great hall. “If you stay, I can give you all this. I can help you rebuild your home in this time and have all that you want, but in my time. With me.”
He frowned. “How is that possible?”
“Before I traveled back to your century, I bought this estate. I always intended to restore it to its original state. Have it as an inn, of sorts, that people could come and stay in, make it reliant on itself again.”
“And now?” Ben waited for what Kenzie said next, hoping that it was what he wanted to hear.
“Now I want it for us. My ancestral home from Gwen and Braxton can be opened up to the public full time, but we’ll keep Castle Ross for ourselves. Work on it together and make it a home for you, me, and Alasdair. What do you think?”
Relief poured through him like wine and striding toward Kenzie he picked her up, clasping her tight against him. “To know that I’m home, living in the castle, in the place where I grew up, was part of—to be back here with you and my boy would be a perfect consolation prize. I will not deny that I shall miss my friends, my clansmen, but I’m willing to say goodbye to that life, if this is to be our home.”
“You’ll stay then?” Kenzie sounded shocked, and he chuckled, keeping her against him and not letting her go.
“Did ye think that I would leave ye with such an offer as this? One that I dinna think was even possible.”
“I did believe you’d leave, yes. As much as me showing you Castle Ross and what I wanted to do with it, it still isn’t your time, and I know better than anyone how hard it can be when living in a place and situation that is foreign to them. But I love this place as much as you, and I had to give it one last chance, to bribe you, in a sense, to maybe change your mind. I’m not sure I can live without you.”
“I know I canna live without you, and if I had gone back, I would’ve made ye come with me. I love ye, Kenzie, so much so that ’tis maddening.”
She grinned up at him and he lifted her chin and kissed her, lingering over her lips before meeting her gaze. “When can we move in?”
“The building work is to commence next month. There is a lot to do, cleaning out the debris, rebuilding the walls, and roof, and then, the internals. But that’s months away. It’s a big job, Ben, are you sure you wish to take it on? It may be less work for you if you did return to seventeenth century Scotland.”
“Aye,” he said, laughing and looking around the dilapidated great hall, seeing only what it could be once again. “I’m ready, lass. Let’s make Castle Ross our home.”
She nodded, coming to hug him again. “Sounds perfect, my liege.”
“That it does.”
Epilogue
Three Years Later
“Keep ye eyes closed, lass. No peeking.”
Kenzie allowed Ben to lead her through the second-floor halls and the area of the castle that had been restored to bedrooms. She had an inkling where he was taking her, and she smiled, enjoying the little game he was playing.
A door creaked open and he guided her into a room that was decidedly warmer than the hall. “Can I open my eyes now?”
“Ye are so impatient.” His breath whispered against her ear, and she shivered. Finally, after three years of hard work, determination, tears—on her behalf—and sleepless nights, the castle was finally ready to be moved into.
“Three years of renovations will do that. Show me your surprise.” She wanted to see and see now.
Ben untied the blindfold and let it drop to the floor, revealing their room, the very same as she’d had when she went back in time. Right down to the animal skin rugs to the peat by the fire, everything was as she remembered.
“Please tell me there isn’t a straw mattress on the bed?”
“Och, ye wound me. ’Tis nothing wrong with a straw mattress.”
She went to the bed and checked what it was they were going to be sleeping on, happy to feel a very padded mattress. Tears pricked her eyes, and she swiped them away. How was it that anyone could be so happy? She was truly the luckiest woman on earth.
The past three years hadn’t been easy for Ben, but the strong, willful Highlander that he was, he’d conquered all the