Colin drank deeply of the dark, spicy wine. With all this nonsense of Abby’s insistence on accompanying him out of the way, he could relax and enjoy his evening with his family.
“Like marriage makes any more sense to you than it does to me? That’s ridiculous.” Abby lifted her cup but immediately set it back down again, untouched. “You’re only grabbing onto that excuse because you know there’s no way we have time to marry before you go. You’re determined to head out first thing in the morning and that doesn’t leave any time for a wedding.”
“That’s not exactly true,” Ellie piped up. “A formal church wedding would take longer, true, but technically, all you have to do is declare your intent to be husband and wife in the present tense in front of witnesses and that’s it, you’re married. It’s not like back in your—” She bit off the rest of what she was about to say, glancing around the room guiltily. “It’s not like where you come from.”
Colin glared at his sister-in-law. The woman had the uncanny ability to endlessly irritate him.
Abby tapped her fingernails rapidly against the wood of the table before lifting her head to glare at him. “You are not leaving me behind when you ride out of here tomorrow. So, if that’s what it takes, fine. It’s not like it means anything, anyway, right? What do I care?” Abby pushed back her chair, rose to her feet, and called out in a loud, clear voice, “I, Abigail Gwendolyn Porter, take this man, Colin MacAlister, as my husband. Right here, right now, right in front of all of you guys as our witnesses. Your turn.”
The shock of her words sent wine surging upward rather than down his throat, burning the sensitive pathway into his nose and forcing him into a fit of coughing.
The woman was absolutely without sense of any kind.
“By the Fates! What do you think yer doing?” he at last managed to ask when he’d caught his breath.
“Getting married so I can go with you. Your turn. Go ahead. Do your little speech thing or I do my little wish thing.”
She was serious. The witless woman was absolutely serious. Rather than saving himself with his earlier comments, he’d trapped himself like a greedy fish in a net. Any refusal on his part, especially after that earlier performance with which he’d been so pleased, would bring down the wrath of his entire family and likely send him reeling back through time.
“If I do this, do I have yer oath no to wish us back before I’ve done what I need to do here?”
Her lips pressed together in a thin, straight line, even as her eyes narrowed. “Yes. I promise.”
There was only one thing he could do now.
“I take this woman to be my wife.”
“As,” Ellie corrected, a grin splitting her face as she looked from him to her husband, Caden, and back again. “As my wife.To beis future tense and doesn’t work for this.”
“I take this womanasmy wife,” he corrected, fighting the urge to grind his teeth.
Clearly, none of the women in this family had the good sense they were born with.
“It is done,” Blane announced, pushing back his own chair and lifting his tankard. “To our kinsman’s marriage. To the new husband and wife.”
“Okay, then. Good. Done.” Abby spoke quietly as if even she was a bit shocked. Her hands busily worried at the carving on the back of her chair and she nodded her head repeatedly. “Okay. I guess I’d better go get all my things ready for our little trip.”
With that, his new wife made her exit as his family continued to toast his marriage.
Wife. Just thinking the word made him grateful he was seated, so sure he felt at the moment his legs would not support him. What had he done?
He’d long ago given up any idea of ever marrying after the Faerie Queen had told him he’d not find his Soulmate in this lifetime, so it wasn’t as if he sacrificed some future chance at happiness by wedding Abby. And it certainly wasn’t that marriage to a woman like her would be a burden. Far from it. She was beautiful, intelligent, and, as he could attest from personal experience, exceptionally desirable. For a fact, he could imagine no one he’d rather be married to, and therein lay his problem.
How could he allow any woman he cared for that much to embark on the dangerous journey he envisioned for himself?
He had to think of some way to convince her not to go with him.
“Perhaps I can persuade her to return to her own time alone,” he muttered into his cup, fervently wishing it was filled with the Faerie Nectar he’d heard so much about during his stay in Wyddecol.
“And why, in the name of all that’s holy, would you think to do such a foolish thing?”
His mother’s question startled him. Surely even she could see the reason behind his words.
“Because it is for the best for everyone.”
Instead of acknowledging what he saw as the truth, she rolled her eyes and sighed in the way only his mother could do.
“She’s yer wife now, Colin. The woman yer to spend yer life with. Why would you want to send her away?”
