Elaina looked at her for a moment longer before reaching for her hand. “And yers will be too, one day.”
Catriona blinked. “Mine?”
“Aye,” Elaina said, smiling now with a quiet certainty. “Yer time will come, too.”
To her delight, Catriona did not answer with one of her usual quick, teasing replies. Instead, she looked unexpectedly moved, her mouth curving into a smile at once bright and a little fragile.
“Ye sound very certain.”
“I am.”
“That is fortunate,” Catriona said, recovering some of her usual spirits. “Fer I confess, I had begun tae suspect that I should be obliged tae arrange everyone else’s happiness before securing any of me own.”
Elaina laughed softly, then squeezed her hand. “Ye have certainly done very well with mine.”
At that, Catriona’s expression grew tender again.
“Thank ye,” Elaina said, more quietly now. “Fer all of it. Fer welcoming me, fer standing by me, fer being… such a good sister tae me.”
It was a simple thing to say, but the words seemed to strike Catriona deeply. She drew a breath, then flung her arms around Elaina without the least regard for carefully arranged fabric.
“Oh, ye must nae say such things when I have spent so much effort preserving me composure,” she declared, though her voice was already thick with feeling.
Elaina embraced her in return, smiling against her shoulder.
When they parted, Elaina took both of Catriona’s hands in hers and looked at her with fond seriousness. “And I must congratulate ye.”
Catriona’s brows rose. “On what, pray?”
“On how much ye have learned.” Elaina’s gaze warmed. “Yer skill with healing has improved more than ye admit. Soon we shall have tae begin practicing properly thegither.”
Catriona let out a delighted laugh. “Dae ye mean it?”
“I dae. And perhaps, once there is peace enough fer it, we may even make a few visits beyond the castle. There are villages nae far off where two diligent healers might be of use.” She tipped her head very slightly. “If yer braither allows it.”
Catriona burst into outright laughter. “Me braither? Allow it? Me dear Elaina, when has Duncan Grant ever successfully denied either of us anything of consequence?”
“Nae often, I grant,” Elaina laughed.
“And certainly nae when we join forces.” Catriona gave her a knowing look. “He is doomed.”
Elaina smiled, but even as she did so, she felt another wave of tenderness pass through her, not merely for Catriona, but for the life that awaited her beyond this morning.
It would not be perfect. No life ever was. There would be sorrow still, and fear at times, and duties she had yet to understand fully. But it would be real, and chosen, and shared with those she loved. That, she thought, was enough to make even the simplest happiness feel extraordinary.
A knock sounded then at the door, discreet but unmistakably timed. One of the maids entered to say that all was ready below.
Catriona clapped her hands once, unable to contain herself. “At last!”
Elaina’s heart quickened.
She moved toward the door, then paused and looked once more around the room that had sheltered her through so much uncertainty. It seemed strange that she should leave it now not as a fugitive, nor as a guest, nor as a woman still deciding whether to stay, but as one entirely certain of where she belonged.
Catriona, standing beside her, slipped her arm through Elaina’s with a smile radiant enough to light the whole chamber.
“Come,” she urged lovingly. “Yer bridegroom has been made tae wait long enough.”
And Elaina, smiling too, went with her. They walked together through the corridor in a hush that felt unlike any other silence Elaina had ever known. It was a silence made sacred by expectation.
