He was a man of his word.
“Of course I will marry Roi,” she said, smiling weakly. “I would not dream of punishing him for something he had no control over. But for the rest… I have been hurt by nasty gossip for years. I am sure that I will forgive in time, but it is a wound that still must heal. Your kindness has helped more than you know.”
Dustin smiled at her, patting her cheek, but Christopher made his way over to Westley, who had the appearance of a kicked dog. Once his father started talking to him in a low voice, that look only grew worse. Meanwhile, Christin and Rebecca had moved over to Diara, and Christin went so far as to put her arms around Diara’s shoulders. It was a very nurturing, protective stance, one that bolstered Diara tremendously. She looked up at Roi, still on the table, who was now watching his father lecture Westley. Diara broke away from Christin, though gently done, and went to the edge of the table.
“Roi?” she said hesitantly.
Hearing his name, he snapped his head in her direction. Quickly, he climbed off the table. “I am sorry if my actions upset you,” he said. “But I felt strongly that I had to handle it in that manner. No questions, no confusion. I feel that it was the right thing to do.”
She smiled at him to let him know that she wasn’t upset by it. At least, not once she’d had time to digest it all. “You are a manof honor,” she said. “I am grateful you thought enough of me, of the situation, to take it so seriously. I hope this is truly the end of it.”
“It is,” he assured her, his pale eyes glimmering at her. “I promise you, it is. You can see that everyone is very concerned about it. These are decent people, Diara. They simply had to be reminded of it.”
Diara nodded. “I know,” she said. “And I appreciate it. Do you think they would mind if we supped with them? Or should we go eat by ourselves?”
He chuckled. “Why would we do that?”
“Because you just berated everyone at this table. They may not want to eat with us.”
He simply grinned. “How little you know, my lady,” he said softly. “How little you know.”
He was right.
As the group settled back down, Roi seated Diara at the end of the feasting table and made sure she was served the best of everything available. Dustin and Christin sat with them, along with Curtis and his sons, and eventually nearly everyone gravitated toward that end of the table. It was an apology, a salve to her wounded heart, and a show of unity for the future.
That was something Diara had never experienced.
For her, it was a night to remember. For the first time in her life, she was starting to feel accepted. As if she was part of something bigger, with people who wanted to embrace her. Rumors or not, it didn’t matter. Roi had accepted her, and they would too. Odd how these people she had just met were turning out to be more of a family to her than her own.
And she was grateful.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
He made herwear the red dress.
Roi only had one request for their wedding day, and it was that she wear the red dress, the dress she’d worn at their first real introduction. It was such an exquisite garment in that deep ruby color, the color that symbolized love, and as she stood in front of the chapel of Lioncross Abbey as the priest from the village intoned the mass over her and Roi, she looked like a goddess.
Roi couldn’t take his eyes off her.
The day had started at sunrise when Dustin and her daughters arrived to help prepare Diara for the day. Adalia and Dorian, along with Iris and a few of the younger girls, had also come to help because Dustin felt it was important that they all participate in such a major family event. Diara had been asleep when they had entered her chamber, and, quite literally, she had been pulled from her bed. Dustin ran a tight ship, and she had both the servants and her daughters jumping.
It was a big day.
A large copper tub had been brought into the room and filled with hot water and oils that smelled of flowers. Diara had been stripped of her night shift and plunged into the tub, whereDustin and the ladies proceeded to scrub her within an inch of her life. Her skin was washed with hard white soap, and her hair was washed with a solution of vinegar and flat ale. Diara had to grip the sides of the tub to keep from being toppled over as her new family enthusiastically scrubbed her.
Eventually, however, the scrubbing ceased and she was rinsed and rinsed again before being instructed to climb out of the tub. An enormous towel was waiting for her, and the buffeting she took from Dustin as the woman was drying her off was far worse than the scrubbing that had taken place in the tub. In fact, Diara found herself giggling through the entire thing because she was being pummeled in the nicest sort of way.
Then came the combing and the anointing of oils. Iris, still not entirely well from her illness, was put in charge of combing out Diara’s hair while Dustin and Rebecca and Dorian were charged with rubbing oil into her skin to soften it. Diara simply sat there while several pairs of hands went to work on her from head to toe, even rubbing oil into her feet.
As she told Dustin, she felt like the Queen of Sheba.
Dustin had grinned at the comment.
But Diara suspected that some of this was to make up for what had happened the day before. Not that she minded, because she didn’t. In truth, she was incredibly touched by all of the fuss they made. It had made her feel very special, a worthy bride for their precious son.
As Christin prepared the red dress while everyone else focused on the bride, servants were brought in to fan Diara’s hair so it would sufficiently dry. With Iris combing and the servants fanning, her hair dried quickly enough, and Dustin used a hot iron, set in the fire, to tame the natural curl that she had. Her hair was pulled back, pinned back, and a garland of flowers was put on her head with a silken veil that Diara had brought from Cicadia. It had belonged to her mother, and Ananda had wornit on her wedding day. With everything set in place, the ladies escorted Diara out to the chapel, where Roi, the family, and several guests were waiting.
The moment was upon them.
