back along the table. "But look at you all now. Clean…" She flapped a hand across the table. "Even Rabbie."

He grinned at her and showed his dirt-free fingernails around the table. Everyone laughed.

"He certainly smells a lot better," Beck said.

"Aunt Ida likes fresh-smelling things," Eagan said, earning him a glare from both his aunt and Rabbie, but everyone knew they were growing close.

"And our clan is increasing," Lark said, indicating everyone filling the hall. "Gylin Castle is no longer dark, dirty, and lonely. 'Tis full of life now, thanks to you all."

Eagan raised his goblet filled with wine. "Huzzah!"

"Huzzah!" everyone answered, even the children who were awake, holding their small cups of spiced juice.

Next to Eagan, Tessa stood. "Thank you to Ida Macquarie for taking over the children's home with the passing of the amazing woman who truly saved us." They all murmured and smiled at Ida, and Tessa continued. "I raise my cup to Grissell Macquarie, the wisest and fiercest protector I've ever known."

They raised their cups quietly in solemn remembrance. After stabbing Jandeau in the heart, she'd walked back to her cottage, sat before her fire, closed her eyes, and died with her two white cats in her lap. Records found in her cottage noted her birth year and lineage. Grissell's great-grandmother had placed the original curse on Wilyam Macquarie and his clan. She was the daughter of the bairn cut free from her hanged mother, Elspet, and she'd used the last of her strength to save the Macquarie Clan. Her final age was ninety-seven years.

Eagan had moved into Tessa's cottage, and they were building onto it. Then he could be right there to help his aunt with anything she needed, although Rabbie stopped by every morning now.

They'd all moved out of Gylin Castle except for Lark and Adam and their children. Drostan and Lia were expecting their first bairn in the summer. Beck and Eliza, with the help of the men from Ormaig Village, had taken over the Bourreau and turned over the remaining pirates to Eliza's father, Captain Wentworth of the English Navy. The Macquaries had renamed the Bourreau the Grissell and were refurbishing it.

Eagan's other brothers were raising their cups to their wives, and Eagan held his goblet high, smiling at Tessa. "How did I get so lucky as to lure a lass like ye to me?"

She sat back down and kissed him. "Who says you lured me? I believe I'm the siren."

Eagan chuckled, setting his cup down to take Tessa into his arms. With the sounds of laughter and merriment filling the great hall of Gylin Castle, he kissed her. Once cold and alone, his life and his entire family were now filled with the greatest blessing of all: love.

Thank you for following the adventures of the Macquarie Clan as they found love and broke the curse of Wolf Isle!

Adam, Beck, Callum, Drostan, and Eagan had no idea how love could change their lives so completely.

But we did! That's why we read romance. Romance is hope for the future and the quest for more happily-ever-afters.