Chapter 13
Thirteen
Two weeks later
Nora stood outside the kirk, her broken heart pounding in trepidation and pain. She still couldn’t believe that everyone was forcing her to do this.
Her parents.
Ryan.
Most of all, she couldn’t believe Ewan would do this to the two of them.
Damn him!
Her eyes widened at the involuntary curse. Nay. Not involuntary. She was furious with him. He deserved that and more for his callous actions.
How could he have tossed her aside so easily?
By now he was probably back at his cave, lying in a drunken stupor, oblivious to the fact that she had ever loved him.
That she would spend the rest of her life pining away for him.
And in a few minutes, she would be bound to Ryan for eternity.
She felt ill. Even more so at the thought of doing with Ryan what she had done with Ewan. Of Ryan touching her, loving her...
A tear fell down her face.
“Shh,” Catarina said from beside her as they waited for her father to lead her up to the kirk. She didn’t know why the gypsies had stayed with them for so long, but she was glad they had.
Lysander had been sent back to her father’s estate that rested on the border of England. Tomorrow, Catarina, Viktor and Bavel would leave as well.
She would be all alone as Ryan’s bride.
Her stomach shrank.
Catarina patted her arm. “Ewan will come for you, Nora. I know it.”
“Nay, Cat. He’s abandoned me. I meant nothing to him when compared with his honor. That is all that matters to him. I just hope it keeps him warm in his old age.”
Catarina gave her a knowing smile. “No real man would ever willingly let the woman he loves be touched by another. He will come for you.”
It was a nice thought, but Nora didn’t believe it for a minute.
Her father came forward to lead her to Ryan.
It was all she could do not to turn around and run, screaming, through the village.
She walked woodenly toward the crowd that was gathered here to see this living nightmare fulfilled.
Run, Nora, run.
Her father’s tight grip on her arm was the only thing that prevented it. “Don’t embarrass me, lass,” he whispered under his breath.
Nora kept her gaze forward. Ryan’s mother was weeping in happiness. His father looked rather aggravated. The two of them stood off to the side, waiting for the moment when she would become their daughter.
They still didn’t know how much money their son owed.
Ryan stood at the door with the priest, but he refused to meet her gaze. He glanced at anything other than her as if ashamed of what he’d done.
And well he should be.
They paused in front of the priest.
Nora locked her legs together, afraid she was going to faint before this could be done.
She trembled as her father passed her hand from his arm into Ryan’s hands.
Her father publicly renounced his ties to her and moved away from them. He went to stand next to her mother who watched on with misery burning bright on her beautiful face.
“I’m sorry about this, Nora,” Ryan whispered. “But I promise I’ll make you a good husband.”
Nora’s thoughts whirled at his words and at the memory they evoked.
My wife...
A momentary slice of happiness slashed through her. Could she have found her reprieve?
Oh please, let this work.
The priest began the ceremony to bind them...
“Do you, Eleanor ingen Alexander of Canmore take Ryan—”
“Wait!’ she said, her heart pounding in fear and excitement. “May I ask a question?”
“Nora,” her father’s voice boomed. “This isn’t the time for your curiosity.”
She flashed him an impatient scowl. “But ‘tis an important question.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Best let her have at the asking or we’ll have no peace from her tongue.”
She glared at him and fought down a sudden urge to kick his shin.
“Ask your question, lass,” the priest said charitably.
Drawing a deep breath, she spoke, “Can a woman marry one man while being handfasted to another?”
There was an audible intake of breaths at her question.
The priest frowned. “Why would you ask that?”
“Nora,” her mother said, her tone suspicious, “what are you saying?”
Nora squirmed a bit as she hoped this worked to her benefit. Ewan might not want her, but at least this would save her from being tied to Ryan.
“Well...Ewan told everyone that he was my husband while we were traveling.”
“Aye,” Catarina said as a smile broke across her face. “I heard the proclamation myself.”
“And we as well,” Viktor said, indicating him and Bavel. “There was a whole room of people who heard it.”
The roar of the shocked crowd became deafening.
Ryan’s father decried it as trickery.
“And where is this Ewan now?” the priest asked, having to shout to be heard over the cacophony.
Nora felt heat rush to her cheeks.
How did she tell the man that she had no idea?
“He’s in the back of the crowd, bleeding,” came a deep, rumbling English voice.
Nora couldn’t breathe as she recognized the voice.
It belonged to Sin MacAllister!
Shaking now, she searched the crowd to find him. There at the very rear of those gathered was one man who towered over all the others.
It was Ewan and he was flanked by his three brothers.
He elbowed Sin in the stomach for his announcement, then moved forward through the crowd that now parted like the Red Sea before Moses.
Ewan moved slowly, carefully.
Deliberately.
Nora wept at his approach. His face was pale and he had a fine sheet of perspiration on his brow.
It was obvious that he was in pain, but why?
Surely his injury had healed.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as he climbed the stairs to stand by her side.
His eyes danced with love as he took her hands into his and kissed each one in turn. “I’ve come to claim my wife, if she’ll agree to have a fool for her husband.”
Joy exploded through her. He had come!
Catarina had been right.
Ewan had come for her...
But why had he waited so long?
Why had he put her through such torment?
‘Twas cruel what he’d done and had he waited another few minutes, she might have found herself Lady MacAren.
That didn’t sit well with her.
In fact, it made her want to torment the man who had tortured her.
“Why did you wait so long to come?”
He brushed his finger down her cheek, raising chills all over her body. “The infection from my wound returned and I couldn’t.”
“He shouldn’t be here now,” Lochlan said as he stood at the foot of the stairs. “He’s still too weak to travel, but when he learned you were to marry Ryan, he refused to stay abed.”
Ewan tipped her chin up so that she had no choice but to look up at him and see the fire in his eyes that devoured her.
“Run away with me, Nora,” he breathed. “I’ll take you any place you want to go. England. France. Outremer. You name it and I’ll take you there.”
Tears fell down her cheeks his loving words. It was more than she could have asked for. “Any place?”
“Aye.”
“Then I wish to take you to bed...”
Shocked gasps filled the crowd.
“To heal!” she said irritably as she glared at them as a whole. She shook her head at them. “What good would he be if he dies of his wounds? Then I still end up married to Ryan. What good would that be?”
“I should be offended by that,” Ryan said as the crowd laughed. “But she’s said much worse to me than that over the years.”
He clapped Ewan on the back. “‘Tis just as well, I would have more than likely killed her within a year anyway, or run off with another. Peace be with the two of you, Ewan and Nora, and may the saints in their mercy bring early hearing loss to all the MacAllisters.”
Nora gaped at Ryan’s words.
“Nay,” Ewan said. “I want no deafness in my life to deprive me of the beauty of her voice.”
She smiled up at him, then threw herself into his arms.
Ewan staggered back and only Lochlan’s quick actions kept him from falling with her.“I’m sorry, Ewan,” she breathed. “I forgot.”
“I don’t mind.”
“So, do I need to retire from this?” the priest asked.
Ewan shook his head. “Nay, Father. You’ve a wedding to be about. I want no one to ever question my right to this lady again.”
“Ewan,” Lochlan growled. “You’ll pass out before it’s through.”
“Then toss some water on my face, prop me up and make sure I say ‘I do’ when I need to.”
Nora squeezed his hand as the priest began the ceremony.
Ewan listened to the priest while he stared in grateful relief at the woman before him.
He’d been terrified that they wouldn’t make it in time. His body throbbed and burned in protest, but he didn’t care.
Nora was his.
There was no way he would let her leave him. No way he would ever allow anyone else to come between them.
Luckily, he made it through the ceremony and mass, but Nora refused to partake of the feast that awaited them.
Instead she forced him up to her room and into her bed. Ewan sighed as he lay on the softness of her feather tick mattress and she fluttered about the room.
The walls of her room were painted soft pastels that were soothing and cheerful. Just like the lady herself.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Nora?”
Ewan recognized Catarina’s voice.
Nora went to answer it while he closed his eyes and inhaled the pillows underneath his head. Pillows that smelled of flowers and woman.
Nora’s scent.
It burned through his body, making him instantly hard for his wife.
He wife...
Even now he couldn’t believe it. How had he been so lucky as to have her stumble into his life?
She rejoined him on the bed.
“What did Cat want?”
She bit her lip, then held up the dress she’d worn the night at the inn. “She thought you might want me to dance for you tonight.”
Ewan forced himself up on his elbows as he raked a hot, needful stare over her body. “Aye, my love. I want you to dance for me tonight. But I’d rather you do it naked.”
Nora squeaked at his suggestion. “Why, Ewan MacAllister, you are an evil one, aren’t you?”
“To the bottom of my rotten and depraved soul, Nora. Now come here, wife, and let me make sure we consummate our union.”
She lifted the hem of her gown and stepped up into the bed. Leaning over him, she straddled his groin.
“Hmmm,” she said as she rubbed herself against his erection. “What have we here?”
Ewan cupped her face in his hands and pulled her to his lips for a scorching kiss.
He pulled back. “What we have here, my lady, is a bear who wants to be tamed. Know you someone with a stout enough heart to lead him home and suffer his dismal ways?”
She kissed him lightly on the lips. “Aye, my lord, I do. But having been brought home, is it possible for the bear to stay happily away from his cave?”
“Aye, it is. I want only you in my life, Nora.”
“Only me? What then should I do with our baby when it comes?”
Ewan couldn’t breathe as her words permeated his head. “What do you mean?”
“Well, ‘tis early yet, but I missed my flow. I think my bear may have a cub coming to follow in his father’s footsteps.”
Joy made him delirious. “When will you know for sure?”
“A few weeks.”
He pulled her on top of him, then groaned as her body contacted with his wound.
But he didn’t care.
His wife, nay, his heart, carried his child. This was the sweetest moment of his life. “I love you, Nora. With every fiber of my soul. I love you.”
She smiled at that. “And I love you too.”