Greer suspected that might ask too much of Thor, but she was quick to respond. “We’ll be there.” She expected the scowl that settled on Thor’s face, but she placed her hand over his heart as the other arm wrapped around his waist.
“If there is even a moment where I dinna think ye are safe or ye feel uncomfortable, we leave. I willna waver on that,mo ghràidh.”
“I wouldnae expect ye to. Let’s get ready.”
Rose slipped out of the chamber, and the couple hurried to don their clothes. Thor helped Greer with her gown, and she tried not to think about how he was so adept at the task. She knew it was hypocritical to have even a moment’s jealousy about anything Thor did in the past.
“Wee one, I have two sisters. Ye ken we swim often and have traveled many times.”
Greer nodded, feeling foolish. Thor cupped her shoulders and eased her back against his chest. He kissed her cheek before sliding his hands down her arms and wrapping them around her waist. She leaned against him and closed her eyes. Did they really have to leave their chamber? She already thought of it as theirs, but they hadn’t discussed it.
“Thor, do ye wish for me to return to ma chamber after the evening meal?”
“Aye.” He felt her tense. “Because I’m coming in here with ye.”
“Here?”
“Unless ye dinna wish to sleep beside me, I thought we’d share a chamber. Would ye prefer we use the chamber ye have been using?”
“Nay. I prefer being up here away from everyone else. I just wasna sure what would happen.”
“I told ye I wish to hold ye in ma arms every night and wake to ye there. That hasnae changed. Do ye fear sleeping beside me?”
“Nae at all. I was more scared ye’d changed yer mind.” She turned in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck, one hand tunneling into his hair. “I dinna want to be out of arm’s reach of ye.”
“Are ye scared something will come between us?”
“I dinna want to stop touching ye.”
Thor’s mouth lowered to hers in a tender kiss that ended far too soon. “I love ye, wee one.”
“I love ye,mo dhuine.”
“I am yer mon, and I always will be.”
They clasped hands and made their way down to Blaine’s solar. The people they passed stared. Greer’s smile was less forced than Thor’s, but they were both wary. Thor knocked on the door, and Blaine bid them enter. Greer stepped into the chamber once Thor pushed it open and he closed it behind them. Blaine and Rose sat before the fireplace even though there was no blaze. Rose sat on Blaine’s lap, leaving the other chair facing the hearth free. Still holding hands, Thor and Greer made their way to the chair. He was uncertain whether she would want such a public display of affection, even in front of their family.
They stared at each other expectantly. Thor gestured to the chair, and Greer’s disappointment flashed momentarily in her gaze. It was all he needed. He sat and pulled her onto his lap with enough force that she more fell than sat. She nestled against his chest and closed her eyes. She hoped he could tell their story, and she could merely listen. She was too comfortable and felt too protected to want to delve into what happened all that time ago.
Rose observed Greer and Thor, and she could see her friend trusted her brother in the same way Rose trusted Blaine. She recognized the sentiment and affection. “I guessed something happened between ye years ago, and I thought it might have been romantic. But ye’ve been so frigid to one another that I decided it wasna possible. Clearly, there was because ye are far too comfortable with each other for just one afternoon in a locked chamber.”
Thor rested one hand on Greer’s hip while the other stroked her hair. “We met eight years ago while Jamie and I were hunting near the loch. Much like ye two must have arranged to meet, we did the same for nearly nine moons. I rode patrols and went hunting near the loch to have an excuse to be there. After six moons, we handfasted and spent three moons married before that battle. Losing Jamie and being in such chaos for the first time made me unreasonable and unable to make sense of what happened. I believed Greer betrayed me. I didna ken at the time she was the one giving information to Da and Grandda, but I thought she’d sneaked to the battlefield to spy on us. I thought when I didna die alongside Jamie, she’d come to finish me off. I thought so vera many wrong things. I walked away—rode away—that day believing I was the slighted one.”
“I didna fight hard enough to make him see the truth.” Greer opened her eyes to look at Rose, but her hand slid beneath Thor’s arm that rested on her lap. She wrapped hers around it and rested her hand on top of his. He splayed his fingers, and they entwined them. “I went to warn him aboot the change in Edgar’s strategy. I couldnae get to him because of the patrols. I went to him after the battle ended to see if he was hurt and to console him aboot Jamie. When he rejected me, I felt I was the one who’d been betrayed. A lot’s happened in those years, and we’ve changed as much as we’ve remained the same.”
Thor picked up the story. “We’ve been angry with one another for what we were certain happened. But we’ve also been hurt because we didna ken we still feel the same as we did when we were five-and-ten. I kenned I still loved Greer, but I couldnae resolve that with how certain I was that she’d betrayed me. And I was certain she didna still love me because she had betrayed me.”
“I felt the same. We needed to talk, but I refused every time Thor tried. I didna want to hear excuses, which is what I was sure he would give. I didna want him to press me to confess I still love him.”
“And I couldnae live with how things were any longer. So, after ye left Greer’s chamber and went belowstairs, I didna change ma plaid. I went back to her. We finally really talked. We learned things aboot each other, and we decided we’re done with what’s kept us apart too long. We want the life we planned together.”
Blaine observed as Greer and Thor offered an abbreviated version of their history. He wondered what more they discussed to come to such a sound resolution after a contentious month. “Did ye handfast again?”
“Nay.” Thor tightened his hold around Greer as though Blaine’s question was really a threat to separate them. “We didna get to talk aboot that before we had to go belowstairs. When we realized how serious Matthew was aboot taking Greer, we both kenned we needed to do something quickly. That’s why I had us marry by consent.”
Rose frowned. “But Matthew wasna wrong that a marriage by consent doesnae really work if there’s a priest to marry ye. Do ye consider yerselves married?”
“Aye.” Thor and Greer answered together.
