“Are ye all right?” Chloe asked. “Do ye need me to fetch ye some water?”
“I am fine, thank you.” Trulie swallowed hard. She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets to hide their trembling. She nodded at the full moon shining a path of white light through the far window. “Won’t your parents be worried about you being out so late?”
Chloe’s grin widened into a sparkling smile. “Nah. Da kens for sure where I am and Mother will soon ken it as well.”
Gray pushed himself up from the chair. An excited shiver coursed through Trulie. Did Gray’s shoulders somehow seem wider? His chest broader? Was the man actually strutting with pride? She took a step back and knotted her hands in her pockets. She hadn’t seen him so relaxed, so happy, since... She closed her eyes against the thought.
“Ye ken who she is,” he whispered as he pulled her into his arms. His warm breath tickled against the sensitive skin just beneath her ear. His arms tightened around her as he pressed a kiss against her temple.
“She can’t be,” Trulie said in a strained whisper. Yet how could she deny the proof right before her eyes. Trulie turned and opened her eyes to Chloe’s knowing smile. “Why are you here, Chloe?” It felt so strange to say the name, and yet so natural.
“Ye ken why I am here,” the girl said as she tugged on Trulie’s sleeve until Trulie pulled her hand from her pocket. She slipped her small hand into Trulie’s and glanced toward the window. “But I canna stay verra much longer. They said I mustn’t tarry overly long beyond the path of the moon.”
Chloe smiled up at Gray before she leaned in closer to Trulie. “I had to come. Ye had to know what ye would miss if ye chose to leave Da and go back to yer modern future.”
The young one’s face became serious as she squeezed Trulie’s hand harder. “But I will warn ye that the world would most likely be a much better place if ye rethought bringing Ian into it.” Chloe’s mouth puckered with an irritated scowl. “My own lot in life would be a great deal easier without that numpty always poking his nose into things that dinna concern him.”
Trulie’s mood lightened in spite of the ever-weakening voice of conviction whispering in her head that opportunity was slipping away. If she was going to return to modern-day Kentucky, she needed to leave—now.
“Who is Ian?” She couldn’t resist asking. Chloe’s bubbling personality chased away the darkness plaguing her soul. How could she not feel happier knowing that at some point in the future, if she chose to stay in the past with Gray, Chloe would join their lives?
The girl rolled her eyes and blew out a disgusted huff. “Ian is the youngest and by far the biggest pain in the arse of all my brothers.”
“All yer brothers?” Gray repeated as he pulled Trulie into a tighter embrace.
“Aye,” Chloe said. “Would the two of ye please bear in mind that after bringing four worrisome boys into the world, the chances of gifting me with a little sister are fair slim and ye should set aside the trying.” Chloe glanced toward the window, then edged into the beam of moonlight. She held up both hands and patted the air as though bidding Trulie and Gray to take care. “Just leave it be, will ye? I canna stomach another brother who thinks he can tell me what to do.”
Trulie pressed a hand to her mouth and blew Chloe a kiss. “Thank you, Chloe.” Warm happy tears streamed down her face as she held a shaking hand up in farewell to her daughter.
Chloe smiled and waved as her image faded into the moonlight. “Bye, Mother! Bye, Da! All my love to ye both.”
* * *
Gray steadiedTrulie as they crunched through the sparkling crust of untouched snow. “’Tis just a bit farther.” His breath fogged an eerie blue-white cloud into the air. The shallow drifts of the crystal blanket rolled across the hillside, colored an even icier blue by the in-between time just before dawn.
“Is anyone else going to be there?” Trulie gathered her skirts higher and forged up the hillside.
“Only us,” he said as he brought her gloved hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to it. All was finally as it should be. At dawn, just as the sun crested the frozen horizon, he and Trulie would voice their union. The vast wildness of the rugged Highlands would serve as their only witness. His soul sang with long-awaited contentment. Finally. He and Trulie would be as one.
“There.” Gray pointed to the crest of the peak. Majestic pines towered against the ever-lightening blue of the sky. A small clearing glistened amid the dark circle of the trees. A waist-high stone, its edges worn and rounded by centuries of Highland weather, reached toward the sky from the center of the ring of snow.
“It’s perfect,” Trulie said as she pushed her furred hood to her back.
Even in the low light of pending dawn, his heart warmed at the happiness on her face. “The old ones claimed this place to be holy. A place to speak to the gods. What better place to say our vows and become one?”
“I agree,” she said softly as she took his hand and walked with him to the clearing.
The top of the stone was bleached white with age, but the unending whorls of the goddess could still be seen across the surface. He positioned himself on one side of the pillar and Trulie took her place opposite him. He nodded toward the horizon, squinting against the cold bite of the wind. “The sun comes to us,” he said as he scooped her hands into his.
“It’s time,” she said, smiling as the golden glow struck the crystals of snow and kissed the world with the first fire of its color.
“Tha gaol agam ort.”Gray centered their clasped hands above the stone and repeated in English, “I love ye.”
“I love you too.” She squeezed his hands and repeated in Gaelic, “Tha gaol agam ort-fhèin.”
“I pledge ye my life. I pledge ye my heart. I pledge ye nothing less than my soul.” He took a deep breath and swallowed hard against the wave of emotions crashing through him as the fiery rays of the morning light illuminated the clearing.
As the sunlight flooded full against the east side of the stone monument beneath their clasped hands, the rays shot up through a well-placed channel bored through the center of the stone. The blinding white beam of light exploded up through their clasped fingers. Their hands glowed. Their flesh appeared illuminated and melded into one.
