Epilogue
The wedding was the most exciting event that had happened in the Kilmuir area in living memory.
Catriona was almost beside herself with excitement. She threw herself into the arrangements for the wedding, and Margot was happy to rely on her familiarity with what the villagers liked to eat and what kind of music they liked.
“Well, ye have done some o’ the dances already, milady,” she said as she brushed Margot’s hair. “So ye know the steps, an’ I can get ye the fiddlers an’ pipers. Oh, an’ my mammy is very keen tae let ye taste her clootie dumpling. Everybody will tell ye it is the best in the village!”
“Wonderful!” Margot said, clapping her hands. “Now, what is your favourite colour, Catriona?”
Catriona looked puzzled, but answered: “Any shade o’ blue, milady. But why?”
“Because I am sending you to the seamstress so that she can make you a dress for the wedding.”
Catriona was speechless for a moment, then she smiled, a huge beaming smile that lit up her whole face. “Thank ye, milady. Ye’ve made me so happy,” she cried.
Margot took her hand and squeezed it. “You deserve it, Catriona,” she said warmly.
Everyone in the village, all the tenants on the estate, and some local dignitaries had been invited. However, some of the more high-class and wealthy people who had been invited had turned down the invitation because Eileen was marrying a commoner.
When the first refusal arrived, Eileen laughed heartily.
“I knew this would happen,” she said to Margot.
“If that is how they feel, then so be it—I have no wish to know people like that anyway. Ronan is worth more than all of them put together, and as long as I have him, you and Callum, I need no one else. You are my family now.”
Margot squeezed her hand, smiling. “An extra sister is always welcome!” she said warmly.
Then Margot heard a familiar voice. “Good morning, ladies!”
As if Margot had conjured her up, Eliza stepped into the room with a tall, handsome man behind her.
Margot jumped up from her chair, rushed to the door and into her sister’s arms, hugging her tightly.
“Eliza!” she cried ecstatically. “I’m so glad to see you. I thought… Oh, god, you have no idea how relieved I am! How are you?”
“Oh, Margot, I am fine, and you look wonderful!” Eliza said, beaming. She turned and looked up into the amber eyes of the auburn-haired man behind her. “This is my husband, Laird Duncan Sinclair. He has been very anxious to meet you.”
The tall man stepped forward and smiled warmly at Margot. “I am pleased to meet you, Lady Margot,” he said. “I have heard a lot about you.”
“All good,” Eliza hastened to add with a twinkling smile.
Margot introduced them to Eileen, who excused herself quickly to leave them to themselves for a short while.
Margot ordered tea and sat down next to Eliza, then put her hand on the small round bump on her sister’s stomach. “How does it feel?” she asked, her eyes wide with wonder.
“It feels good most of the time,” Eliza replied, smiling. “Especially when the baby kicks, but it must have gone to sleep today.”
Margot laughed. “I am so happy for both of you,” she said.
She noticed that Duncan was standing behind Eliza’s seat with his hands on her shoulders. She knew that her sister, like herself, was now safe, and it warmed her heart.
Margot was proud of her cream satin dress, which had been made for her by a local seamstress, but a little nervous of showing it to Eliza, who was an artist in the realm of needlework.
However, Eliza took one look at the dress and beamed, immediately giving it her seal of approval. She was equally enthusiastic about Eileen’s, which was made of deep green velvet.
“Which flowers are you going to have in your bouquets?” she asked, as they waited in Margot’s chamber just before the ceremony.
“There are no flowers in winter,” Eileen replied sadly.
“No bouquets,” Margot confirmed.
Eliza smiled. “Maybe not those that grow in the earth,” she said. “But there are other kinds that grow from the hands.”
She produced a large basket inside which were two bouquets of silk roses, one crimson, one cream. She handed the bright red ones to Margot and the cream ones to Eileen, and stood back, looking at their astonished and delighted faces.
“You made these?” Eileen asked, gazing at the flowers in disbelief. They looked so much like real blossoms that she could hardly tell the difference.
Eliza nodded, smiling.
“She can sew anything,” Margot said proudly, and she moved forward to hug her sister. Eileen did the same and the three of them stood in a tight embrace for a full minute before Eliza drew away, smiling.
“Thank you, Eliza!” Eileen could hardly keep her eyes off her bouquet.
“You are so good to us, my lovely sister.” Margot looked lovingly into Eliza’s eyes.
“Thank you, but this is your day,” Eliza answered, laughing softly. “So is it not time you two were both married?”
The castle chapel was obviously not big enough to hold everyone, so only those closest to the brides and grooms and the servants from the castle were to attend the actual ceremony.
The villagers of Kilmuir were to join them in the Great Hall, the space outside it, and the courtyard for the wedding feast and dancing.
As the two brides descended the stairs from their chambers, holding hands, a huge cheer went up from the mass of people who had gathered to welcome them.
Ronan and Callum were already in the church, waiting for them at the altar and as they looked back to see their brides-to-be entering, both of their faces broke into wide smiles.
Ronan’s family was there too, his brothers, sisters and parents, all looking a little overwhelmed. Eileen and Margot made a point of greeting them as they walked down the aisle, before reaching out to take the hands of their respective husbands-to-be.
Margot looked up into Duncan’s eyes, which were shining with love as he gazed down at her, and the enormity of what she was about to do struck her for the first time. She was committing herself to this man for the rest of her life. Should she not be afraid?
And yet in the next few minutes, as she made the vows that would bind them together forever, she had no fear and no doubt. This was forever. And yet even that was not long enough for Margot to show Callum how much she loved him.
“Callum, do you vow to love, honour and keep Margot, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer for as long as you both shall live, till death do you part?” the minister asked.
“I do,” Callum replied, his eyes shining.
He smiled and turned to Margot, then asked, “Margot, do you vow to love, honour and keep Callum, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, for as long as you both shall live, till death do you part?”
“I do,” she replied, and a warm, loving smile spread across her face as Callum slipped the gold ring that had been his mother’s onto her finger.
At last the minister declared both couples husbands and wives. Callum immediately swept Margot off her feet and kissed her thoroughly before spinning her around in his arms, laughing for sheer joy.
“I love you, Lady Margot!” he cried. It was hardly the kind of dignified behaviour that belonged in a church, but no one cared.
When he put her down Eliza and Duncan came forward, then both the bridal couples shared congratulations with each other and their families and friends.
The feast was as riotous as they had expected, but the goodwill and joy were beyond their expectations, and Margot especially enjoyed being able to mingle with and chat to the common people of the village.
They had softened towards her since she picked up a few words of the Scots language, and although they laughed at her clumsy efforts, it was all done in the best of humour.
Callum paused the festivities to stand on one of the tables and hold up his glass of ale. “Thank you for coming to celebrate the wedding of Lady Eileen and Ronan Campbell, and Lady Margot and I. Sláinte Mhath!”
There was a loud answering chorus of “Sláinte Mhath!” and Margot thought her heart might burst with joy.
The dancing began, but not long afterwards, Ronan was called away by another guard. When he came back a few moments later he was grinning from ear to ear.
“Good news, M’Laird,” he told Callum. “Davie Brown, the man who tried tae buy Lady Margot, has been caught and willnae bother either o’ our clans again. He is in the Ferguson dungeons.”
Margot breathed a sigh of relief. She had not realised how much Brown’s actions had affected her and lingered at the back of her mind, and now she felt as though an invisible weight had slipped from her shoulders.
“We should celebrate,” Callum murmured in her ear.
“Are we not celebrating now?” Margot asked, puzzled.
“Not this way.” Callum picked her hand up and kissed the palm, then smiled at her wickedly. “I can think of a much better way.”
Margot giggled, and at that moment Eliza came up to them, smiling. “You two are planning an escape, are you not?” she asked, her eyes twinkling.
“Aye,” Callum answered at once. “We do not want a riotous send-off! Can you help us, Eliza?”
“Of course,” Eliza answered, then she led Margot away towards a table on which stood several dozen bottles of wine.
“I cannot see anything I like,” she told Margot loudly enough for quite a few people around them to hear. “Can you show me the wine cellar, sister?”
Margot nodded and took Eliza’s arm, and they walked away until they were out of sight, then Eliza stopped and looked lovingly at her sister. “I have been so fortunate in finding my Duncan,” she said softly. “I hope you are as happy as we are.” She kissed Margot’s forehead then left with a smile.
Margot made her way up a little-used staircase that led to the corridor where Callum’s chamber was, but to her complete surprise, he was waiting for her on the top stair, his arms open wide to receive her.
Margot laughed as she walked into his embrace and sighed with happiness as his arms tightened around her.
“How did you get away?” she asked.
“I have lived here all my life,” Callum replied, smiling mischievously. “I know all the secret passages.” With that, he lifted Margot into his arms again and marched to his chamber as though she weighed nothing.
Margot leaned over to open the door, and he stepped inside and set her down, then cupped her face in his hands.
“This is no longer just my room,” he said gently, “but ours. I want to spend every possible minute of my life with you because without you, I would be lost. I will love and protect you and our children, should we be blessed with them for the rest of my life. These are the words I wanted to say in the church, Margot, but there was no time. I love you.”
Margot’s eyes were shining with tears of joy.
“And I want to tell you that I will never leave your side, even if misfortune ever befalls us because I love you with all my heart, and I want to have your children so that we can raise them together. I promise to be the best mother and wife that I can.”
Callum kissed her passionately, then lifted Margot again to put her down gently on the bed. They said nothing while they undressed each other, but when Margot had exposed his magnificent male body, she breathed, “You are so beautiful.”
He frowned, then laughed. “Hardly the word for a man. Are you saying I look like a lady?” He gave her a comical expression of outrage.
“Definitely not!” Margot answered as she took hold of his hard, rigid shaft.
Then she bent down and to Callum’s astonishment, she took him into her mouth and began to suck him.
She held on to him, moving her head rhythmically up and down then swirling her tongue around the sensitive head of his shaft, before she gently scraped it with her teeth and let him go so that she could carry on pumping him with her hand.
The look on Callum’s face was a mixture of arousal and astonishment as he gazed at her. “How did you know—” he asked, hardly able to speak as he moaned and writhed in pleasure at Margot’s touch.
“Shhh…” she placed a finger on his lips and gave him a wicked smile. “My secret. You know that I have a debt to repay, so I am repaying it in kind. Now we are even!”
In fact, she, Eliza and Eileen had had a sisterly chat about how they could please their husbands, but Margot was not going to waste this magical time in conversation.
She leaned over and kissed Callum tenderly, then, still working him with her hand, she straddled him and placed the tip of his shaft at her entrance.
“Are you ready for me?” she asked.
“God, yes!” Callum’s voice was agonised.
Margot had mercy on him and sank down on his shaft, loving the sensation of fullness he gave her. She watched his face as she drove him towards his climax and moved towards her own.
He looked almost helpless—however, a moment later he proved that he was not as he rolled her over on the bed so that he was once more on top of her.
He kissed her with a fierceness so strong that Margot wrapped her legs around him to pull him further inside her.
It was only a few seconds later that she cried out Callum’s name as a wave of ecstasy washed over her.
Her cry brought on Callum’s own fierce climax, and he let out a harsh growl as he came, then shuddered for a moment before he let himself sink down to lie on Margot’s still-trembling body.
“I love the look on your face when you come for me,” he said tenderly as he rolled sideways, pulling her with him.
“I’m so glad.” Margot smiled at him, stroking her cheek. “We are truly married now, Callum. No one can part us.”
“No, my love,” he whispered. “They would not live to tell the tale.”
He smiled and wrapped his arms around Margot, then pulled her close. They closed their eyes, and all was right with their world.
Thank you for reading my story!