Nessa shrugged his hands off her shoulders. The more he talked, the wilder her emotions churned. “We haven’t done much talking these past three days. Maybe I just didn’t hear what you were saying.”
Latharn stared at Nessa in open-mouthed amazement, then rolled his eyes to the ceiling. With an exasperated growl, he threw his hands in the air and turned to shout at Brodie. “Are all the women of this century so stubborn? How do ye ever get anything done?”
Brodie risked a glance at the threatening look on Fiona’s face and backed away with a shake of his head. “I am not saying a word. Trish already has the only couch we have. If I lose my bed, I’m out on the floor.”
Latharn scrubbed his face with a rumbling groan. He’d waited nearly six hundred years for this woman. He’d traveled the hallways of her mind, soothing her in her dreams. He thought she loved him. She had freed him with her love. What held the woman back? He dropped to one knee and spread his hands, searching her eyes for the love and commitment he knew she held in her heart.
“Nessa Buchanan, I am asking ye now. I am begging ye to make my life complete. Would ye do me the honor of becoming my wife and spend the rest of your days by my side?”
Nessa bit her lip, hand to her throat, staring down into his eyes.
“Say yes for heaven’s sake!” Trish shouted from across the room.
Nessa ignored Trish and with a hesitating touch, reached out to cup Latharn’s face between her trembling hands. “Latharn. You have to know how much I love you.”
Latharn sensed a hint of uncertainty in her voice. His hands tightened about her waist. “I don’t like the tone ye’ve suddenly taken, Nessa. Surely, ye canna mean to refuse me?”
Nessa shook her head. She glanced around the room at all the shocked faces turned in her direction. “I’m not refusing. I’m just not saying yes. At least, not right now.”
Latharn took a deep breath as he rose from his knees to clutch her by the shoulders. Searching her face for some kind of explanation for her reasoning, Latharn struggled to keep from shouting in her face. “Why? I’ve waited forever to be with ye. Ye say ye love me and yet ye willna agree to be my wife? Give me one good reason why ye will not join with me! Help me to understand why ye cast me aside, Nessa.”
Nessa’s hands fluttered upon his chest as she tried to explain. “I know you’ve been in my dreams since I was barely eighteen. But you never spoke to me. We never talked to each other. Don’t you think it would be better if we waited a few months and got to know each other before we do something as serious as getting married?”
“Get to know each other better?” Latharn roared. Releasing Nessa’s shoulders, Latharn whirled to stomp about the room. Had she gone mad? Was he going to have to lock her in the bedroom until she’d listen to reason? “We will have plenty of time to get to know each other once we’re man and wife.”
He stormed about the room as though he were a caged animal. Latharn’s frustration crackled like electricity in the air. “If we were wed in the year 1410, we might not have even met until our wedding day.”
Nessa shouted to be heard above the rising wind and rumbling thunder rattling the parlor windows. “This isn’t the year 1410, and I’m not going to marry someone first and get to know them later. I grew up in a household where my parents hated each other before they died and they dated for years before they married. Neither of them would give in and ask the other for a divorce. Their marriage turned into some sort of sick contest to see which one of them could make the other more miserable.”
Latharn stopped his pacing and grabbed Trish by the arm. He pulled her across the room until she stood nose to nose with Nessa. Jerking his head toward Nessa, he looked at Trish and pleaded, “Would ye be so kind as to talk some sense into her? There is no reasoning with this woman. Tell her that she and I are not going to end up like her miserable parents. Those two misbegotten human beings wouldn’t know what love was if it bit them on the arse.”
Before Trish could speak, Nessa pushed around her; she locked on Latharn with a challenging glare. “You’ve proven my point, you see? Any time we don’t agree, then I’m the one who’s being unreasonable. Did it ever occur to you to try to understand what I’m saying? Don’t you realize how much the world has changed since 1410?”
Latharn clenched his fists and ground his teeth in frustration. He stood silent as every fiber of his being raged. He had never imagined she’d refuse him; he never dreamed she’d deny their bond. “I would ask that ye spend six hundred years imprisoned, locked away from all ye’ve ever known and loved. I would ask ye to watch while the one ye love is held by another and there’s nothing ye can do but close your eyes and try to block the memory that’s seared upon your mind.”
His breath ragged, heart hammering, Latharn took a step closer. He yanked Nessa into his arms and his voice dropped to a pain-filled whisper as he searched her face. “Nay. I’ve loved ye for an eternity, so I could never ask ye to suffer such a fate. All I ask of ye now is that ye love me, and I plead with ye to be my wife.”
“Handfasting!” Fiona shouted from across the room. “Pledge your love for a year and a day, turn to the auld ways to settle this discord.”
Brodie shook his head as he pulled Fiona closer, his voice hushed with disappointment. “Handfasting is no longer legal in Scotland. They abolished the ritual a few years ago.”
Fiona pulled away from Brodie and grabbed Latharn and Nessa by each of their arms. “What does it matter what the laws of today say? Ye will perform the rite at midnight in the light of the full moon, before the Auld One to witness. Then if after the allotted time of a year and a day, ye should find the match was ill-advised, each of ye can go your separate ways, with no legal ties to bind ye. But if ye find your love has grown even stronger, then ye can bind yourselves with a ceremony sanctified by man.”
Latharn still held Nessa crushed to his chest. His voice a hoarse whisper, the pain in his eyes begged her to listen to the possibilities the solution held. “Would ye be willing to do this, my love? What Fiona suggests?” He held his breath, waiting for Nessa’s answer.
Latharn’s heart pounded against Nessa’s chest as he waited for her reply. With a sudden jolt of clarity, she gasped when she realized his heart pumped in complete sync with her own. It was a sign. Although she’d never been a believer in such things, a lot had happened over the past few weeks to turn her mind around. The synchronized beating of both their hearts convinced her they were already one.
“Yes,” she whispered. “We’ll start out with a year and a day.” His warm chest rumbled beneath her cheek, and the beat of his heart hammered a bit faster. “But I’ve got a sneaking suspicion we’ll end up being together quite a bit longer.”
With a shaking breath, Latharn lowered his head and sought her mouth with his. Raising his head, he glanced back in the direction of the bedroom, with a meaningful glint in his eye.
“Oh, no you don’t! I need to get some clothes out of there. You two can just cool it for a little while.” Trish smacked her hand on Latharn’s shoulder and pulled Nessa into a hug of her own.
Brodie clapped Latharn on the back as Fiona scurried back into the kitchen praising the saints in the heavens. “Thank the heavens I married a woman who never knows when to keep quiet. Fiona always speaks her mind.”
Latharn agreed as he grasped Brodie’s arm. “Aye, cousin. I was beginning to fear my chance at a future was about to become another curse.”
A smug look on her face as she returned through the swinging kitchen doors, Fiona passed out tumblers of scotch to toast the joining of the two. “I think we should all go out to dinner tonight to celebrate the couple’s happy decision.”
