“Oskar?” she said, brushing a strand of red hair out of his eyes. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I canna do it, Lily,” he replied, his voice low and husky. “Damn me to Hell, but I canna do it.”
“Do what?”
He stared at her for a long moment. “Let ye go. I’ve been telling myself all this time that when the time came, I could do it. I could let ye go, I could let ye go back to yer time, I could make the unselfish choice. But I canna. I canna live without ye, Lily.”
Lily’s breath caught in her throat. “What are you saying?”
“That I want ye to stay,” Oskar replied. “That I want ye by my side for all time. That I want ye to be my wife. Will ye marry me, Lily?”
For a moment Lily stood in stunned silence. Then, like a whiff of smoke on the wind, all her doubts blew away. Was the twenty-first century her home? No, she realized suddenly. Her home was this man. This wild, wonderful man in front of her.
“Yes,” she whispered. Then louder, “Yes! Of course I’ll marry you!”
Oskar blinked, staring at her as though unsure of what he’d just heard. Then his brain seemed to catch up with his ears.
“Really?” he asked. “Truly?”
Lily nodded, tears gathering in her eyes. “Really. Truly.”
A smile unlike any she’d ever seen on him broke over Oskar’s face, and his eyes lit with joy. Cupping her face, he pulled her close and kissed her deeply.
“If I’m dreaming, dinna wake me,” he murmured.
“You’re not,” she replied. “Here. I’ll prove it.”
She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him like she never wanted to stop.
Chapter 23
Lily stood in front of the full-length mirror, her hands trembling as she adjusted the lace veil over her elaborately styled hair. She barely recognized her own reflection. Was that really her? But beneath the makeup and finery, she was still just Lily—the same woman who never imagined she’d be standing in an upmarket hotel in the twenty-first century, about to marry a man from the fifteenth.
The door burst open and Anna, Lily’s maid of honor, entered. Her eyes filled with tears at the sight of her best friend.
“Oh Lily...you look absolutely beautiful!” She embraced Lily, laughing through her sobs. “I can’t believe this day is finally here. My best friend, a bride!”
Lily hugged her back, wishing she could freeze this moment forever. She had dreaded telling Anna about the wedding, knowing it would mean the end of their carefree days together. She had known Anna since her university days and they had been best friends ever since.
Anna dabbed at her eyes. “I’m so happy for you, I really am. But I’m going to miss you. Are you sure you have to take this job and go and live up north? I’ll never see you!”
Lily’s heart ached. She wanted to confide in Anna, to tell her the impossible truth—that she wasn’t going to live ‘up north’ at all but was actually going to live in the fifteenth century. But she couldn’t—it was too crazy, too dangerous, too complicated. Allshe could do was clasp her friend’s hand and say earnestly, “I’m so sorry I kept this from you. Our friendship will always be one of the most important things in my life, no matter where I go.”
Anna managed a small smile. “You’re right. Friends forever.”
