“Mother!” Colin gasped. “Konnor! Ye can lick each other’s mouths when ye’re alone.”
With difficulty, Marjorie leaned back and interrupted the kiss. Oh, how she’d missed him. She hadn’t even realized how much she’d missed him until right now. She belonged with him. In these arms, glued to this body, breathing the same air as him. Dissolving with him.
She smiled at Colin. “Dinna fash, son. One day ye’ll meet a woman ye love like I love this man, and ye’ll understand.”
Colin blushed and mumbled something. Marjorie and Konnor exchanged an amused look. But there was still one question to sort out.
“Did ye want to come stay with me in 1308?” she said.
“Yes.” Konnor chuckled. “I’d be happy to live in any time as long as you and Colin are by my side. I know your life and your family are in 1308, so the last thing I wanted was to take you away from them.”
Marjorie chuckled softly.
“Well, I was hoping to stay in yer time. Sìneag told me this was the last time we could use the rock.”
Konnor grinned the most heartwarming, sunny grin she’d ever seen. It transformed him from a somber warrior to a carefree boy. He picked her up, whirled her around, and kissed her again.
“I love you, my Highland queen, the love of my life.”
“I love ye, too, Konnor Mitchell, warrior from the future. I cannot wait to have this life with the two most important men in my life.”
Colin grinned and hugged her waist, and Konnor put his arms around them both. As she swam in the ocean of happiness together with the man of her dreams, she knew he was the only one in the whole world, in all time, who could give her hope.
The hope that now grew and brought her the biggest adventure of all—a lifetime with the man she loved and her son. Finally, a family.
Epilogue
Los Angeles, October 2021
“Oh, honey, you’re so beautiful,” Helen, Konnor’s mother said.
Marjorie met Helen’s eyes in the mirror and bit her lip, trying not to let her tears fall. She looked back at her reflection, not quite believing that she was seeing herself in the mirror, and not someone like Sìneag, a faerie from another world.
The dress was modest compared to what Marjorie had seen in Los Angeles and was likely old-fashioned for modern tastes. It was, in essence, the dress of a medieval lady. The neckline ended just below the neck, and draped sleeves fell down to reach her knees. The dress hugged her waist and her chest but fell in a free skirt down her legs to the floor.
The ivory lace was as delicate as the first frost on the loch. Her previously dark-brown hair had gained golden tones under the almost-eternal Californian sun, and there were even freckles on her previously clear skin. A hair stylist had created large curls in her long hair, and a diamond circlet sparkled on her head, but even that couldn’t compare with how her eyes shone.
Because she was marrying the love of her life.
“Thank ye, Mother,” Marjorie said and wiped a tear that refused to obey her will.
She’d called Helen mother almost since the day she met her. Helen surrounded her and Colin with love and care that Marjorie had never experienced even with her stepmother. Together with Mark Campbell, they’d truly made a home away from home for her and her son.
Helen walked into the brightly lit hotel room. They had rented a small hotel situated right on cliffs of Malibu, called Glen Thistle. The building had a roof with merlons, was made of rough, dark-gray granite stones, and had a three-story, round, ivy-covered tower. It reminded Marjorie a wee castle. There were boulders on the property, and even a man-made brook that flowed into a pond in a small waterfall. There was no moss, no heather, and no lochs. But the hotel overlooked the ocean, and it was as close as they could get to the Scottish Highlands. Konnor and Marjorie had known at once they wanted to get married here.
And the exuberant price hadn’t mattered because Mark Campbell, Helen’s beloved, had booked the location for them as his wedding present.
“Honey, may Mark come in? He’s waiting outside. He doesn’t want to come in if you’d rather not.”
Marjorie beamed. “Of course he can.”
“Mark, come in,” Helen said to the door.
Mark came in, and as with every time Marjorie saw him, a lump formed in her throat at the striking similarity to Tamhas. His hair was in a small pony tail at the back of his head, and he was cleanly shaved for the occasion. He was dressed in a kilt, something that would apparently become Scottish later in the history. As she learned, the blue, green, and black tartan would become Campbell clan colors, and the sense of unity overtook her, expanding in her chest. It meant a lot to her that he’d chosen to wear the kilt. It was for her sake, to show her his support, and though the whole clan and tartan colors weren’t something she’d experienced back in her time, she loved and understood the meaning of them, the significance, and she loved Mark for showing her they were one clan. On top, he wore a tuxedo with a crisp, white dress shirt. A large magenta thistle was in his lapel, the flower of the wedding.
Behind Mark, Colin’s head appeared from behind the door. “A certain gentleman also can’t wait to see you,” Mark said.
“Colin, come in, son,” Marjorie said.
Colin ran into the room and into her open arms, kicking the air out of her as he slammed into her embrace. He wore the Campbell kilt and a thistle in his lapel.
“Ma, ye look like a faerie queen,” he whispered.
Marjorie pressed him closer to her chest. “Thank ye. But please, stop, or ye’ll make me cry, and I’ll ruin the makeup and will look like the queen from the vampire stories ye love so much.”
“And Konnor would still marry ye,” he said, stepping back and looking her over.
Seeing him now in a tuxedo jacket and the kilt, Marjorie realized how much he’d grown in the last year, ever since they arrived in the twenty-first century. He’d started going to school in August and was still adjusting. The new school wasn’t without challenges. He spoke differently and thought differently from most of the children his age. Aye, some kids had tried to bully him, but he’d stood his ground and hadn’t let anyone treat him with disrespect. He’d spent the first year learning reading and writing in modern English, as well as math and other modern school subjects he was supposed to know by his age. Konnor had hired a private tutor who taught Colin every day, and the woman was amazed at how quickly Colin was learning math and physics. English and the arts were the most challenging subjects for him, and only Konnor’s love for stories and reading the Lord of the Rings and other fantasy and sci-fi stories made Colin make an effort to learn to read faster.
Colin absorbed everything like a sponge, and Marjorie was sure it was because of Konnor, Helen, and Mark’s care and warm welcome. However, in the last couple of months, ever since starting school, he hadn’t been as happy. Marjorie wanted to pull him out of school and continue with the private tutoring, but Konnor had suggested they try to help him adjust with lots of emotional support. He suggested they find Colin friends who loved the same things he did: history, and fantasy, and sci-fi. He’d already found a couple of friends who Konnor lovingly called “nerds”, and they came to the house from time to time to play Dungeons and Dragons and study together.