Growling between the hounds as they fought over something made everyone turn and look as Logan ran into the chapel dangling a piece of dirty blue silk from his fingers. He waved the torn fabric like a flag. “Anlan found it and Dillon was playing tug of war with him over it.”
Elaine let out her breath and thought to continue with the ceremony, but then she remembered what Cearnach had told her. One of the goods her uncles had stolen from them was silk.
She rushed to join Logan. “Where did the dogs get it?”
Cearnach was close behind her.
His mother said, “What… what are they doing?”
Aunt Agnes said, “I told you we should have had the wedding in the chapel at Argent Castle. Nothing would have interrupted the ceremony there.”
Logan led the way across the bailey to the cellar in the southeast tower and pointed to a place where the dogs had been digging. Two of the pups were deep in the hole, yipping and running around. “They smelled something in there. They were digging and… well, they opened up a wee passage.”
“Let me see.” Cearnach crouched down to get a better look. “It’s too dark.”
Ian leaned down with a flashlight, and Cearnach used it to peer into the hole. “Flynn, what are you doing in there?” He studied the silk, the shimmering gold, the pearls, the emeralds. His eyes widened at the sight of his sword poking out of the crate of green jewels—with the first carved handle he’d made, the one he had used in the fight against Elaine’s Uncle Tobias and had lost to the older male. He shook his head. “Figures you put the dogs up to locating the hidden room, Flynn.”
Cearnach smiled and looked up at Elaine, who was waiting to hear what they’d found.
“It appears your treasure…”
“Your stolen merchandise,” Elaine corrected Cearnach.
“Was hidden in a secret room, buried for centuries. It’s all there. Well, the pearls and gold and silk. The sugar I’m certain your kin used long ago. The loch surrounds the castle on three sides. During a downpour, water runs off the cliffs, making it appear like a waterfall. Here is where your uncle said the treasure was all along. And my sword,” he said quietly, remembering when he’d fought so hard, determined not to give up while his da and clansmen and the pirate crew watched.
Her uncles had brought them together—the sword, their niece, and the Highlander who would one day steal her heart.
She touched his arm and stared up at him, her eyes wide with disbelief. “The one my uncle took away from you during a sword fight aboard your ship?”
“Aye.”
“My uncles would be happy for me. Your sword will have a special place in our bedchamber,” she said, taking a deep breath, her eyes misty with tears.
He loved her with all his heart, the she-wolf who would protect him. If she’d been with her uncles at that time, he knew she would have defended Cearnach even then and probably made her uncle return Cearnach’s sword to him.
He handed the flashlight back to Ian, who returned it to Logan. Cearnach’s gaze shifted again to the treasure before him. In her McKinley plaid wedding gown, she looked every bit the Highland lass, her hair pinned up in curls around her head, the bottom of her gown showing off lace-trimmed petticoats underneath. He wanted nothing more than to remove the McKinley plaid from her sweet body and the pins from her hair, and return her to their chambers at Argent.
“I thought to remove all weapons from our bedchamber and turn the room into a garden-like setting. The treasure is yours to do with what you will.”
“No,” she said, wrapping her arm around Cearnach’s and tugging him out of the cellar and across the inner bailey to the chapel. Everyone hurried inside to take their places again. “I found my treasure, and it isn’t merchandise but one hot-blooded Highland wolf in a kilt.”
Smiling, he leaned down to kiss her, and his mother said, “There’s time enough for that after the wedding, Cearnach.”
He ignored her and kissed Elaine like there would be no tomorrow. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him right back, deeply, passionately, with all her heart. She had evaded him all those years ago to finally find her way into his arms, into his life again, this time to stay.
Cearnach breathed in the scent of Elaine, the wind and wet breeze, the she-wolf’s sweet fragrance. He tasted her wine-flavored mouth, felt her heated soft body pressed against his, and wanted nothing more than to take her home now and mate with her again.
He turned to address the minister. “Finish with all haste.” He vowed they’d have the feasting done in the inner bailey in record time, and then he and his bonny lass would return to Argent Castle alone.
He loved her with every fiber of his being and realized as he saw Calla beaming at them near the front of the chapel that his plan to attend her wedding and change her mind about marrying Baird McKinley had brought him to this.
His own wedding—with the wolf of his dreams.