‘Maybe it’s the other part of the legend coming true?’ he said after a while.

‘What other part?’ She eyed him doubtfully.

‘You haven’t heard the other one?’ he asked, while his hands were idly doing little swirls along her back.

She kinked an eyebrow, waiting for him to go on.

‘It’s said that one day Isla and Gavan will meet again, for a second chance to be together.’

‘Meet again. As in … ?’ She wasn’t quite sure where he was going with the story. Elle’s eyes narrowed slightly as she watched him. ‘What? Come back … reincarnated?’ she asked.

Stuart shrugged and grinned lazily. ‘I’m just telling you what the legend says.’

‘You’re making that up,’ she said, shaking her head. Gran would have known about a second part to the story if it were true. It sounded like a second-rate version of one of the Mummy movies, and they’d been bad enough.

‘That’s what people around here believe, anyway,’ he said.

‘You don’t seriously think that you and I—’ She stopped before shaking her head. ‘What? We’re Isla and Gavan?’ She grinned.

‘Well, you were drawn here searching for a long-forgotten castle,’ he said matter-of-factly.

‘Because of my gran,’ she pointed out.

‘Maybe. But how do you explain the coincidence that my mother’s side of the family were drawn back to this place through my father’s family? They didn’t even know each other until they met at university, and in turn I, having MacColuim blood, now own the land? The land that you found your way to from the other side of the world, no less.’

‘Well, it’s a nice story, and I know my gran would have loved that to be true, but I think you’re grasping at straws here. It is a happy coincidence that your family found its way back to living on your ancestral land after all those years, but I’m pretty sure I’m not Isla. I’m just plain old Elspeth Kinnaird from Jessup’s Creek,’ she smiled with a shake of her head.

‘There’s nothing plain about you, Elspeth Kinnaird,’ Stuart said softly as he gently tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, then moved his fingers along her jawline as he held her gaze steadily. The heat in his look sent a warm flush through her body in response. ‘I don’t care what brought you here, I’m just glad it did.’

Wordlessly she lifted up and leaned closer to meet his deep kiss, which grew quickly into something hungry and needy and once again they were dragged with urgent demand to find fulfilment.

‘I had better get back,’ Elle said after they’d roused themselves long enough to make something for a late dinner.