Chapter 6 #2
Now, Mairi opened the little pouch and pulled out a strand of perfectly matched, creamy-colored pearls.
“Where did those come from?” Elspeth asked, astonished. “I’ve never seen them before.”
“You wouldn’t have, dear heart. They belonged to Mama and they’ve been lost for a long time.”
“Lost?”
“I took them from her jewelry box after she died because she loved them so much and I needed something of hers to hold. I slept with them beneath my pillow for months. Along about when Papa began to court again, he asked me if I’d seen them.
I guessed he meant to give them as a gift to the next Mrs McGregor.
So of course I lied and said I had no idea where they were.
I kept them hidden all these years.” Mairi squeezed Elspeth’s shoulders.
“Until today. Because Mama would have wanted you to have them.”
Elspeth was practically in tears at the story. “But Mairi, you love them.”
“Bah. I was their caretaker, and now I give them to you, so one day you can give them to your daughter. It’s not as if the family line will continue through me.”
Mairi fastened the pearls on, tying them with the silk ribbon at the ends. It was a short strand that nestled about Elspeth’s neck. She reached up to touch one of the silky smooth globes.
“They’re so beautiful,” Elspeth said softly.
“Father won’t like it, but he won’t see till you’re in public, so he won’t say anything,” Mairi muttered.
Averill and her mother returned then. Averill’s expression was sullen, so whatever had been discussed wasn’t about how pretty she looked today.
Finally, some secret signal was passed, and it was time for Elspeth to walk down the aisle and become a bride.
Averill and Mairi hurried out to take their seats, with Mairi giving her a hug and kiss before she went.
“Best wishes, Pest. And if he makes you miserable, say the word and I’ll curse him as strongly as any weird sister did upon a blasted heath. ”
“Oh, I do love you, Mairi,” Elspeth whispered back.
Her stepmother remained a few moments to adjust Elspeth’s gown and tuck her hair into its proper place.
“These pearls are lovely—did you just put them on?” she asked curiously.
“It was a surprise from Mairi,” Elspeth said.
“Hmm. She is full of surprises, isn’t she.
” Susan McGregor was unfailingly proper, but also cold, and Elspeth had never felt that her stepmother liked her much.
But now she said, “You have always done what has been asked of you, Elspeth.” The words had the feeling of praise, which was uncommon enough that Elspeth picked up her ears.
“I intend to keep doing so,” she said.
“You deserve a good husband and a good life. I will pray that you shall have both, since your own mother is not here to do so.” Her stepmother gave her an awkward kiss on her cheek and hurried away, leaving Elspeth in a rather confused state.
But she knew exactly what she had to do next, which was to put one foot in front of the other, and proceeded down the narrow passageway and into the nave of the church where her future lay.
She did so, hearing the familiar wedding hymn sung by a dutiful but indifferent choir.
She walked down the center aisle in a perfectly straight line.
She saw her father and smiled at him, only to see that his face had gone white and his lips were pinched.
His gaze was locked on her neck, and she realized that Mairi was entirely correct about his reaction to the pearls.
After that, she kept her eyes on the floor about five feet in front of her so that she wouldn’t suddenly trip or embarrass herself in front of her groom. But when she came to the end of the aisle and saw the dais in front of her, she looked up.
Aside from the minister, there was only one man standing in front of her. Part of Elspeth wondered if she would recognize him in the moment. Had she seen him at some event or on the street? Maybe, even if he’d been to reticent to court her face-to-face.
But she would have remembered if she’d seen this man before, because he was unforgettable.
Her first impression was that he was massive.
He was well over six feet tall; Elspeth was five and half.
His size was not just height, but also breadth, particularly his shoulders and chest, which made him dominate the room.
His legs were also big, though only in the sense that they fit the rest of him.
He wasn’t portly at all, and if anything, he actually looked somewhat lean, if such a thing were possible for a man so large.
It was a wonder, Elspeth thought suddenly, that he’d managed to live through a war, considering what a big target he made.
But then she realized that he’d been close to a different fate.
He had turned toward her fully by that point.
She beheld a face that had been through some ordeal that she couldn’t even imagine.
The scarring was most prominent on the right side of his face, and the skin had been affected in such a way that his right eyelid was permanently pulled down a bit, as if he was constantly about to squint.
The same scar that pulled at the eyelid also crossed his cheekbone and continued down toward his jaw.
The right side of his mouth was also pulled out of alignment.
The result was that while he seemed to be able to laugh or smile or scowl or do anything the face would normally do on his left side, the right side did not follow to the same degree.
He was entirely clean shaven, perhaps because the scarring meant that it would be impossible to grow facial hair with any sort of even result.
As Elspeth always liked the look of clean-shaven men, this was no disappointment at all.
She looked directly into his russet brown eyes then, and saw a familiar expression.
It was an awareness that almost bordered on panic, and she recognized it because it was the expression she saw in the mirror every time she looked at it this morning.
He was just as nervous as she was, and that knowledge warmed her heart considerably.
She had worried that he would be cold and not really want Elspeth, but rather had selected her for some quality that was merely convenient. That was a logical concern, considering his courtship by proxy.
But, she reasoned, if he was nervous, that meant he cared.
And if he cared about the situation, that meant he wanted it to be a success, just as she did.
And now that she saw that he had suffered in a way that left him visibly damaged, she could understand why he had elected to seek Elspeth’s hand through such unorthodox means.
He’d been concerned that she would be turned away by a poor first impression, and that would make all of the courtship more difficult and painful for him.
But Elspeth was determined that she wouldn’t disappoint him at this stage, for it was one of her most dearly held principles that she should never disappoint anyone if it was in her power to please them.
Glad that she now had the answer to her groom’s reticence, Elspeth smiled at him and stepped up onto the dais, even as she stretched out one hand so he could take it.
She said softly, “Hello, I’m Elspeth. It’s such a lovely day, and now that we have finally met, I believe it is time for us to marry.”