Good God, it did not bear thinking of. Just as he was ready to accept marriage—even to welcome it—it was denied to him. She had said no.

Devon looked at Kat. It was then that he saw what his pain had not allowed him to see before: Kat was crying. Not just a few droplets, either, but streaks of tears, trailing silently down her face. Her lip quivered, but no sound came out. Just a soft gasp of air as if she were drowning in her own sorrows.

Her pride, he realized. That was what was keeping them apart. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him at all.

Relief sang through his veins and he reached for one of his handkerchiefs, but Malcolm was quicker.

The Scotsman muttered a curse and dug a handkerchief from one of his pockets and then pressed the scrap of linen in his sister’s hands. “Och, don’t cry. If you feel that strongly about it, you don’t have to marry St. John.” He sent a hard glance at Devon. “Does she?”

Devon jaw tightened and his mind sprang into action. After a long moment, he shook his hand. “Actually, I believe she does have to marry me.” His chest felt weighted, but he ignored it. If he did not say and do exactly the right thing in the next few moments, he stood to lose the love of his life. And that was what Katherine Macdonald was—the end and beginning of his life. He was just starting to realize that fact.

The real beauty of it was, he’d found his true love, his soul mate, and he hadn’t needed the blasted ring at all. All he’d needed was to slow down enough to listen to his own heart. And his heart told him without question, without doubt, that Katherine Macdonald was the woman he’d been searching for for so long.

Life without her would be nothing but a long string of sad disappointments, missed laughter, and aching loneliness, and he’d already had enough of that to last a lifetime.

The problem was, though he was unwilling to face life without her, for some stubborn reason, she was all too willing to live life without him. Perhaps it was because she’d spent the years since her public humiliation telling herself she didn’t want someone else, didn’t need anyone else…but what she hadn’t yet realized was that love wasn’t about needing someone in your life. It was about wanting someone.

There was only one way he could fix it all—mend Kat’s tattered reputation, quiet the gossips at Kilkairn Castle, and never again wonder if he could love someone forever.

Devon crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels. “Malcolm, I have been compromised and I demand satisfaction.”