Chapter Seven
Although yesterday she’d dreaded it, this morning couldn’t come fast enough for Linnette now.
She walked out to the courtyard with her handmaid, Paulina, carrying the train of her best blue velvet gown.
The young woman followed behind her tending to Linnette’s every need.
Linnette held on to a bouquet of wildflowers that her mother had picked from her flower garden.
When she’d exited the keep, she headed toward a priest standing on a raised platform next to her parents.
Duncan stood at the bottom of the steps next to North.
He was dressed in his MacKeefe plaid of green and purple with a little brown woven into the design.
His long, oaken hair hung down around his shoulders, lifting slightly in the warm summer breeze.
“I’m so nervous,” Linnette whispered to Paulina.
“I’m nervous, too, because I heard Brom telling another servant that he wants to marry me someday,” Paulina whispered back.
“That is wonderful, Paulina! You will say yes?”
Paulina grinned and there was a twinkle in her eye. “I think I will, my lady.”
“And when you do, you’ll come to the Highlands afterward and stay with me and the MacKeefes for a while.”
“I would like that, my lady. But today is all about you. Now, go marry the man you love.”
Linnette stopped and drank in the sight of Duncan MacKeefe, the man she’d dreamed about marrying for the last year, now standing in her courtyard, about to become her husband.
“I love you, Linnette.” He mouthed the words and winked.
“I love you, too,” she mouthed back, feeling as if she were about to swoon.
The priest walked down to join them, and they took their vows. It all happened so quickly that Linnette wasn’t truly sure that she wasn’t just dreaming.
“You may kiss the bride,” said the priest. Duncan’s warm lips caressed hers, and his strong arms wrapped around her waist. Her eyes closed as the kiss became more passionate and she swore she was about to melt in his arms.
North cleared his throat and caused them to stop kissing. Linnette pulled away slightly, realizing that her parents, the priest, and all the castle’s occupants, including the servants, were watching them.
“I never dreamed you’d end up marrying a Highlander, Linnette,” said her mother, her wide smile making Linnette know that Duncan was accepted into her family.
“Not just a Highlander,” North said, speaking up. “After all, for a night, he was also the headless horseman.”
“Nay, don’t say that,” answered Duncan with a shake of his head.
“Nay?” asked North. “Then what would ye call it?”
“Well,” said Duncan, “I don’t know, but I don’t want anyone to say that my beautiful wife married anyone like a headless horseman since that legend has such a tragic ending, and we have just started a beautiful new life together as husband and wife.”
“It’s all right, Duncan,” Linnette assured him, taking his hand in hers. “Because we’ve changed that legend forever now with our actions. Even though you will always be my Madman of the Moors.”
The End