Chapter 24
The soft tug on her hair made Elodie wince.
“Oh, stop wriggling,” Faye said. “I’ve half a mind to tie ye to the chair.”
“I think that’s generally frowned upon before a wedding,” Elodie replied with a sardonic smile.
Behind her, Sarah snorted. “I dinna know. It’s a novel way to make sure the groom turns up.”
A ripple of laughter went around the room. Even Morag giggled from where she was carefully threading tiny white flowers into another length of greenery.
Elodie caught sight of herself in the polished pewter plate propped against the wall and had to blink a few times.
She barely recognized the woman looking back.
Her hair, longer than when she’d first stepped through the archway, had been braided around her head and Faye was busy weaving it with wildflowers gathered that morning.
Her dress was simple cream linen, beautifully clean despite having been worn by three brides before her.
Faye had somehow managed to alter it until it fitted as though it had been made especially for her.
It was nothing like the wedding dress she’d once imagined wearing. There was no designer label, no satin or silk. No carefully coordinated color scheme. Yet somehow it was perfect.
Faye stood back, hands on hips, studying her critically. “Hmm.”
“What does ‘hmm’ mean?”
“Stand up and turn around.”
“Again?”
“Aye, again.”
Elodie sighed dramatically and did as the healer asked. “You’re enjoying this far too much, you know that?”
“Of course I am.” Faye smoothed an imaginary crease from Elodie’s sleeve. “There. Perfect.”
Sarah folded her arms. “Ye’ve been saying ‘perfect’ for the last quarter hour and then finding something else to ‘improve’.”
Morag burst into another fit of giggles. Faye shot Sarah a look of exaggerated annoyance. Elodie laughed at their antics just as a knock came at the door.
“It’ll be Eamon,” Faye said.
“Tell him she’s not ready,” Sarah called.
“I heard that!” Eamon’s voice came from the other side of the door. “We’ve a groom waiting who’s beginning to look worried!”
Sarah grinned. “Excellent! Leave him stewing a little longer.”
Morag opened the door, letting Eamon step inside. He took one look at Elodie and stilled. For perhaps the first time since she’d met him, he seemed entirely lost for words.
“Everything all right?” Elodie asked.
He blinked. “Ye...” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Ye look...nice.”
Sarah laughed. “Truly the soul of poetry!”
Eamon grinned sheepishly then looked back at Elodie. “He’s waiting.”
Those simple words made her heart leap into her throat. She nodded. “Okay. I’m ready.”
Faye stepped forward and cupped Elodie’s face between weathered hands. “Aye, ye are,” she said quietly. She kissed Elodie on the forehead. “So let’s go get ye married to the stubborn fool, eh?”
Elodie allowed Eamon to escort her out the door and into bright sunshine. She paused to take a breath of air and try to still the sudden thundering of her heart. She took a quick look around. The little settlement had changed beyond recognition since they’d first arrived.
Where there had once been little more than an old farmhouse and neglected crofts, a village was beginning to emerge.
Fresh timber framed new cottages. Stone walls marked out gardens.
The skeleton of what would become a smithy stood near the stream, although Ronan still insisted on working beneath little more than a roof while helping everyone else build their homes first.
As she and her entourage set off towards what would become the village green, the project manager in her immediately began taking an inventory.
The western cottages had their roofs now.
That was good but the drainage ditch she’d suggested still needed extending before autumn or they might flood come the winter.
The doors on the big barn had been replaced but the bridge over the burn ought to be widened before winter supplies began arriving.
She caught herself doing it and shook her head.
Some habits, it seemed, never changed. They walked to the far end of the settlement and reached the village green.
It wasn’t much more than a flattened meadow surrounded by half-finished buildings but today it had been transformed.
Wildflowers decorated simple wooden arches and long trestle tables waited beneath colorful ribbons fluttering gently in the breeze.
The entire community had gathered, everyone that had come from the Steading. Ronan’s people. Her people. They turned as she and her entourage paused at the edge of the green, a murmur like the susurration of leaves spreading through the air.
Ronan stood beside Bryce wearing Campbell tartan, looking both proud and deeply uncomfortable at being the center of attention.
Behind them, in the front row of the guests stood two other men who bore a striking resemblance—Niall and Evan Campbell, two of Ronan’s other brothers.
The family reunion had been surprisingly warm after all this time and Elodie had been pleased to learn that they’d already reconciled with Bryce.
They had welcomed Ronan back into their lives with open arms. Only Ronan’s twin brother, Rian, was missing and Elodie knew Ronan felt his absence keenly.
Yet nobody seemed to know where Rian might be.
Elodie’s gaze strayed to the women standing to either side of the Campbell brothers.
Charlie and Ruby, Niall and Evan’s wives.
Catching her eye, they grinned at her and Charlie gave a little thumbs up.
If Elodie had been surprised to meet Ronan’s other brothers, she’d been almost poleaxed when she’d met Charlie and Ruby.
They were both time-travelers like her. Both from the twenty-first century.
She was still trying to get her head around that.
Yes, getting to know her in-laws was going to be very interesting indeed.
Her gaze found Ronan’s. He stared at her with an expression so full of love that she felt tears prick unexpectedly at her eyes. He smiled, a bright smile full of joy, and it brought an answering smile to her lips.
She had crossed centuries and lost everything she’d once known. Yet she’d found everything too. Everything she needed was right here.
Eamon cleared his throat. “Shall we?”
Elodie nodded. “Yes. Let’s.”
Arm in arm with Eamon, she swept across the green towards Ronan. He stepped forward to meet her, taking both her hands in his. The grin hadn’t left his face. “Ye look...ye look...” He stammered, unable to find words.
“Thank the Lord ye’ve arrived,” Bryce said in a low voice only Elodie could hear. “I was struggling to stop him from charging over to the house and carrying ye out.”
Elodie laughed lightly. “Isn’t the carrying bit supposed to happen after the wedding?”
Ronan shrugged. “I was never one for tradition.”
The sunlight was reflecting off his strawberry blond hair and shining in his eyes. He was so handsome that he took her breath away. He was hers. All hers. And after today, he would be for the rest of their lives.
Bryce cleared his throat and raised his voice to carry to the crowd. “I think ye all know why we’ve come here today. We’re here to see these two join together in handfasting. So how about we get started, aye?”
There were cheers all round at this. The ceremony was simple. Bryce spoke of family. Of duty and second chances. He spoke of promises freely given rather than obligations imposed.
When Ronan took Elodie’s hands, his were rough from years at the forge. She loved that. Loved every callus. Every scar. Every reminder of the man he truly was.
When the time came for their vows Ronan said simply. “I do.”
“So do I,” Elodie echoed him. “With all my heart.”
Bryce smiled. “Then before God, and these witnesses I pronounce ye husband and wife!”
Cheers erupted. Bran and Skye barked enthusiastically. Elodie was enveloped in a hug by Faye, Sarah, Morag, and half the village.
Then the celebrations began. There was no grand feast. No cuts of fine meat or mountains of expensive cakes.
Just fresh bread, cheese, stew and ale. Yet for Elodie, it was perfect.
Around her the people of the Steading let their hair down, celebrating not only her and Ronan’s wedding but a new start full of hope for the future.
Before long some of the tables were pushed back and someone struck up a tune on a fiddle. With whoops and cheers, people began dancing. Ronan, seated next to her at the main table, turned and gave her a grin.
“May I?”
She inclined her head. “Yes, you may.”
He held out his hand to pull her to her feet then led her into the dancing. They spun together while the fiddle played faster and faster and Elodie laughed as he nearly trod on her foot.
“I thought Highlanders were supposed to be graceful.”
“We fight better than we dance.”
From over the far side of the green, Bran and Skye suddenly began barking and went racing off into the trees.
“What are they up to this time?” Ronan said, scowling.
“We’d better go look. They might have stolen the bread again.”
Together they left the dancing and followed the dogs into the shade of the trees. They didn’t have to go far to find them. The dogs were sitting with remarkable politeness beside an old tree stump.
Irene MacAskill was sitting on it.
The old woman smiled at Elodie and Ronan as though she’d been expecting them all along.
“Ah! There ye are!” Irene said, smiling.
Elodie laughed aloud. “Irene!” She hurried forward and embraced the old woman.
Irene laughed delightedly and squeezed her tight. “It is good to see ye, lass.”
Ronan approached more cautiously. He said not a word of greeting and suddenly looked wary.
Irene’s eyes twinkled. “Ye are wondering why I’m here are ye not, Ronan Campbell?”
“I am. To my mind, ye only seem to turn up when there is about to be trouble.”
She wagged a finger at him. “Not this time, my lad. I’ve come to wish ye well is all. The balance has been restored thanks to the both of ye. That is no small thing and ye have my gratitude.” She turned to Elodie. “So. Have ye decided where home is, my dear?”
Elodie looked back towards the village green. She saw Sarah dancing with David. Faye scowling at some children whilst really trying not to smile. Eamon arguing cheerfully with Tam over whose turn it was to pour the whisky. People who had once been strangers but were now neighbors. Friends.
Family.
She felt a pang at the thought of the people she’d left back home.
Carla. Her friends. But with her mother already gone, Elodie’s last anchor to the twenty-first century was gone too.
Carla and everyone else would miss her, sure, but they’d soon get on with their lives. Just like Elodie was going to.
She reached for Ronan’s hand then smiled at Irene. “I think you know the answer to that. I’m already home and I’m staying right here.”
The old woman nodded, as though she’d known the answer all along. “Aye. I thought perhaps ye were.”
Elodie gestured at the dancing. “Come and celebrate with us.”
Irene rose. “Oh, I’d dearly love to but the keeping of the balance waits for no woman.” She winked. “Perhaps I’ll see ye again someday.”
With that she walked away and within moments the trees had swallowed her. Ronan whistled softly to the dogs and pointed back the way they’d come.
“Go on home,” he told them. “Back to the village.”
As if understanding every word, the dogs bounded away down the track towards the village.
Elodie raised an eyebrow. “You’ve sent away our chaperones.”
“I have.”
“And why might that be?”
A wicked smile spread slowly across his face. “I can think of one or two reasons.” He took her hand. “Come with me.”
They wandered deeper into the woodland until the sounds of celebration faded behind them. Eventually the trees opened onto a small lake, its surface perfectly still beneath the evening sky.
“I used to fish here as a boy,” Ronan said quietly. “It was my favorite place in all the world.” He looked at her. “Now I’ve found a better one.”
She kissed him before he could say anything else. Somewhere in the distance a fiddle still played. The village celebrated. The future waited.
And, together, they began the first evening of the rest of their lives.
THE END
Thank you for reading Desire of a Highlander!