“No, she was buried with that. This was another ring my father gave her, one that my grandmother held for me to give to my bride.” He retrieved the ring and lifted Signy’s left hand. “With this ring, I thee wed, and I hope it fits!”
The golden circlet slid smoothly onto her third finger as if made for Signy’s hand. She curved her fingers to admire it, then kissed the ring. “This is perfect,” she said softly. “A gift from your mother and grandmother.”
He smiled, feeling married in the best possible way. He started to put his robe on.
“You don’t have to get dressed for my sake,” Signy said in a sultry voice.
Laughing, he dropped the robe and returned to their bed to celebrate the first day of the rest of their lives.
* * *
Signy thought they were behaving with complete propriety when they dressed and descended to the kitchen for breakfast. They weren’t touching, and there was a respectable amount of space between them.
Nonetheless, Mrs. Donovan greeted them with arched brows and a silent, scorching glance for Ramsay. Signy raised her left hand to show her wedding band. To emphasize the point, Ramsay put his arm around Signy’s shoulders. “Handfasted until we have the time for a proper wedding at the cathedral, Mrs. Donovan.”
The housekeeper gave them an approving nod. “That’s all right, then, and about time! Your grandfather is very pleased. Now what would you like for your breakfasts?”
“Surprise us,” Ramsay said as he escorted Signy into the kitchen. After they sat down and the cook went to work, he whispered to Signy, “Do you think she actually had a message from the spirit of the old laird? I’ve always suspected she has a touch of the sight.”
Signy laughed, feeling as if today she could laugh at anything. “Better not to ask.”
He laughed with her, his expression as joyous as hers must be. She said, “I’m trying to remember why I resisted this inevitability so strongly.”
“You wanted to travel and see something other than Thorsay,” he reminded her.
“Oh. That’s true.” She frowned, some of her glow fading.
“You forgot something.” He laid his hand over hers in the middle of the table. “We can traveltogether. Which has some considerable advantages over traveling alone.”
“I suppose it does.” She turned her hand under his so she could clasp his fingers, realizing that she must have a wide daft smile on her face. “In fact, I’m sure it does.”
He laughed and removed his hand, since the teapot and cups were arriving. If this is a honeymoon, Signy thought, I want it to last forever.
* * *
The next days were glorious. Even the weather cooperated and it only rained at night. Mornings started with lovemaking and laughter. After breakfast Signy would check the progress of the work on Sea Cottage. That was almost done, but she no longer thought of moving back in. She and Kai discussed the cottage and decided they would leave it as her studio and a private place for them to be alone. She supposed that if she and Kai had a fight, she could flounce to the cottage and spend the night there, but so far, they were amazingly disinclined to fight.
After visiting the cottage, she would continue up the cliff path to the excavations, where she made meticulous drawings of their finds as well as keeping a casual eye on the work.
Though she did everything required to record the antiquities at Fiona Brae, it was the Viking ship that enthralled her. The work crew had created another awning-covered space on that site for her to work in. She loved making the drawings, but she couldn’t resist working on the ship itself, removing soil while, she admitted privately, hoping to find something rare and wonderful.
Feeling slightly foolish, she’d started bringing her dirk with her in the case that held her drawing supplies. There had been no thefts from the two sites yet, but word of the Viking ship had got out, and the possibility of finding some kind of treasure might bring out the greedy.
Ramsay would have worked on the ship full time if he could, but as the laird, there were demands on him to be somewhere else. Two laborers from the Swenson crew worked on the ship regularly, and sometimes Peter Swenson himself joined in. A long-buried Viking ship called to Thorsayian blood far more than stone huts did.
Signy found their first treasure one day when the workers were having lunch with their friends at the Fiona Brae site. Needing a good stretch, Signy had taken her trowel and brush to the ship.
To avoid pressure on the delicate old wood, the first step in the excavation had been to build a solid scaffolding a few inches away from the gunwales of the old galley. That made it unnecessary to step on the deck directly, since doing so would be dangerous to both the ship and anyone who stood on it.
The deck of the exposed half of the galley had now been cleared, and excitement was rising as they anticipated interesting finds. Today Signy concentrated on a spot amidships. The day before she’d sensed that the deck felt different in this place, so she cleared the area more thoroughly.
Aha! As she used her brush, fine lines appeared, proving to be a rectangle. She pulled out her pocketknife and drew the point along the faint lines until they were clear, then tried to delicately pry up the rectangular square of decking.
To her shock it lifted, revealing a cavity about a foot deep. A metal box sat in the middle with fine sand collected around it. Hands shaking, she lifted the box from its resting place.
“What have you there?” Ramsay’s voice called as he came around the point from Fiona Brae.
“Come and see!” Signy said, so excited she thought her voice might squeak. She carried the heavy box to her worktable. It took the two of them prying together to open the box without causing damage.
