His nod a solemn one that matched his expression, his darkened eyes held hers as he wound his arm protectively around her waist.
“Aye, lass. You’ve no home in England so I will provide one for you here with me. What say you?”
She stared at him open-mouthed, and it seemed the king and Roger were both holding their breath until she slowly nodded, for what other choice was there?
“Is that an ‘Aye,’ Lady Julianna?”
Somehow she broke her gaze from Roger’s and murmured, “Yes,” to the king’s query, while Roger’s arm tightened around her.
“Good, then the matter is settled,” came King Robert’s relieved-sounded pronouncement. “A wedding it will be.”
CHAPTER9
Roger kept his gaze riveted upon the entrance to the small candlelit chapel, but still Julianna hadn’t appeared.
By God, where was she? He had never been an impatient man, but now he could not help wondering if mayhap she had changed her mind about the wedding.
Better than an hour had passed since King Robert had interrupted the evening meal attended by courtiers and their wives, visiting warriors summoned to Dumbarton, and other members of his retinue to announce a marriage ceremony would take place that very night.
“Lady Julianna de Vescy has agreed tae wed Laird Roger Douglas of north Lanarkshire and I will hear no one speak against it.”
The sternness of the king’s voice had not surprised Roger, for it was no commonplace thing for a highborn Englishwoman to marry a Scots Highlander.
In truth, he could not recall such an event in recent memory. The great hall had gone from stunned silence to whispered asides all around until King Robert had grimly shared next what had befallen his delegation to York.
That news had elicited outraged outbursts and roof-raising curses that made Julianna shrink against Roger just outside the door to the antechamber, though King Robert’s raised voice had quelled the melee.
“The lass had no part in the attack, so enough! We’ll have our vengeance one day, I promise you, but tonight we prepare for a wedding. Ladies, come forward and see that she’s made ready for the ceremony as befitting a bride.”
Almost at once, Julianna had been encircled by obliging women who had whisked her away. Roger had been surrounded, too, by warriors he knew, including Gabriel MacLachlan, the renowned earl of Argyll and a longtime friend who had kindly loaned Julianna his own breacan.
“Och, man, you stink!”
Aye, truly spoken by Gabriel as Roger hadn’t enjoyed a decent bath since leaving Douglas Castle twelve days ago. Amid laughter and claps on the back, Roger had been escorted to the bathing house at the far end of the bailey, where he had clenched his teeth in discomfort when removing his armor, though it wasn’t as bad as he would have imagined.
Julianna had been right; the thick leather had served as well as any bandages and his bruised ribs were mending, thankfully, Roger recounting to Gabriel and the others what had taken place during the past week.
The men’s expressions had gone from fury again at the details of the sudden attack in Cumberland to consternation that Julianna had nearly been assaulted in the woods to quietly thoughtful as Roger shared what the king had said about not returning her to England.
“You’re doing a good and honorable thing, Douglas,” Gabriel had spoken up, the other men nodding in agreement. “We’ve known the grief you bear for Sylvia, but now you have a chance tae start again with your new bride—though I pray your kinsmen willna hold it against her that she’s English. The lass is a healer, you say?”
“Aye, and brave as well. I wouldna be standing here if not for her—och, let me get dressed for my wedding, the lot of you!”
Now Roger stood scrubbed, shaved, and wearing a borrowed dark blue tunic at the front of the chapel that had barely enough room for the twenty or so witnesses, King Robert at his right near the altar.
“Are you ready, Douglas? You astonished me, I must say, when you offered tae take the lass as your bride.”
Roger nodded, though he was still stunned somewhat himself to have offered her marriage, but what else could he have done? Leave Julianna alone in the world to fend for herself? No home, no family? His thoughts flew unbidden to Sylvia…his beautiful wife’s last whispered words to him gripping him like a pain over his heart.
“Dinna live without love, Roger. Find a kindhearted lass tae help you raise our bairns and be happy…”
Roger exhaled deeply and did his best to suppress the sadness welling up inside him, in truth, an emotion he had rarely felt since first seeing Julianna.
He didn’t love her. How could he when his heart had belonged to one woman for so long? Yet he felt something profound for her and it wasn’t pity. He could not forget the look she had given him when he’d said he would take her for his bride, sheer amazement tinged with a glimmer of relief…
“Och, man, you’ve won for yourself the fairest lass in all England,” came King Robert’s low aside as a rumble went up from the witnesses, Roger turning his head to see Julianna standing on the threshold of the chapel.
His breath caught, his heart thudding hard.
