O Night Divine A Holiday Collection of Spirited Christmas Tales - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,317

had waited too long, and her love had soured. Those damned ghosts had just toyed with him, used him for their own vicious amusement on Christmas Eve.

“Dinna ye dare take another step away.” Ellie threw herself against his chest, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. Before he could return the kiss, she drew back and framed his face between her hands. “Aye, Tait Mackenzie. I will be yer wife.” She smiled as she slowly shook her head. “I dinna ken whatever changed yer mind, and I dinna care. I’m just glad ye finally noticed me.”

“I have always noticed ye, Ellie, my love, always.” He slid the ring on her finger, and it fit perfectly. Another sign this was meant to be. “I just never thought myself worthy of ye,” he added softly. He smiled as he looked over at Hobbs. “But three friends of yer father’s made me see the errors of my thinking.”

“Three friends? Of mine?” Hobbs asked.

“I’ll tell ye both about them some time.” Tait nodded toward the door. “Were ye no’ in the process of running an errand for butter and whatever else so we can all sit down and enjoy this fine meal?” He grinned and hugged Ellie tighter. “Ellie and I shall wait here and share some proper kisses until ye return.”

“This be a fine Christmas after all,” Hobbs said with a chuckle as he headed out the door.

“The finest Christmas ever,” Ellie murmured as she offered her sweet mouth up to him. “I believe I was promised a proper kiss? Many proper kisses, in fact?”

“That ye were, my love, that ye were.” He returned to the sweetness he’d always thought forbidden, reveling in the wonder of this rare woman in his arms. Then he broke the bond and smiled down at her. “Thank ye,” he whispered.

“For what?” she asked, a faint smile tickling across her winsome mouth.

“For saving me from myself and making this the best Yuletide ever.”

With the lightest touch, she pressed a hand to his cheek, her smile no longer faint. “Happy Christmas, my love.”

“The happiest of Christmases to ye, my dear one.”

“Kisses?” she gently reminded.

“Kisses,” he affirmed and bent to the task.

Chapter Four

Tait’s Cove

Christmas Eve (Ten years later)

“Tell us again, Da.” Young Josiah, named for his grandsire, folded his hands as though saying his prayers. “Tell us about the ghosties just one more time, please?”

Wee Elizabeth, a bouncing bundle of tireless energy, chimed in, “Aye, Papa.” She excitedly patted her father’s knee. “Pweeze?” She turned and nudged her infant brother, tiny Liam, who was sitting on the floor, chewing on a wooden ship. “Ask him, Liam. Ask Papa to tell the story again.”

Little Liam looked up and gurgled out a fervent string of baby gibberish.

“Liam wants to hear it, too,” Elizabeth translated.

Tait chuckled as he looked over at Ellie, sitting across from him in front of the fire. “How can I refuse them?”

“By taking them to their beds, kissing their pates, and telling them that ye love them.” Ellie gave him a stern look softened by the love and devotion in her eyes. “Ye’ve already told the story once. Tomorrow’s a big day, and they need their rest.” She smoothed a hand down her middle, gently rounding with their next child. “And so do I.”

Tait scooped Elizabeth up in one arm, Liam in the other, and stood in front of his chair. “Come, Josiah. Ye heard Mama.”

Josiah scampered into the chair and climbed onto his father’s back. Arms tight around Tait’s neck, he giggled. “Ready, Da!”

Galloping like the finest stallion, Tait toted the squealing children off to their beds.

Ellie released a weary sigh, leaned back, and closed her eyes.

“Poor lass,” Pirate Queen Augusta observed from the ghosts’ perch outside the bay window. “Weary as can be and got a fourth babe a comin’.”

“Aye,” Captain Horace Mabuz agreed while affectionately rubbing the monkey nestled in the crook of his arm. “But she’s happy.” He gave a satisfied nod toward the heartwarming scene. “This is how it should be.”

“We did good, aye, Cap’n?” Captain Dax Willet asked.

“Aye,” Captain Horace said. “That we did, me hearties. That we did.”

Additional Dragonblade books by Author Maeve Greyson

Highland Heroes Series

The Guardian

The Warrior

The Judge

The Dreamer

The Bard

The Ghost

About the Author

“No one has the power to shatter your dreams unless you give it to them.” That’s Maeve Greyson’s mantra. She and her husband of almost forty years traveled around the world while in the U.S. Air Force. Now, they’re settled in rural Kentucky where Maeve writes about