The Chieftain's Yule Bride - a Highland Christmas novella (Clan MacKrannan's Secret Traditions #10) by Jonnet Carmichael Read Free Book Online Page A

Bathroom fittings supplier has totally screwed up.  Got to go, babe!"
    Real life came back with a thump.  They were supposed to be using this weekend together to begin planning their wedding, and she'd just been doing something she'd rather he didn't know about.  And lying on a bed that another man had carried her to, even if it was for a valid health and safety reason.
    "Should I come?"
    "You could have gone instead of me but I couldn't find you!  Get a new phone fast, will you?  Listen, Rebecca's got everything covered in London for now.  You stay on and sort out the booking with Mister Clan Chieftain here and for godsakes talk him into letting us have some pizzazz."  He tickled her under the chin and gave her a peck of a kiss.  He was already a step away when he said, "Decided what you're wearing instead of ostrich feathers?"
    "Well... I'm thinking we should stay contemporary and let the castle speak for itself."
    " Fan -tastic!  Order me a top hat and I'll be back in time to wear it.  I've left you the rental car.  Robbie's is faster.  Contractors are on stand-down until I get to Dubai so I've got to make the evening flight from Glasgow."
    And he was gone, and so was the Events Manager doubling as taxi driver, the gravel spitting up behind a nifty red sports number with noisy twin exhausts as they sped away from the castle.
    She should have been left with a sense of loss, and it niggled her to feel a sense of relief instead because it delayed having to tell him about the portrait.
     

     
    The walk to the Brewery with Freya was a peaceful thing after the dynamo of Zavier Campbell passing through checkout.  Grand luck that her hyper man had been called away – either that or the Elders had far more powers than Callum had credited them with.
    The storm had blown itself well out now and the forecast was good for the next few days.  They'd walked beyond the stables before finding solitude.  Out here in the winter sunshine her hair was blonder than ever and blowing in the breeze, her wee nose pink at the tip with the cold and her lips reddened with nibbling at them.  She was jittery, far more than she'd been in the castle.
    Work worries?  He didn't think so.  He'd tried to make small talk about the Dubai thing while there were people coming and going on the paths.  How big a hotel was it?  Did her work take her to the Emirates a lot?
    Her answers were polite and nothing more, so he let her have the space to think her own thoughts because he suspected Zavier Campbell was no' in them in as kindly a light as he should be.  And what kind of insipid kiss was that to get from her man when he was headed thousands of miles away?
    Fine with him if she didn't want to talk about it.  It saved himself the chore of owning up that Robbie was the very person who knew where to find her, being both the clan historian and the custodian of the portrait, and had instead offered the Campbell a fast drive to the airport.
    "Are we in private yet, Callum?  Can I tell you what I saw?"
    "Aye, go on."
    "Well, first, there aren't any old portraits of my family.  Most people couldn't afford the artists to paint them – or the houses with ceilings high enough for the kind of pictures you have on your walls."
    "I know.  I was born into privilege."
    And trained into the responsibility for a whole clan of people that came with it, which he'd no' be mentioning for now.  Privilege never came alone.
    "Okay.  So I only know what my people looked like from the late eighteen-hundreds when photography really took off.  And yes, I look quite like my people on the Harper side, but once it gets back a century, all that's there is the blonde hair and paleness, maybe one or two features.  So to see a painting from two centuries ago – is that about right? – someone who's exactly like me... that's why I got such a shock.  But I know who the artist was."
    He stopped still and she turned. "Do you now..."
    "My great-whatever-grandfather the