Extended Epilogue #2
“Need some assistance?” Adair said with a wry smile. “I think she is winning.”
He stepped in the room to help and Lachlan took a moment to appreciate the two men.
Blaine’s betrayal hit them even harder once they’d returned and tried to get back to a normal life.
They wondered if he doubted their loyalty.
He wondered if they doubted his leadership.
It was a rocky couple of months, but Jamie and Adair stayed by his side and his ranks were stronger for it.
He was stronger because of their friendship.
They were losing to a two-year-old. Cora had a firm grip on the dress and only laughed harder when the men tried to tug it away.
She bent down again to take a bite out of it when Lachlan strode in and swooped her up.
Immediately, she shrieked with joy and released the dress and he twirled her around.
“Quick. Get it in the wardrobe and doona wrinkle it,” Jamie hissed. Adair vaulted over the bed to hide the prize and Jamie breathed a sigh of relief. They were victorious. They had won the battle.
And since Cora was a toddler, she immediately forgot about the dress. When Lachlan sat her down, she went in search of the next shiny thing to stick in her mouth.
“Come. We will drop the little lass off with my mother and then we are going to the training field.”
Jamie lifted his face with an expression that was half relief and half shock. “Nay, I cannae do that. Can I do that? I am to be married in a few hours.”
“Two hours of training, one hour in the river, and we will be at the ceremony refreshed,” Lachlan promised him. “Or my wife will have all of our heads.”
“And my wife,” Gair echoed.
Adair nodded. “And my wife”
“And my… Isla.” A slow smile spread over his face. “I am putting my foot down this time. She will be my wife today.”
Lachlan snorted. “Ye are in love with her, and that means that if she stands up under that arch that my sister is so excited about then and decides that she isna ready then ye will give her more time.”
With a smile, Jamie leaned down and picked Cora up. Bouncing her up and down, he gave her a kiss on her cheek. “Today is different. I can feel it.”
“Sloane says the same thing, but right now, Isla isna yer wife and I am yer Laird and if ye doona come to the training field with us then we will all go insane before yer wedding.”
“Cora, darling, do ye want to spend the day with yer Mimi Maggie?”
Her face lit up with delight and Lachlan sighed in relief. Now he could finally get out of the keep and work out his frustrations.
As Maggie held tight to Cora, Sloane watched with a smirk as Lachlan quickly and frantically backed out of the room. His mother had suggested that he take Calder out to the field as well to watch.
Isla looked like she might burst into tears. “He is going to train? On our wedding day? He is going to train.”
“’Tis better this way, my dear,” Maggie assured her. “When I married Calder, we had a large celebration. This place was decked out in ribbons and flowers and candles. He hated every moment of it. ’Tis better this way.”
“The first two times were not nearly this lavish. Perhaps I am overdoing it.” Isla pulled the twine around her bouquet and squeaked when Freya pulled the ribbon of her shift a little too tightly. “I need to be able to breathe.”
“The first two times werena like this time,” Sloane said as she finished the bouquet that she was working on. Despite Elspeth’s tutelage, she was horrendous with a needle and thread and Isla wouldn’t let her anywhere near her dress.
Sloane was not at all offended. Making bouquets was far easier.
“I know that he thinks I was foolish when I called off the first two weddings. It wasna that I didna love him or that I wasna ready to marry him, but I have waited this long, I just wanted it to be perfect. I wanted my daughter to be able to enjoy it.”
“She will,” Elspeth assured her.
“And it will be perfect,” Maggie joined in.
It would. Isla looked at Jamie the same way that Elspeth looked at Adair and Freya looked at Gair. It was the same way that Maggie looked at Calder. She had an epic love and she deserved an epic ceremony. Sloane wanted to give that to her.
Isla had blossomed. Elspeth and Freya were already warriors, but Isla had nearly withered under her mother’s oppression and that was something that Sloane understood well.
She’d gone to great lengths to take control of her life again and Cora was the result.
Sloane knew that Isla didn’t regret a second of her decision. She was the most wonderful mother.
After Freya’s wedding and after learning what Sloane had gone through, Isla withdrew a little more, but Jamie’s support never wavered.
He loved her when she grew so large that she couldn’t see her feet anymore.
He loved her when she was giving birth to another man’s child.
He loved her when she nursed that infant and he loved her when that infant grew up to be a little hellion.
And he loved that little hellion.
As the pregnant daughter of a woman who hated her, Isla was impressive, but as a beloved mother, she was a warrior.
She deserved all the lavishness that Sloane could give her on her special day.
“The dress is Elspeth’s from when she married Adair,” Sloane said quietly as she opened the wardrobe and pulled out the special dress that Elspeth had been working on for weeks. “The ribbon is from the dress that Freya let me wear on my wedding day and the lace is from Freya’s wedding to Gair.”
Tears gathered in Isla’s eyes and Sloane remembered how she felt when Freya had given her a dress. That was the only reason that she didn’t marry Lachlan in a tattered old dress that was stained and embarrassing.
“Pretty,” Cora cooed as she struggled to get off Maggie’s lap and toddle to the dress, but she was eating everything these days and Maggie wouldn’t let her go.
“It is beautiful, darling.” Isla sniffed and looked up at Elspeth in wonder. “I have almost married twice and ye didna present me with a dress.”
Elspeth, Freya, and Sloane exchanged a knowing smile. “Ye were not going to marry then. Ye are going to marry now,” Freya said simply.
Sloane was pleased. Lachlan didn’t believe her, but she knew and her girls knew. They knew that this was the day. This was the day that Isla and Jamie finally bound themselves for the rest of their lives.
Placing a hand on her belly, Sloane leaned back and basked in the knowledge. Freya watched the move and narrowed her eyes. “If it is a girl, ye are going to name it Freya, are ye not? After all, I am her favorite aunt.”
“Ye are her only aunt,” Maggie said quickly. “Besides, Margaret is a strong family name and I have known ye since ye were a babe.”
“Margaret!” Freya scowled. “We have plenty of Margarets in this family. We doona need another.”
Elspeth cleared her throat. “If we are going to be throwing our names in the ring, Elspeth is a wonderful name and I am the reason that child was conceived to begin with. Who did ye come to when ye needed advice about that sort of thing?”
Gasping, Freya wrinkled her nose. “Really? That was what ye were talking about? Bedding my brother?”
Sloane blinked. “I am pregnant. How did ye think it happened?”
“Well, I know how it happened, I just didna know that ye needed advice about it.” She looked over at Elspeth. “What exactly did ye tell her?”
Maggie cleared her throat and looked pointedly at Cora who was watching them with intense interest and Sloane chuckled. “While I appreciate everyone taking an interest in naming my child, there is no need. I already have a name chosen.”
They all stared at her, but since she had no intentions of telling them, she was relieved when there was a knock at the door. A young serving girl entered. “I am sorry to interrupt ladies, but they need a final decision in the kitchen.”
Sloane stood. “I believe that would be for me to make. Doona have too much fun without me ladies. I will return.”
They all clamored behind her about what she was naming the babe, but she darted out quickly and shut the door behind her.
“Do ye think she is planning all of this because I never gave her a lavish wedding?” Lachlan asked finally as he and his comrades splashed in the river to cool off.
Although the sun was warm overhead, the waters were still frigid.
It was enough to wake up the body after the long and grueling training session they’d just had.
Lachlan was already starting to ache. The only person they’d let off easy was Jamie and that was so he wasn’t covered in bruises on his wedding night.
Isla would probably not take kindly to that.
“She didna insist that Freya had a lavish wedding,” he mused.
“She could barely get out of bed when Freya got married,” Gair said dryly. Even though it was two years ago, the thought of those weeks was enough to give Lachlan nightmares. “Freya has often mentioned that I got off easy because of the circumstances of our wedding.”
Although he never talked about it much, Gair used to carry the guilt of whatever he’d done to Errol Fenton, but over the years, the guilt had eased. He and Ness Fenton had become good friends and in fact, Ness would have been here as well if he’d not been summoned to court.
Lachlan had a feeling that the king would soon demand that Ness marry. The Fenton clan had gone without a mistress for too long despite the fact that Sloane all but threw a new bonnie lass in front of him whenever he came to visit.
He was a good man and the Fenton clan had bloomed under him.
Their alliance was stronger than ever, especially since Cunningham and Donahue, both recognizing that their years as Laird were numbered, had begun bringing their heirs with them to clan and alliance meeting.
Lachlan liked both choices as did Gair and Ness.
The king would want Ness to marry a lass of his choice, probably the pretty cousin to the king himself to ensure that their alliance remained true to him.