The McKettrick Way and a Baby and a Betrothal by Linda Lael Miller

Author:Linda Lael Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-10-08T17:45:44+00:00

* * *

“Where have you been?” Meg demanded, torn between relief at seeing Angus again, and complete exasperation.

“You always knew I wouldn’t be around forever,” Angus said. He looked older than he had the last time she’d seen him, even careworn, but somehow serene, too. “Things are winding down, girl. I figured you needed to start getting used to my being gone.”

Meg blinked, surprised by the stab of pain she felt at the prospect of Angus’s leaving for good. On the other hand, she had always known the last parting would come.

“I’m going to have a baby,” she said, struggling not to cry. “I’ll need you. The baby and Carly will need you.”

Angus seldom touched her, but now he cupped one hand under her chin. His skin felt warm, not cold, and solid, not ethereal. “No,” he said gruffly. “You only need yourselves and each other. Things are going to be fine from here on out, Meg. You’ll see.”

She swallowed, wanting to cling to him, knowing it wouldn’t be right. He had a life to live, somewhere else, beyond some unseen border. There were others there, waiting for him.

“Why did you come?” she asked. “In the first place, I mean?”

“You needed me,” he said simply.

“I did,” she confirmed. For all the nannies and “aunts and uncles,” she’d been a lost soul as a child, especially after Sierra was kidnapped and Eve fell apart in so many ways. She’d never blamed her mother, never harbored any resentment for the inevitable neglect she’d suffered, but she knew now that, without Angus, she would have been bereft.

He was carrying a hat in his left hand, and now he put it on, the gesture somehow final. “You say goodbye to Carly for me,” he said. “And tell her that her pa’s just fine where he is.”

Meg nodded, unable to speak.

Angus leaned in, planted a light, awkward kiss on Meg’s forehead. “When you get to the end of the trail,” he said, “and that’s a long ways off, I promise, I’ll be there to say welcome.”

Still, no words would come. Not even ones of farewell. So Meg merely nodded again.

Angus turned his back and, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

She cried that night, for sorrow, for joy and for a thousand other reasons, but when the morning came, she knew Angus had been right.

She didn’t need him anymore.

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