Cam glanced around at Mary, who stood by the bed watching him deal with her sister and laughing at him. Nay, not out loud, but amusement shone from her eyes.
“I’ll check with the stable master in the morning. Thank ye, Annie. Good night.” Cam closed the door.
Annie immediately knocked and forced him to open it again. “Aye?”
“Good night to ye both, too.” She gave Mary a bright grin and went on her way down the hall.
Cam closed the door and put the bar across it. “Nay more interruptions, Mary my love.”
She went into his arms. “They’ve had their fun, so I think no’.”
The next day,while the men were out of the keep stripping the branches and bark from the tree Cam and Paton had chosen, preparing it for the hearth, Mary and some of the lasses ventured out to collect evergreen boughs for the great hall. By the time they finished, evening approached and Mary checked with Cook to ensure supper would be ready when the men returned. Before long, the keep’s heavy door swung open. A dozen men waited there, Paton, Iain and Kenneth included, carrying the huge log between them on their shoulders, Cam at the fore.
“Clear the way for the Yule log,” Cameron called out. “’Tis here to bring good luck into the keep for the new year!”
Mary smiled. Cameron had such a way of making everything better. Her da had simply seen it carried in and placed into the hearth. Cam’s announcement made it more of an event.
Everyone shifted to the walls, pushing aside any remaining benches between the door and the hearth. Tables had alreadybeen pushed back, and people lined the path toward the hearth, smiling in anticipation.
In contrast, the men carried the log between them with solemn ceremony. Once they laid the biggest end of it in place on glowing coals, Kenneth turned and gave Cat a wink, and Iain smiled at Annie. Cameron beckoned to the healer, who anointed the log with a concoction made of wine and herbs that would scent the hall and help the log catch fire. The rest of the log extended out onto the hearthstone and beyond that onto the great hall’s stone floor where rushes had been swept well clear. Each day, the log would be pushed farther into the fire as it burned away.
Before the evening meal, once the tables and benches had been moved back into place, and to the cheers of the assembled clan and guests, some of the clan’s older children adorned the log with pinecones, holly berries, and slices of dried apples, gifts to any deities that might grant the clan good luck. Then, to help the log catch fire, men piled kindling on the coals on either side of it.
When all was ready, Mary’s heart beat faster as she contemplated the role she had assumed for the clan. It was the laird’s responsibility to light the Yule log, and by doing so, to bring good fortune for the coming year. Somehow, this simple celebration, made with solemnity, but also with great joy and hope, brought her role home to her in a way that gave her chills as nothing else had done since her father's passing. She took a breath, glanced at Cameron for strength, and received it from his encouraging smile, then lit a torch made from the remains of last year’s Yule log in the coals of the hearth fire. She touched it to the head of this year’s log where the healer’s wine mixture flared up, then lit the kindling, and finally, laid the torch on the now-burning Yule log. “May by this act the gods of Yule bring joy, peace, and prosperity to our clans now and for the next year,till we celebrate again,” she said, and felt a sense of peace and satisfaction fill her.
“’Tis perfect!” Cat exclaimed.
Cameron moved behind Mary, wrapped his arms around her, and for a moment, rested his chin on her head. “Well done, lass,” he whispered into her hair.
“Ye, too, my love,” she told him, nodding at the cheerful blaze in the hearth. “Ye chose well.” Mary agreed with her youngest sister’s sentiment. Cam had chosen a grand log that would carry them through the twelve days of Yuletide, with some left for next year’s torch.
Cameron turned her to look at him. “I did, indeed, Mary my love, when I chose ye.” In front of the entire clan, he bent his head and kissed her.
Lost in the joy of the moment, Mary kissed him back.
Later, while they ate supper, she confided, “I hope last year’s luck doesna carry over from its torch.”
“Nay? Other than me nearly dying, and ye losing yer da, oh, and the Grant conspiracy to take over Rose, I thought ’twas a great year.” At Mary’s disbelieving frown, he added, “After all, I won ye, and we are wed, Mary my love. ’Twas a year I will remember with joy till my dying day.”
“Ye make a good point,” Mary conceded with a smile and a kiss for his reminder to look on the bright side. “I hope ye have a very long memory.”
After supper, while Cameron dealt with a summons from the stable master, Mary met with Cook, then headed to their chamber. Her husband hadn’t returned yet, so she readied herself for bed, already thinking ahead to what she planned for the next day. She fell asleep mid-list and woke to the sun shining through gaps around the edges of the window covers.
Cameron still lay beside her.
“’Tis early yet, Mary my love,” he told her, taking her hand in his. “Ye needna get up right away.”
“What about ye?” She turned to him and ran a finger down his cheek, then cupped his chin.
Cam reached for her, and she went into his arms without another thought for what the day would bring. This man made her happier than she’d ever dreamed possible.
“I treasure every moment of our time together,” Cam told her.
“As I treasure ye.”
When Mary and Cam made their way downstairs, they heard that some of the women had headed out into the woods soon after sunup to collect mistletoe and holly. The lasses returned, laughing and chattering like birds with the first of their harvest as she and Cam finished breaking their fast, then headed out again. Other women brought out stores of ribbon and lace, and some came from their crofts bringing bread and cakes to add to what Cook could produce. A little later, the men went hunting while the women saw to decorating the great hall, laughing while they worked, some humming or singing. Mary and her sisters joined in, each taking on a different task to help the other lasses in the clan, but sharing pleased looks as they saw how much the clan seemed to be enjoying this time together.
“’Tis because of ye,” Annie confided softly at one point when she and Mary stood to the side, looking over the decorations going up in the great hall. “The change in everyone since ye and Cam took over is clear to me, even if ye dinna see it yet.”
