So they were married in the great hall of Castle Dornach, with the Sutherlands in attendance. The bride did not wear an exquisite gown, as she had for her first marriage. Neither did she wear shoes, as she had for her first marriage.
She came to Brice wearing the blue and green colors of the Sutherlands, shoeless, jewelless, with flowers in her hair, looking like something that had sprouted from the wild Highland mountains.
Brice had never seen anyone as beautiful as Eleanor, with a smile that lit her from the inside out. He loved her with his entire being, but when she walked toward him to become his wife, his love swelled to such proportions that he wasn’t certain he could contain it. Tears pushed against the back of his eyes and he quickly blinked them away.
The Duke of Cumberland had sent a letter to her parents, informing them that their daughter was alive and in good spirits, so Thomas had decided to stay for the ceremony. It would be up to him to break the news to her parents that she had wedded a Highland warrior. He admitted to Brice that he did not look forward to that particular encounter.
The ceremony was short, and Brice could not recall exactly what they said to each other, but in the end they were wed, and that was all that mattered. He and his wife celebrated with his clan, but as day turned to night and the sun disappeared, warriors silently began to drift away to prepare for the night’s other adventures but the rest of the clan stayed to dance and sing and eat and be merry.
Eleanor and Brice sneaked away to their bedchamber, Eleanor in a fit of giggles while Brice pulled her along.
“We must hurry,” he said a little breathlessly. He shut the door and pushed Eleanor up against it to kiss her with a passion that almost frightened him. He didn’t think that he would ever tire of his wife.
When they pulled away, they were both breathing hard. “Are you positive we don’t have time?” she asked, her lips rosy and swollen from their kiss.
He looked at her with regret. “As much as I wish it, nay.” He looked her up and down, imagining himself ripping her kirtle off. His need for her was intense, but duty called and they both knew it.
“Then you best step away, because I fear I can’t keep my hands off you,” she said with a cheeky grin.
He groaned. “Ye best stop talking like that,mo ghràdh. Or we won’t be leaving this bedchamber any time soon.”
She playfully pushed him away and quickly divested herself of her kirtle and arisaid while Brice stood back and watched. This was a torture like he’d never known. His hands itched to touch her all over.
At times he couldn’t believe she was actually his, that they were to spend the rest of their days together, that he need not worry about Blackwood or England taking her away from him. She was his. Forever.
“You could help,” she said, looking at him from the corner of her eye.
He raised an eyebrow and it took all of his self-control to stay on the other side of the room. “Ye told me to stop touching ye.”
She finished pulling on her breeches and slid her shirt on. “Ready,” she said as she pushed her hair beneath her cap.
He opened the door and they sneaked down the back steps while their wedding celebration went on without them. In the bailey, their horses were ready and waiting for them, and they rode out with a retinue of men. It wasn’t the most romantic wedding night, but Eleanor said she would have it no other way.
“We have the rest of our lives,” she said. “I couldn’t rest easy knowing people needed our help. They’re depending on us to get them to the next safe house and eventually to the waiting ship.”
Brice knew then that his Eleanor was a true Highlander, putting his people—now her people—before her needs. He didn’t think it was possible to love her any more than he already did.
He looked over at his new wife, so sure of herself on top of her mount, so dedicated to a cause that she did not have to embrace but which she did embrace with her whole heart. She winked at him, an impish smile on her lips.
She had told him once that her life had started anew when he’d found her in the middle of the road, but that was only half of the story.
She’d saved his life just as much as, if not more than, he’d saved hers.
And for that he would spend the rest of his days loving her and thanking God for putting her on that path. There might be tough times ahead for his country and his people, but with Eleanor at his side, he knew he could face anything.
