Something was going on. Coira was uncharacteristically businesslike. What had happened to the bubbling chatterbox who was more friend than maid? Kenna leaned forward and snagged hold of both of Coira’s wrists. “What is going on? You are acting weird.”
Coira’s pale blue eyes widened and her reddish brows arched clear to the layer of ruffles sewn around her bonnet. She pulled her hands free, snatched up what looked to be a brand-new pair of light brown slippers, and held them out. “Finish dressing if ye wish to discover what the day holds because I shall not be a telling ye a thing.”
Kenna yanked her hair loose, combing her fingers through the tangle of curls as it fell across her shoulders. “You could at least give me a hint.”
Coira snagged hold of Kenna’s elbow and led her to a chair. “Sit ye down so I can attend to yer hair.”
Kenna held up a finger. “One hint?”
Coira didn’t answer, just grabbed up a handful of hair and started attacking it with a brush.
“I give up,” Kenna said with a flinch. If she said any more, Coira might yank her bald.
Coira twisted the curls to the top of Kenna’s head, then finger-curled long dark ringlets down around her face and neck. “There now. Quite lovely, if I do say so myself.”
“Are Granny and Trulie in the solar or have they gone down to the hall for dinner?” By the length of the shadows across the floor in front of the window, it had to be well past noon.
“Neither.” Coira pulled her up from her seat and hurried her out into the hallway. “They wait for ye in the garden beside the reflecting pool.”
“That’s odd.” Kenna hurried along beside Coira. The maid’s stern look worried her. And Granny and Trulie were waiting beside the reflecting pool? That couldn’t be good. Had one of them had a vision, and had it been so dire they felt they needed to share it with her? A nauseating knot of dread tightened in her middle.
Kenna squinted against the bright sunlight as they stepped outside. A warm breeze hurried her forward into the garden, which was bursting with the colors of late spring. A sense of anticipation filled the air. It was almost as though every living thing in the garden held its breath—watching and waiting. She glanced back at Coira where she had stopped in the archway with her hands clasped to her chest and beaming with a wide smile. The maid waved her forward. “On with ye now. Go on.”
After a deep breath to settle her nerves, she hurried down the stone path, maneuvered through the hedging, and rounded the last of the shrubbery surrounding the reflecting pool. And then she stopped, unable to take another step.
Colum stood with his hands clasped at the small of his back, feet widespread and chin held high. The wind fluttered the soft linen of hisléineagainst his chest, outlining the hardened muscles she had melted against a mere few hours ago. His eyes were narrowed to watchful slits against the brightness of the day. But it was his calm, knowing expression, the tilt of his head, and the proud set of his shoulders, that stopped her in her tracks. Something had changed. Colum had changed.
Granny, Tamhas, Gray, and Trulie also stood beside the reflecting pool. Faithful Karma, tongue lolling out in a big doggie smile, sat at Trulie’s side, leaning up against his mistress with his heavy tail flopping against the ground in a slow happy wag. Kismet sat on the low wall surrounding the reflecting pool, surveying the area with a bored flipping of her tail. Chloe’s owl joined the gathering too, gracefully alighting in a nearby tree with a branch suitably close enough to enable him to watch over his charge, currently cradled in her mother’s arms.
“What is this?” Kenna knotted her fists against her middle, willing her voice to remain steady and strong.
Colum eased toward her, his movements slow and sensual, obviously calculated to increase her pulse rate exponentially. She hitched in a shaking breath and wet her lips. “What is this, Colum?”
The faintest of smiles twitched at the corners of his mouth as he knelt in front of her. He slid his hands around hers, gently cupping her fingers within his own. “This is what a man does when he has acted the fool for entirely too long.” He paused and pressed a kiss to her trembling fingers, then lifted his gaze to hers. “This is what a man does when he finally comes to his senses and seeks to set things right by claiming the most precious woman he has ever known.”
Tears threatened to overflow if she didn’t blink them away. Kenna swallowed hard, her heart so full, speech was not possible.
“Say it, my love.” Colum pressed another kiss to the tops of her fingers, his lips soft and warm. “Say ye will take me as yer husband even though ye ken I am a prideful, hardheaded fool.”
“I will,” she whispered as the tears won out and spilled down her cheeks.
He slowly rose and cupped her upturned face between his hands. With the gentlest of touches, he wiped away the tears and pressed a kiss to each of her eyelids. “Dinna cry, sweet love,” he whispered. “Please dinna cry.”
“Happy tears.” She sniffed and smiled as she covered his hands with her own. “I promise, they are happy tears.”
Colum nodded, stepped to her side, and tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “Come. Let us pledge our joining before the gods, kith, and kin so nothing in this world or beyond can ever part us again.”
“Aye,” she replied with a happy sigh as they turned toward the reflecting pool. “So, mote it be.”
EPILOGUE
Thirteenth-Century Scotland
A Little Over Two Years Later
Kenna shoved another chunk of wood on the fire, then took the iron poker and pushed it deeper into the flames. “We’ll have a good bed of coals in no time. I can’t wait to hear how the girls are adjusting to Edinburgh. It’s been over six months since they left Kentucky.”
“With Eliza at the helm, I’m sure they’ve taken the city by storm. Edinburgh will most likely never be the same.” Granny smiled down at the sleepy-eyed cat curled up beside her on the pillowed bench. She smoothed a hand down Kismet’s rich black coat, ending the affectionate stroke by slipping the cat’s lightly flipping tail through her knobby fingers. “Lilia should do quite well there with the line of natural cosmetics she’s developed. Twenty-first-century Edinburgh should welcome her with open arms.”
