A Highlander’s Homecoming Read online

  Everybody loves Melissa Mayhue,

  who has been called “an author with a magical

  touch for romance.” (Janet Chapman)

  A HIGHLANDER OF HER OWN

  “Melissa Mayhue captures the complications and delights of both the modern woman and the fascination with the medieval world.”

  —Denver Post

  SOUL OF A HIGHLANDER

  “Absolutely riveting from start to finish.”

  —A Romance Review

  “Mayhue’s world is magical and great fun!”

  —Romantic Times (4 stars)

  HIGHLAND GUARDIAN

  Winner of the Holt Medallion for Best Paranormal,

  Golden Quill Award for Best Paranormal,

  and Maggie Award for Best Paranormal romance

  “An author with major potential!”

  —Romantic Times (4 stars)

  “A delightful world of the Faerie . . . sure to put a smile on your face.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  THIRTY NIGHTS WITH A HIGHLAND HUSBAND

  Winner of the Holt Merit Award

  for Best First Book and the

  National Readers’ Choice Award for Best Paranormal

  “Infused with humor, engaging characters, and a twist or two.”

  —Romantic Times (4 stars)

  “What a smasharoo debut! Newcomer Melissa Mayhue rocks the Scottish Highlands!”

  —A Romance Review

  A Highlander’s Homecoming is also available as an eBook.

  Also by Melissa Mayhue

  Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband

  Highland Guardian

  Soul of a Highlander

  A Highlander of Her Own

  A Highlander’s Destiny

  A Highlander’s Homecoming

  MELISSA MAYHUE

  POCKET BOOKS

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and

  incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2010 by Melissa Mayhue

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  Cover art by Alan Ayers

  Cover design by Min Choi

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  ISBN 978-1-4391-4425-1

  ISBN 978-1-4391-5602-5 (ebook)

  This book is for all the wonderful readers who take the

  time to send an email, write a letter, or come to the

  book signings. You all mean so much to me. It’s your

  love of these characters and this world that keeps me

  going on the days the words just don’t want to come.

  Thank you for your support!

  Acknowledgments

  My thanks to my family, as always, for their continued support and love.

  A big shout-out to the talented Nicholas Mayhue for the beautiful design work on the Mark of the Guardian.

  Thanks to my critique partners, the talented Kirsten Richard and Rena Marks.

  My thanks to The Knight Agency and, most especially there, my own Elaine Spencer.

  As always, hugs to my ever-wonderful editor, Megan McKeever, who never fails to help me make these books even better. You’re a joy to work with . . . even when you want me to hurry up!

  A Highlander’s Homecoming

  Prologue

  Western Highlands

  Scotland

  1272

  Thundering hooves echoed through the dark, misty Scottish night.

  Robert MacQuarrie leaned into his massive black destrier, urging his mount to give him all the speed the animal could muster.

  He rode like a madman, without care or caution, his only thought to reach Merlegh Hall before it was too late.

  Before his friend Thomas MacGahan took his last gasping breath.

  Thomas was more than a mere friend. If not for him, Robert would have died in battle on the point of a Saracen spear. A spear Thomas had taken in his stead and lived to tell about it.

  He owed his life to Thomas.

  Robert kicked the sides of the wild beast he rode, demanding more.

  Faster.

  “He calls for you, MacQuarrie. To be at his side when his spirit departs his poor broken body. To carry out his last request.”

  The watery blue eyes of the old shepherd who’d brought Robert the message haunted his memory now.

  “I dinna believe he’ll last through the night. You maun ride hard, lad, if yer to fulfill his final wishes.”

  Robert had just left an audience with his king, Alexander, when the messenger had arrived. In two days’ time, he was to accompany Alexander to the wedding of a fellow King’s Guard, Connor MacKiernan. Learning his friend Connor had found a woman to settle his wandering ways, Robert had left the king’s chambers with a full heart. Though there was the little matter of the rumored threats against Connor’s safety that concerned Alexander, it should be nothing too serious. Certainly nothing that he and Connor couldn’t handle together. They were, after all, two of Alexander’s finest.

  Robert had been on his way to find a celebratory libation or two when the exhausted shepherd had entered his life, sending him on this urgent mission.

  For Thomas to die in such a fashion simply wasn’t fair.

  Not that Robbie considered himself a man to waste undue thoughts as to the fairness of life. The things he’d seen, the places he’d been had taught him well the lesson that there was little in the way of fairness in this world.

  But this, the loss of a warrior like Thomas to such a cruel twist of fate, brought a cry of foul to Robert’s lips.

  Thomas, who’d survived more battles than most men ever fought, laid low by a sharp turn in a muddy track at mountain’s edge.

  The warrior and his horse had tumbled over the precipice, the great beast landing on top of Thomas on a ledge below. Now, instead of a quick death on a glorious battlefield, Thomas faced the slow agony of drowning in his own fluids.

  Ahead of him, the flicker of light caught Robert’s attention.

  Torches. He’d reached his destination at last.

  The faces surrounding him as he made his way into the hall were a blur, his thoughts focused on one man only.

  A woman—a redhead, of all the foul luck—approached, the keys dangling from her waist announc
ing her position as Merlegh’s chatelaine.

  “Come with me. He awaits you.”

  Following the woman’s steps, he hurried through the dark hallways. If the shepherd’s warning hadn’t been enough to convince him of the seriousness of Thomas’s condition, the grim faces he saw here certainly did. The expressions of those he passed and that of the chatelaine. A redhead. Always a bad sign for him.

  After what seemed an eternity, he entered his friend’s room.

  “Robbie? Is that you?” Thomas lay in the center of a great bed, his voice weak as he asked the question.

  Shock coursed through Robert. Though his friend was little more than a decade his senior, the man lying in that bed looked to be ancient, his face ashen and drawn with his pain. Only his piercing blue gaze remained the same. A cough wracked his body, sending small flecks of blood to decorate his lips and the linen bedding where he lay.

  Robert shook himself to action, crossing to Thomas’s side. “Aye, my friend. I’ve come as fast as I could.”

  “I’ve a boon to ask of you.” Thomas paused, a strange gurgling sound coming from his chest as he strained to fill his lungs with air.

  “Anything you ask. My debt to you is without bounds.” Robert fought the urge to take his friend’s hand. He recognized the signs of Thomas’s coming end all too well.

  “I’ve a daughter,” Thomas rasped. “You must give me yer oath to protect her. When you carry word of my death, my father will be—” His words dissolved in another struggle to breathe.

  “You need say no more, my friend. I will go to yer family and see to yer daughter.”

  Thomas reached out, his hand wavering unsteadily in the space between them until his fingers clutched at Robert’s wrist. “It’s no that my father is an evil man. It’s just that Isabella is . . .” he struggled as if trying to find the words he wanted. “She is different, as was her mother. She’s but an innocent child, and with me gone she will need protection and guidance. It willna be easy. Your oath, Robbie. I must hear yer oath.”

  “I’ll see to yer daughter’s safety. I swear it. On my honor. On my life.”

  “Then it is done.” Thomas’s fingers slipped from Robert’s wrist. “Go now. Leave me in peace to meet my saints.”

  A strange tightening of Robert’s throat prevented his speaking. He bowed his head respectfully and turned, leaving his friend for the last time.

  Fighting for the emotional distance he regularly wore as part of his persona, he mounted his barely rested horse and set out for his return to Alexander’s court.

  As close as they’d been, he’d never known that Thomas had a child. And what had he meant by saying she was different? What would he do with a girl child? He was a warrior. A good one, too. A knight to King Alexander III of Scotland. A family had no part in his plans. Someday, certainly, but not now.

  Apparently his plans would have to change.

  MacQuarrie Keep had been a fine place for him growing up, and though he would not return to his family home to live, he felt certain the child would be welcomed there.

  With something of a plan formed, he pushed all thoughts from his mind. None of them mattered for the moment. When he finished the task his king had assigned him, nothing save death would keep him from his oath to see to the safety of Isabella MacGahan.

  Chapter 1

  SITHEAN FARDACH

  SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS

  PRESENT DAY

  As it turned out, death was exactly what had kept Robert from fulfilling his oath to protect Isabella MacGahan. Or more precisely, the death he would have suffered had Connor MacKiernan’s bride not whisked him more than seven hundred years into the future through the use of her Faerie Magic.

  The battle they’d fought to overpower those who had sought to murder Connor and Cate had been hard won. Robert had paid with a sword to his rib cage that would have ended his life had he not had the expert medical care afforded him in this new time.

  That had been almost ten years ago, and though he found this new world to be very much to his liking, his failure to carry out his oath to Thomas had haunted him since that day.

  Leaning against the doorjamb next to his friend Connor, Robert pushed away the memories of his past as he scanned the people in this room. His new clan surrounded him here. MacKiernan, Coryell, Navarro—all as much a part of him now as if the blood of the MacQuarries ran through their veins. A good thing since he’d likely never have the family he’d imagined in his youth.

  A fierce loyalty to each and every one of the people in the room surged up in his breast as he forced himself to concentrate on the urgent matters at hand.

  “You don’t know them like I do. They’ll find me.” Leah Noble spoke up from the corner of the massive living room in Connor’s home. The teenager sank back into her chair, arms crossed defensively in front of her, almost as if she hoped to make herself invisible.

  As a Faerie descendant, Leah carried the gift of the Fae Magic. That gift had made her the target of the evil Nuadians, renegade Fae exiled to the Mortal World. They’d held her prisoner for over a month, subjecting her to things no young woman should endure. She and her older sister, Destiny, had gone through hell before Jesse Coryell, with Robert’s help, had rescued them.

  Now they were both here in Connor’s living room surrounded by those who would do everything in their power to change the women’s lives for the better. And considering how many of those present were also of Fae heritage, that power was considerable.

  Destiny reached out a hand and Jesse captured it, pulling her to sit on the arm of his chair, close to him.

  Robert smiled to himself at the seemingly unconscious action. Anyone with eyes could see that his friend Jesse had found his Soulmate.

  “We’ll no let that happen, lass. Dinna you worry yerself about it.” Though Connor spoke with absolute confidence, his expression betrayed the concern they all felt.

  Leah shook her head, her serious brown eyes haunted in her fear. “You don’t understand. You have no idea what they’re like. They’re Faeries, for God’s sake. I’ll never be safe from them.”

  “No all Fae are evil, Leah.” Mairi, Connor’s sister, spoke from her spot on the sofa next to her husband, Ramos Navarro. “And we do know what you fear. We’ve dealt with these renegades ourselves.”

  Leah rejected their comments with a shake of her head but didn’t answer, tears dripping down her cheeks.

  Destiny dropped Jesse’s hand and crossed to kneel at her sister’s side. “We’ll think of something. I promise. That’s why we’re all here.”

  “There’s nowhere I’ll be safe,” Leah whispered, clutching at Destiny’s hand. “I can’t go back to them, Desi. I can’t.”

  “You’ll stay here.” Connor spoke again, taking charge as he was wont to do. As if by the power of his sheer will he could eliminate the young woman’s fear.

  “That won’t be enough to keep her safe.” Ramos turned to look up at his brother-in-law. “She’s right. Adira won’t give up. They’ll find her and then every female in this family will be at risk. We have to find a more secure spot.”

  Robert silently agreed. If anyone in this room should know what the Nuadians were capable of it would be Ramos. After all, he’d been raised by the devil’s spawn.

  “I believe I may have a solution.” Pol, High Prince of the Realm of Faerie, long-distant ancestor of many in this room, rose to his feet. He turned his gaze toward Leah, his eyes sad. “If our young guest is agreeable to my suggestion, that is.”

  Leah straightened in her seat, her face a mask of false bravado. “I’ll do anything that keeps me away from that woman. What’s your plan?”

  “If the Nuadians’ new strength prevents Leah from living out her life without fear, perhaps we err in looking for a where to take her. Perhaps we should consider a when.”

  Of course! Leave it to the Prince to point out the obvious. The solution that none of them would ever consider on their own.

  “I suppose it could be done,
” Cate said thoughtfully. “We’d need to choose the spot carefully. Send her to someone we could trust.”

  “But we couldn’t send her alone.” Mairi added her voice, betraying her growing excitement to anyone who knew her as well as Robert did.

  “Send her where?” Destiny’s face had taken on an ashen look of panicked suspicion that spilled over into her voice. “What’s going on here that I’m not getting?”

  “Not where,” Jesse explained. “When. They’re talking about sending Leah back in time.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  Robert fought the urge to shake his head. After all the woman had been through, how could she still doubt?

  How could she not, he reminded himself. The knowledge that Faeries and magic existed was difficult to work your mind around in the beginning. He’d had his own time to get used to the idea. Destiny would need hers as well.

  “You could really do that?” Leah sat up straight, interest lighting her eyes.

  “Yes,” Jesse answered. “They can. But you’d need to understand, once you’re there, there’s no guarantee they could ever get you back.”

  “Like you think I’d ever want to come back?” Leah scooted forward in her chair. “I’d spend my life in the Stone Age if it meant I could be safe from . . . from them.”

  “I promise it’s not the Stone Age we’re considering.” Cate smiled at the young woman. “But it would be a very, very different life for you.”

  “Anywhere.” Determination radiated around Leah. “How soon can I go?”

  “As quickly as we can make a few preparations,” Cate answered.

  “And decide who’s to accompany you,” Mairi added.

  “I’ll go.” Jesse rose from his chair and crossed to where Destiny knelt next to Leah’s chair.

  Robert’s spine stiffened. Jesse felt as much brother as friend to Robert after all these years. There was no way he could allow Jesse to take this kind of risk. Not now that he’d discovered the one woman fate had intended for him.

  Before he could voice his opinion, Leah rejected the offer herself.