Chapter 4
“What?” Melissa quickly shut the door as everyone began to speak at once.
“Are you serious?” Avery asked, taken aback.
“That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard in me life! Ye cannae marry her.” Darragh’s voice was low, seething with rage as he looked at his friend.
“That’s the best news I’ve ever heard in my life!” Daphne jumped to her feet with newfound energy. “Both of my daughters married to lairds!”
Daniel watched Melissa’s face as she stared at him in disbelief. “You can’t mean that?” she finally asked when the others quieted.
“I do,” Daniel said before shrugging. “Nae pun intended.”
“We can’t possibly make a good match,” she began to protest. “We would be at each other’s throats day and night.”
“I dinnae see that ye have much of a choice, lass,’’ he said irritably, taken aback by her reluctance to accept his help. “Me own reputation can be saved, but yers will be salvaged as well if we say that we’ve been courting for a while.”
“He’s right,” Daphne said happily, walking over to him and looping her arm through his. “Everybody wins in the end.”
“Now, just a minute!” Darragh spoke up angrily again. “Daniel cannae marry Melissa!”
“And why nae?” Daniel challenged him, growing tired of all the effort he was putting in for a woman he hardly even liked.
“Because yer a rake!” Darragh blurted out, not caring about how his friend would feel. “Everybody kens that yer unlikely to settle down an’ take a wife,” he said out of exasperation more than anything else.
“An’ what if Melissa is the one to change me?” Daniel cocked his head to the side in a challenge.
Everyone looked at him in astonishment.
“It’s nae the truth,” he added quickly when he glimpsed the look of shock on Melissa’s face. “But I’d like to think I could make people believe I could change.”
Darragh rolled his eyes and shook his head, a trait that he and his sister-in-law seemed to share wherever he was concerned.
All eyes turned toward Melissa to see what she would say.
“It’s up to you, dear,” Daphne said to her youngest daughter with an encouraging nod. “It’s your future that is at stake here, I won’t force you either way.”
Daniel’s annoyance grew as he watched Melissa hesitate. She was biting her lower lip as she weighed her options. He had half a mind to withdraw his offer and cut his losses.
“I’ll do it,” she eventually said, surprising even him. “I’ll become Daniel’s wife for the sake of both of our reputations.” She let out a breath as she finished.
“Ye dinnae have to make it sound like yer doing me a favor,” Daniel grumbled, regretting his own decision.
“Are ye sure, lass?” Darragh asked her with grave concern, ignoring the way his friend grumbled and shook his head.
“Yes,” Melissa said with a nod. “I will go upstairs at once and change my gown. The announcement can be made before all of the guests depart.”
Melissa gulped as she straightened the fabric of her dark blue dress. Her mother and sister had helped her fix her hair before she was ready to go downstairs.
“Are you sure you wish to go ahead with this?” Avery asked her gently as she arranged the final strands of her hair into a bun.
“Yes,” Melissa replied confidently and stood, surveying the final effect in the floor-length mirror of her room. “I’m determined to do this properly now that it’s been decided.” She plastered a nervous smile on her lips. “How do I look?” She raised her arms on either side and spun.
“Absolutely stunning,” Daphne said, giving her daughter’s dress the final once over.
“There’s just one more adjustment right here.
” She bent over double and folded a piece of fabric on the skirt until it met her standards.
“There, now everything is in place,” she said triumphantly and left the room.
“Some things will never change.” Avery laughed as she watched their mother leave the room.
“What do you think?” Melissa turned toward her sister.
“You look like a woman on the brink of making a very big life decision,” Avery said with a sigh.
“Thank you, I guess,” Melissa responded nervously, tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.
“And you look as beautiful as ever.” Avery leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her sister’s forehead. “You are going to make an absolutely stunning bride, even if the two of you don’t get along.”
“Well…” Melissa let out a breath. “You did say you would like the two of us to try and get along.”
“This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Avery shook her head. “But it’s too late for all of that now. Come, your audience awaits.”
Daniel took a deep breath as his future bride descended the stairs.
She looked lovelier than he’d ever seen her before.
He wasn’t sure if it was the ale he had chugged to work up his courage, or the fact that she was about to become his betrothed, but his heart beat a little faster as she descended the stairs.
A hushed silence fell over the room as Darragh climbed the stairs and met Melissa halfway down, signaling for Daniel to join them both. Every eye in the room followed his path as he walked toward his fate. Some appeared judgmental while others seemed more curious than anything else.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Darragh began as he addressed all of the guests that had gathered to hear an explanation of what they had seen earlier in the evening. “I’m sure all of ye are curious to hear what happened earlier this evening.”
A low susurration erupted through the crowd as curious glances were thrown at Daniel.
Darragh waited for everyone to stop talking again before carrying on. “I’m sorry to say that we, as a family, have been keeping a great secret from ye all.”
Daniel wondered where his friend was going with his speech as he waited with bated breath along with the crowd.
“The truth is that Daniel an’ Melissa have been handfasted for quite some time now.”
The crowd erupted with great whoops of cheer and surprise as a ripple of relief swept over the room.
“What exactly is handfasting?” Daniel heard Melissa whispering to Darragh as the guests took their time exchanging merriment of the good news.
“I’ll explain in more detail later,” Darragh whispered back to her. “It’s basically an unofficial wedding agreement between two people that dinnae wish to wait.”
“Nice call,” Daniel whispered to him from the corner of his mouth.
“Thanks,” Darragh whispered back before smiling at his guests. “I personally apologize if anyone was offended by our secrecy. We wanted to give the couple as much time as they needed to change their minds.”
Another round of whispers accompanied by nods erupted from the crowd as people glanced at Daniel. A few words such as ‘rake’ and ‘surprised’ floated up to Daniel’s ears.
“I am pleased to announce that the couple is finally ready to have an official wedding, an’ yer all invited back here for the feast in five days’ time!”
“Five days?” Daniel whispered again in annoyance as the crowd erupted into a roaring round of applause that drowned everything else out.
“Dae ye want everyone to believe our story or nae?” Darragh hissed through his teeth before grabbing each of their hands and joining them together in front of his chest. “Let the Ceilidh continue with the happy couple having a dance!”
Daniel and Melissa both took a deep breath as they descended the stairs, hand in hand, his fingers twitched in hers, unaccustomed to the physical interaction.
They both seemed apprehensive at the thought of having to spend the rest of their lives together.
In no less than five days, they would become husband and wife.