The answer made something in her settle rather comfortably.
Ava let out a breath and then froze.
Ciaran looked down at her. “What?”
Her eyes widened. “Our marriage.”
He went still.
“It is over,” she gasped. “The annulment.”
For one second, they only stared at each other. Then Ciaran’s mouth curved for the first time since he had entered the room. “Then we shall get married again.”
Ava’s breath caught.
“This time,” he added, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face, “there will be nay blood on yer gown. And ye had better nae see me the night before, wife, or whatever ye are calling yerself until then.”
Ava laughed. A genuine laugh this time, soft and helpless and full of the relief she had thought she might never feel again.
“Ye certainly have a way with words, do ye nae?”
“That I do.Wife.”
Something about the way he said it made her laugh again.
He kissed her once more, smiling against her mouth.
EPILOGUE
ONE MONTH LATER
Ava stood stillwhile Isobel needlessly straightened the fall of her veil for what must have been the fourth time.
“If ye touch it again, I shall look as though I have been wrestled into it,” she complained.
Isobel grinned and stepped back at last. “I am only making sure ye are perfect.”
“Too late. I was born so.”
Ava’s sister, Millie, laughed from near the bed, where she had been pretending to fold a ribbon for the better part of five minutes, only to watch them both. “She is insufferable already.”
“She is a bride,” Isobel said. “They are all dreadful on their wedding day.”
Ava smiled despite herself and looked around the room.
One month ago, she would have thought herself incapable of standing here in white again with a calm heart and steady hands. Now, the steadiness was real. Her pulse was quick, but it was the right sort of quick.
She did not feel haunted by the day or as though some shadow lurked just beyond the door. The room was full of women moving with purpose, laughter, and too many opinions over sleeves and flowers.
That alone felt like the purest form of bliss.
Millie crossed to her and adjusted the small bouquet in her hands. “There. Now ye look fit to make him lose his senses in church.”
“He never had many to begin with,” Ava snorted.
“That is true,” Isobel agreed. “Still, today shall finish the work.”
They all laughed again.
