Thalia’s jaw dropped at the question, and Ava’s face reddened with embarrassment.
“I ken it is unpleasant, given who is to be yer husband,” Emma continued quickly, waving her hands as if she wished she were speaking of anything else. “I just wanted to ask, so ye can be prepared. It is quite a lot even in the best of circumstances, and?—”
“Emma, please!” Ava cried, dropping her face in her hands. “I daenae wish to have this conversation with our maither present!”
Olivia chuckled as she began to pin up the braids. Thalia, too, couldn’t help but laugh at the scene in front of her. Even before she had been with Finlay, she wasn’t completely in the dark about what happened between a husband and wife.
“I am a healer,” she pointed out. “I have helped deliver bairns. I helped deliver Ava’s new bairn! Ye think I daenae ken how they are conceived?”
“Aye, aye, aye!” Emma cried, her face turning pink. “I only wanted to make sure!”
Thalia laughed again as her sisters both groaned in humiliation. It was enough that she could almost forget about what was coming soon… until a knock sounded at the door.
“Come in!” she called, stifling her giggles.
Her uncle entered, his eyebrows flying up in surprise at their merriment.
“What on earth is going on in here?” Archibald asked. “I expected to find ye all in a more somber mood.”
Thalia’s mood soured instantly as she remembered what was about to happen. She looked down at her hands, which were clenched in her lap.
Olivia gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve finished, if ye’d like to take a look.”
Thalia stood, going back to the mirror. Her mother had arranged her hair into a beautiful style. Her hair had been sectioned off into multiple braids and pinned up so that they twisted up into a crown above her head. She would have looked lovely, if not for the sadness that had crept into her expression.
“Ye look beautiful,” Emma complimented, coming up to stand beside her.
“Aye, ye do,” Ava agreed, taking up the spot on Thalia’s other side.
Despite the compliments, Thalia knew that they did not express their true feelings.
Their mother stood behind them, and Thalia could see all of their faces in the mirror as well as her own. On her own face, she saw Ava’s cheekbones, Emma’s eyes, and their mother’s lips.
Seeing them all together, she was reminded of how she always carried pieces of them with her. Knowing that gave her strength and a burst of courage.
“Is it time then, Uncle?” she asked.
Archibald nodded. “I have been sent to collect ye, so I can give ye away.”
Emma and Ava hugged her tightly, pressing their faces together as if they never wanted to let her go.
Thalia sighed and tore herself away from the embrace. She took the elbow her uncle offered her, and they walked out of the room. The rest of her family followed behind, and when they stepped into the hallway, they found a MacGibbon guard waiting to escort them to the ceremony.
Archibald placed his free hand sympathetically over hers as they walked. “I ken that this is the last thing ye want to do, but I want to tell ye how proud I am of ye. For choosin’ this over a war.”
Thalia said nothing. Her earlier joy was forgotten as the walls of her future began closing in on her. She had not truly had a choice. Of course, she could have tried to run again, but thatwould have only ended in disaster, as it had the first time. It would only make matters worse for her and her family.
“I want ye to ken,” Archibald continued. “That everythin’ I’ve done, I’ve done believin’ it would be the best thing for the clan.”
“I ken,” Thalia acknowledged.
She trusted that now. Even if she didn’t agree with his decisions, he only ever wanted what was best.
“I am sorry, me niece,” he said.
She sighed as they approached the courtyard. “‘Tis fine. Let us get this over with.”
Clan MacGibbon’s red banners hung on the walls surrounding the courtyard. A crowd had gathered and was waiting for the ceremony to begin. There were people from Clan MacFinn and Clan MacGibbon, yet none of the MacFinns looked as pleased about this union as they had been previously. Hostility hung thick in the air. If anything went wrong, it would not be met well by this crowd.
