The sun beat down on Ramsey Bain so heavily that he wondered if it was trying to fight him. The sword in his hand was heavy enough that it made his arms ache as he had been wielding it for a while now. Sweat dripped down his brow as he stood, waiting for his opponent’s strike, but he could not even take the time to wipe his sweat because he knew that if he gave any openings at all, he would lose in an instant.

Standing in front of him with his sword at the ready was his older cousin, and The Younger of the clan, Nathan Mackenzie. His cousin was a beautiful young man. He did not think that there was any other explanation that could do him justice. His strawberry blond hair that he got from his blond father and red-haired mother, had grown long enough to brush his collar bones when he let it down now. His dark blue eyes were teasing and full of laughter most of the time, but there were times when that playfulness became scary, and now was one such moment, as sparring with his cousin made him feel like a mouse being toyed with by a cat.

The two of them were the best swordsmen in their age group. Nathan continued to tell him that the gap in their skills was only because Nathan was older than him with five years, but Ramsey knew that was a lie. Nathan was just ridiculously strong and the only reason why he could fight better than everyone else, was because he was frequently sparring with Nathan, and due to that, fighting with anyone else seemed easy. Every time he improved and thought he had taken one step closer; Nathan was still ten steps ahead.

Sometimes, the other boys asked him if he never felt frustrated about it, but Ramsey had never felt any frustration. He loved his cousin who was like a big brother to him. For as long as he could remember, he had looked up to Nathan. They had always been close, since they were much younger. Every time that Nathan found a new interest, or some new friends, Ramsey always thought that it would be the time when his cousin would finally leave him behind and stop being so close to him given the age gap between them. Each time however, he was always wrong as Nathan did not fail to carry him along.

Even now as he felt like prey in front of his cousin, his heart was pounding with excitement and there was a huge grin on his face. The bead of sweat on his brow finally dropped and Ramsey blinked to protect his eyes. That split second was all it took as before he knew what was happening, he had been swept off his feet, his weapon appropriated, and he now had the tips of two blunted swords at his neck. Exhausted, he flopped down on the ground with a groan and shut his eyes against the sun.

He heard his cousin chuckle victoriously before the clang of the swords hitting the ground, and his cousin lay down next to him. His arms were aching quite a bit, but he was pleased with the sensation. It meant that he would soon be big and strong like his father General Alastair Bain and his Uncle Laird William Mackenzie, his aunt’s husband.

Nathan was only nineteen years old, and he was already half as big as his father. Ramsey could not see any men possibly bigger than the ones in his family. As they grew older, they seemed to get more massive, it was beyond his comprehension. However, he knew why when he watched his father and uncle spar. It was always like a dream. Even Nathan, with how skilled he was, had not won against his father or uncle even once, but he continued to train and try anyway. Ramsey wondered if his cousin felt the same way he did fighting them that Ramsey felt when he fought him. He could not even imagine sparring seriously with his father yet. He was still too green.

“Ye boys are always like this, ye always lie around on the ground after yer spar. Dae ye want to be a rug that badly?” a feminine voice above him said. That voice was no one else other than Ramsey’s twin sister Marie. He opened his eyes to find that she was blocking the sun with her head. He sighed in relief, closing his eyes again with a serene expression.

“Ah, ye are quite the perfect shade, sister, finally we found something that ye are great at for once,” he teased.

He had known the price of that joke when he made it, but he did it anyway. When she stepped on his belly in retaliation, it was expected, but that did not mean it hurt any less. He screamed and Nathan guffawed beside him. Marie was good at a great number of things, but she also lost interest easily.

His sister was a very strong woman, so she had started their sword lessons together with her, however she had lost interest in it a few years ago after reaching average standards of proficiency. After that, she had begun learning how to shoot a bow but stopped that as well.

Their father had said that there was nothing wrong with her trying different things to find what she was great at. His inside joke had been about her finally finding something she perfected as the jack of all trades she was.

“Marie, dae nae kill yer brother over there, he is the only one ye have got,” the voice that saved him finally came. It was their father speaking, and so Marie left him alone. He could hear Ivie and the youngest of them, Ellie his ten-year-old cousin giggling as they approached them. Ellie was blonde like her father as well, but her eyes were brown like her mother’s instead of blue. Ellie and Ivie who were only two years apart in age were joined at the hip and inseparable.

The two younger girls in their household were not as vivacious as Marie, liking the simpler things like baking together and making dresses. The two of them had been drawing up clothes for women with skirts that did not fall to the ankle. They modeled those dresses after their mothers who had both become famous in the clan for ripping their dresses in times of danger, and valiantly facing the enemy. The girls kept their drawings a secret however as their mothers were both severely embarrassed by those tales, covering their faces in shame each time someone brought it up.

Their mothers claimed that the stories the people told were too greatly exaggerated, but when they told the stories themselves, it was not any less heroic. Naturally, the girls all looked up to their mothers although they expressed it in different ways. Ellie threw herself at her brother who as usual was quick to catch her, getting to his feet so that he could lift her above his head, and spinning in a circle.

“Oh, me precious sister… ye look absolutely beautiful today!” Nathan said, in his accent which remained partially French even after spending eleven years in the Highlands with all of them. His partial accent was not a problem however, along with his voice, it made all the young women they met seemingly melt in front of him as they held on to his every word. It had no effect on the women in their family though, although his existence was enough to make them giddy instead.

Ivie stretched her hand out and dabbed at Ramsey’s face, getting his attention as she wiped his sweat, before plopping down to hug him. He laughed at his sister’s antics and hugged her back.

“Oh, Nathan is right! Ivie, ye two look wonderful,” he said as well. The girls were all dressed up in their prettiest clothes as today was the day a painter was coming to paint their family portrait. He would need to leave with Nathan very soon to bathe and put on their own formal clothes.

A throat clearing to the side made them all turn their head to Marie, who looked every bit like one of the gorgeous fee from the folklores. Her auburn hair was held up in an elaborate style by several pins and expensive brooches, and her dress was a yellow that made her brown eyes stand out.

“Ye look wonderful, Marie,” he complimented, not even bothering to tease her. Nathan complimented her effusively as well and the girls ran up to her, admiring her dress. Satisfied with their compliments, she raised her nose in the air playfully.

Their fathers had been watching everything from where they sat together on the chairs that had been brought out of the house and placed on the hill for the purpose of their family portrait. They had all left the castle the night before as their parents decided that they wanted the first family portrait to be taken at their family home in the village his father and aunt had come from.

Both men were already dressed in their finest kilts and coats with their beards trimmed, only waiting for their wives to be ready. Ramsey realized it at seemingly the same time as Nathan. Everyone was already dressed and ready, except for them. Once their mothers came out of that house, they would be the only ones not ready. The two exchanged glances, before taking off running towards the house in a bid to get into the bathhouse before their mothers came out.

….

Devona stepped out of the house and unto the grass, holding hands with Jane as the both of them helped each other to stay balanced in their fancy shoes as they walked on the grass towards the picture position where their husbands were sitting in the chairs meant for them. Spotting them approaching, both men got to their feet swiftly and offered the chairs up with gentlemanly bows.

Devona smiled at her husband William who as far as she was concerned, had only gotten even more handsome with age. Following Alastair’s choice, he had also begun to keep a beard after their second child Ellie was born. It suited him perfectly, and he always laughed saying that his father had kept a beard throughout the time he knew him, so of course a beard would suit him too. Both him and her brother continued to grow stronger in their old age as they stayed fit both to polish up their skills and to make sure that their insanely talented sons did not surpass them too soon.

To the boys, their fathers were probably the strongest men that they knew, but they did not see them after every spar complaining to their wives about how they were getting too old for this and making exaggerations about their creaking bones. She chuckled as she thought of it before searching with her eyes for their sons in question and finding them nowhere. Seeing Marie and the girls waddling suspiciously with something behind their backs that they refused to walk straight so as not to let her see, she could already figure out what was happening. She turned narrowed eyes to William and her brother, Jane doing the same thing.

“They are nae ready, are they? The lads,” Devona said. William scratched his jaw guiltily and Alastair just laughed nervously. She exchanged a glance with Jane who wore an unimpressed expression similar to hers. They had known it would be like this. The boys had taken up their swords for what they claimed would be a light spar, so she had asked William to make sure that it would indeed be a light spar since she knew that the boys had a tendency to get carried away when their fathers were watching them spar.

From the way both men were avoiding their judgmental gazes, they had no doubt forgotten to tell the boys when it was enough and instead been carried away themselves while they accessed the boys fighting. She clicked her tongue at them before Jane finally let the cat out of the bag.

“We knew that something like this would happen, that is why we did not give you all the correct time for when the painter will arrive,” her sister-in-law said. William and Alastair’s jaws dropped open and they both gave them dramatic expressions of betrayal. The girls who had approached them after getting rid of the swords which were evidence of their brothers being late, also let out exclamations in protest.

She lifted her nose as she brushed a plum against her lips to deepen its color before popping the piece of fruit in her mouth.

“Now, they will be on time after all, so this was the perfect way to deal with ye all,” she said.

Marie began to whine about wearing her dress for too long and how she should have been allowed to dress up at this time as well so that she would not sweat in her dress. Jane only gave her an unimpressed snort. They all knew that Marie just wanted to play around until the very last minute like the boys had.

With her family around her, Devona could not help but smile to herself. On this day eleven years ago, she had been on this very hill, coming to visit her parents after returning to the clan. She had been lost and unsure of herself back then as she met with her brother again, not confident in thinking that she deserved any love since she had been gone for so long and returned suddenly.

Looking at Jane talking animated with Marie, she remembered how she had been worried that her brother’s wife would not like her since she was an extra responsibility who had appeared and even brought a child with her.

Looking at William bending over to let Ellie whisper something in his ear, she remembered how shocked she had been when she was told that William was going to let her stay in his castle despite the way she had broken his heart by leaving without saying a word to him nineteen years ago.

She felt it was crazy when she thought about it, that her nineteen-year-old son, who was already one of the most sought-after young men in the Highlands, had grown up from the tiny baby she had wrapped in her cloak, sitting on the streets of Paris, and thinking that she would have to give him away to an orphanage when starvation threatened to take her life.

She had been through so many highs and lows of life that it brought a tear to her eye when she thought about it while looking at where she was now. She raised her face and blinked several times to keep the tears that had formed from coming out.

This was no time to cry, she needed to look perfect for the family portrait. She got the perfect distraction right at that moment as the doors to the house burst open and Ramsey and Nathan came running out, nearly tripping over each other as they approached. She pursed her lip with dissatisfaction as she noted Nathan’s wrongly buttoned shirt and his coat which was on the rumpled, but was at least on the right way unlike Ramsey’s which was on backwards.

The girls burst into a fit of giggles at the chaotic sight and William and Alastair turned away when their chuckles were met with judgmental stares from their wives.

“Ahem, I should probably help him with his coat,” Alastair said sheepishly, clearing his throat and adjusting his collar.

“Stop runnin’, ye fools, we gave ye the wrong time because we ken that ye would have been late like this if we told ye the actual time,” she called out to them. Much like their fathers the two boys stopped in their tracks and gave her an open-mouthed stare of betrayal causing her to roll her eyes.

“Oh, come off it, get over here so that yer faithers can help ye put yer clothes in order, ye look like a mess,”she said.

The boys scratched their heads sheepishly and took off their coats beginning to arrange their clothes properly on their own even as their fathers approached to help them. After a few moments, they looked every bit the respectable young men, nothing even hinting at their previous looks of disarray.

Nathan’s long hair was combed and smoothed back so that his locks were held behind his ears and Alastair had righted Ramsey’s jacket. Devona’s heart swelled with pride at the sight of her son. Nathan who was fully aware of this effect sidled up to her, leaning down to give her a hug and placing his head on her shoulder like he did when he was younger.

“Ye look beautiful, Mother,” he said in his mixed-up accent.

She wondered who he was learning such tricks from, as she knew he was only trying to avoid the scolding and ear-pulling that Ramsey was now getting.

Devona squeezed her son’s cheeks instead, pulling until his face looked like stretched out dough and his sounds of protest were warped as his lips were spread.

“Nice try there, very nice try. Ye really think that ye can escape me wrath, dae ye nae?” she said. Only after ample cheek squeezing time, did she finally let him go and he rubbed his reddened cheeks with fake sobs.

“I was nae lying though, Mother, ye truly dae look beautiful,”he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead even as he still massaged his stinging cheeks. She clutched at her chest, no longer able to resist his sweetness and forgiving him immediately.

She had just released him from the bone-crushing hug she had pulled him into when the painter arrived. As they all gathered to pose for the painting, Devona knew that they would be perfect like this forever, just like a picture in a painting, preserved for all time.

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