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

phoneless.  I'm going to use the landline in my room to call Za... someone.  Night, Auntie.  Thank you so much for this."
    The name of Zavier was so nearly said.  He wondered how she would tell him she was spending a few days away with the owner of their wedding venue.  What he already knew was how Zavier Campbell would react.  The man would do nothing about it, might no' even take the time to protest because he'd be too busy talking about himself.
    Callum booked flights from Inverness to Kirkwall, got some information from Isla, and went to the guest room.  It took him a lot longer to book the cottage, making several calls before he found the right one and talked its owner into letting it out at such short notice in winter.
    His whole future was riding on this.  Far more important to him, so was Freya's.
    In the parlor he'd managed to locate and touch the bronze figurines of young Aengus, the god of love, and that of Branwen, goddess of love and beauty.  He thought of them now, and asked for them to look after Freya and guide her on the right path.  After tonight, he'd be helping them along in their task.
    For a long, long time he lay sleepless, going over the advice and teachings of his father and the Elders for when his woman came into his life, whoever she was.  That day had come.
     

     
    They were in the car that Callum rented upon landing at Kirkwall and he still wouldn't tell her where they were staying.
    "A surprise.  Been over your Orkney family tree yet?  Do you know what you're looking for?"
    "The gravestones first.  Auntie says I'll get a sense of our people from them that'll help with anything else.  A sort of work-backwards from death into life thing because most wisdom comes in folks' later years."
    That slow smile.  The one that melted her into pieces every time.
    "Did she now... so you'll no' be relying solely on the chart.  Bringing out the fey for the occasion, are you?"
    "Oh come on, Callum... can you imagine Isla Harper bringing me up and not teaching me the ways!"
    "Hardly a Saturday hobby.  You must have been born with it, aye?"
    Callum knew far too much about this stuff.  "A little..."  He didn't believe her and her instincts told her to be more honest if she wanted the same from him.  "Look, the thing is, I stopped using it when I got to university.  I'd have flunked my course otherwise.  So I'm rusty.  Might have no abilities now anyway, by way of On-Demand.  And I really, really don't want it back."
    He just kept smiling – and she hadn't a clue where they were going since he wouldn't use the satnav. Somewhere near Stromness was all he'd say, which she'd known anyway, since that's where Symond Harper had lived.  As if she'd not had enough surprise this morning when he sat down for breakfast wearing his kilt again.
    "And don't go pretending that fey is any old word to throw around," she went on.  "I bet you any money that you still have a seer in your clan.  Who is it?  Tara with the bees?"
    He held up four fingers.
    "Four?  You have four?"
    "Another clan secret I'm trusting you with, and only because I saw what happened to you in the castle room where the portrait was taken."
    "Aha!  So what's it really called, that room you're avoiding giving a name to?"
    "We'll keep that for the day you get the full tour."
    That shut her up.  He couldn't mean a guest tour with some curator like the clan's historian he'd mentioned, because there was no such thing.  She'd asked upon arrival, and been handed a book with a starter chapter on the castle's general history and several others on all the public areas.  End of.  Robbie the Events Manager had shown them round everywhere they needed to see but it had all been geared to her wedding.
    Her wedding... oh god... right now she was supposed to be back there in Argyll at the castle doing her planning, meeting her bridesmaid in Edinburgh to find dresses, sending out invitations now they had the venue...
    Last night's call to Zavier