Elliot gripped her shoulders even harder. His breath came faster, the fine rain dripping down his face.
“I’ll always be here,” Juliana repeated. “Always.”
“Why should you? He was right. I’m broken.”
Juliana didn’t know who he was, but she knew the answer. “Because I love you. I love you my dearest, darling Elliot. I’ve loved you since the day you put the frog in my pocket, and kissed me to distract me from it.” She turned her head and kissed the hand that rested on her shoulder. “I love you, Elliot McBride.”
When she looked up at him again she found his gaze burning into her. The wild look he’d had in the dining room was back, but she could see that he remained in the present, no flashing back to the past.
A hoarse cry escaped his throat. Elliot dragged Juliana to him, his arms coming around her to hold her—tight, tight. He shuddered, then shuddered again, sobs choking out of him.
Juliana clung to him, pressing her cheek to his. He rocked her in his arms, his tears mingling with the rain to wet her face.
“Don’t love me,” he said. “Don’t.”
“There is no do or don’t,” Juliana whispered. The mists dissolved and the rain came down faster. “I love you because I love you. I can’t help that.”
His embrace nearly crushed her, his strong body shaking. “Never stop. Never stop loving me, Juliana.”
“I never will.”
Elliot raised his head. Tears streaked his face, his eyes were red-rimmed, and his face twisted in pain and hope. “I love you so much,” he said brokenly.
Juliana’s own tears came. She brushed away his and kissed his lips.
Elliot crushed her up to him, taking her mouth in a brutal kiss. Their mouths fused, heat to heat, lips touching, parting, gliding together. Never stop loving me.
Never. Never. Gemma had said Juliana shouldn’t try to repair him. Juliana understood now.
She didn’t need to be Elliot’s caretaker; she needed to be his friend and guide, his lover. She would anchor him when he rode the storm of his fears, listen when he needed to speak, and provide a safe haven for him when his journey was done.
She loved him, and the kiss rode on the wings of their love together.
A dog barked. Rosie ran to them, her red body soaked, and shook herself out all over them. Juliana broke the kiss to laugh.
“No hope for this gown now,” she said over the rising wind.
Elliot was looking up and past her, and Juliana turned. Down the path came lanterns, points of light in the darkness. They were all coming—Hamish, Mahindar, Channan, Nandita, Komal, McGregor, and Priti in Nandita’s arms. Even the goat, who shook her head at the rain.
Their lanterns gleamed out in the darkness, falling on Juliana and Elliot in each other’s arms on the bridge.
Mr. McGregor stopped the procession, holding his lantern high. “Well now,” he shouted, his grin gleaming hugely from his bearded face. “It appears as though the lad’s all right.”
“Mahindar,” Elliot began. He drew a breath to say more, but he arrested it, let out the air he’d drawn, and simply looked at the man who had been with him through so much.
“Come back to the house, sahib,” Mahindar said, raising his lantern high. “Come back to the house with the memsahib. It is warm there.”
Juliana locked her hands behind Elliot’s neck and gave him another long kiss, her body warming at his hard kiss in response.
“Let’s go home,” she said.
The look Elliot gave her heated her to her toes. She snuggled into his coat, took his hand, and led him back toward the house, into its warmth and welcoming light.
“Say it again.” Elliot heard the savagery in his voice, and he couldn’t stop it. “Say it again.”
Their bodies dripped, but with sweat now, not rain. Outside the wind had risen, the summer storm howling in to drive away the mist. Alone in their bedchamber, Elliot had stripped off Juliana’s wet clothes, his own landing with hers on the floor. The bed rocked now with his onslaught, Elliot loving her with the fury of the storm.
“I love you!” Juliana cried.
Darkness swirled through Elliot’s mind, but it was the hot darkness of climax. Juliana’s shout wound him tighter, Elliot barely hanging on.
“Again!”
“I love you!” Juliana opened her eyes, her laughter ringing up to him. “I love you, Elliot McBride.”
“I love you.” The words came out in a rush, wildness washing over him. “I love you, Juliana. My lass, my own sweet lass. Sweet, holy God.”
His seed shot from him, finding home in Juliana. Elliot’s hips rocked against hers, his sweat and her honey where they joined.
The wind slammed into the house, and Elliot thrust for the last time, burying himself inside her. He groaned again, fire flickering on the edges of his vision.
Juliana skimmed her hands down Elliot’s body, touching him everywhere, her face relaxed in the warmth of passion. Her hair was a mess, curls awry, her naked body the best place his could be.
“Say it again,” he said, kissing her swollen lips.
Juliana smiled, the smile languid now, and brushed her fingertips over the base of his neck. “I love you.”
Did the words sound best when they burst out of her in passion, or said sweetly in aftermath? Or whispered into his ear while she’d held him as he’d wept?
Elliot would make her say it in all ways, in every room in the house—and on the grounds, in the dogcart, in the train when they finally went back to Edinburgh. In every place they ever were throughout their lives, Elliot would make it his quest to discover where and how the words I love you, from Juliana’s lips, sounded best.
“I love you, my wife.” He let his voice go soft. “Tha gaol agam ort.”
A smile spread across her face. “Is that what that means? I love you?”
“It does.”
“Then…Tha gaol agam ort. Did I say it correctly?”
Hearing the words, in beautiful Gaelic, while she lay under him in bed was undoubtedly the best of all.
“Ye did, lass. Tha gaol agam ort-fhèin. I love you too.” He kissed the line of her hair. “Thank you.”
“Mmm. For what? Letting you teach me Gaelic?”
“For all of it.”
Juliana knew what he meant. Elliot loved that he didn’t have to explain himself all the time to her. She understood.
Juliana touched the tip of his nose, and gave him her most beautiful, warm, and loving smile. “In that case, my love, my bonny husband…You’re welcome.”
Chapter 30
FOUR WEEKS LATER
Elliot found Juliana in the morning room, July’s warm air carried on a light breeze through the window. She was elegantly beautiful in her pale lawn gown buttoned all the way up her throat, her hair dressed casually in a twist of curls.
As usual, she had a notebook open on the table beside her and a pile of letters and cards on a second table. Ink, paper, and blotting paper were spread out before her, waiting for her to cover them with her practical words.
Elliot walked into the room and closed the door behind him. “Good afternoon, my wife.”
Juliana scribbled something into her notebook and looked up at him. She took him in—his boots and kilt, a loose coat slung over a loose shirt—and flashed her beautiful smile. “Good afternoon.”