Chapter 33 #3
Once chairs had been brought, Jamie nodded and everyone sat, Jamie’s family around him and Cameron’s around him.
Sunny sat next to Jamie, dressed in a lovely black dress that reminded him quite a bit of the memory he had of her standing in Moraig’s doorway.
It didn’t make him queasy this time, for which he was profoundly grateful.
He honestly couldn’t have said what he and Jamie discussed, though he supposed he’d given a decent accounting of what he would bring to the marriage.
He accepted the ridiculous sum Jamie had dowered Sunny with, vowing right then to find a way not to take it.
He certainly didn’t need the money, which Jamie damn well knew.
But there was pride and tradition involved, so he didn’t balk. Not yet.
A Bible was produced and he signed along with Sunny. Then Jamie placed her hand in his and gave her to him freely.
Cameron looked down at her and felt a little weak in the knees. “I see a threshold over there.”
Jamie harumphed. “Handfast with her if ye will, lad, but ye’ll not take her to your bed until after ye’ve knelt with her before the priest tomorrow.”
Cameron squeezed Sunny’s hand. “It’s at least a step in the right direction.”
“I’ll take it gladly,” she said with a smile.
So he led her over to Jamie’s door, opened it, then took her out onto the top step. He pledged himself to her, listened to her do the same, then he took her in his arms and kissed her as thoroughly as he dared with a hall full of witnesses.
Then he let out the breath he felt like he’d been holding for eight years. “I love you,” he said, gathering her close. “I don’t want to let you from my arms ever again.”
“One more day and you won’t have to.”
“We’re going to have a sleepover tonight at your sister’s house,” he vowed. “I’m not taking any chances.”
She leaned up and kissed him softly. “I agree.” She pulled away and took his hand. “We’re not quite finished here. You have one more thing to do.”
He blinked. “I do? What?”
“Come back to the fire and you’ll see.”
He walked back inside the hall with her, shut the door behind him, then walked over with her to the hearth. She put him in front of it, looked at him with a smile, then slowly sank to her knees before him.
He gaped at her for a moment, then reached out to pull her back to her feet. She shook her head.
“Hold out your hands, my laird.”
Ach, not that. He had to drag his sleeve across his eyes first, and he wanted to protest, but he didn’t.
He supposed it wasn’t every day a man had his betrothed wife kneel before him and pledge him her fealty.
If she was determined, he wouldn’t forbid her.
He supposed, though, since he was being so agreeable, she could overlook the tears that ran down his cheeks.
Sunny kissed his hands, then rose.
And then Derrick took her place and knelt as well.
“Bloody hell,” Cameron managed.
Derrick looked up at him with a smile. “Is that part of the ceremony, mate?”
Cameron rolled his eyes because it was easier than blubbering any more.
He took a deep breath, then accepted Derrick’s fealty.
He accepted Ewan’s in turn, though he would have been the first to admit he was having a hard time seeing very clearly and he had to rely on his ears to identify the lad in front of him.
By the time Emily had knelt before him and put her hands in his, he was a complete wreck.
He pulled Emily to her feet after he’d accepted her loyalty, then put one arm around her and the other around Sunny.
“Anyone else?” he asked gruffly. “Whilst I’m completely unmanned here?”
“Oliver has a question or two for you,” Derrick said with a small smile. “As does Peter, if you can imagine it. When next you see them.”
Cameron sighed. “Perhaps I might manage a better showing during the next round.”
“Ale,” Jamie announced. “And juice for those so inclined. And we’d best start dinner before our good lord Robert makes us all weep.”
Cameron was soon distracted by many manly slaps on the back from the male relations, kisses from his future sisters-in-law and cousins, and an offer from Ian’s son Alexander to sneak off for a happy hour passed playing Legos. He was terribly tempted by the last, but managed to secure a rain check.
At length, he found himself standing next to Jamie as tables were set up for supper. He clasped his hands behind his back and cleared his throat.
“Thank you, Jamie, for your part in all this.” He had to pause for quite a while before he trusted himself to speak. “I would have lost her forever without your aid.”
Jamie clapped him on the shoulder in a friendly fashion. “If I don’t keep watch over the fabric of time and all the romantic particulars it produces, who will?”
“I daresay,” Cameron said, managing a smile. “No one better than you to do it, of course.”
“Aye,” Jamie agreed modestly.
Cameron was half tempted to ask Jamie why he thought Moraig’s gate had gone awry and left him coming forward so much sooner than Sunny, then thought better of it.
That was a question better left for another time—perhaps after he’d been safely wed to Sunny for a year or so.
Perhaps there wasn’t an answer. Perhaps ’twas merely Fate taking a hand in his poor life to give him his hall and his love, together in a time of marvels.
He pushed aside those thoughts for contemplation at a later time, then turned back to Jamie. “You know, I might have a small way to repay you later, if you like. My grandfather fought against your son Jesse for years, you know.”
Jamie blinked. “Nay, I didn’t know that.”
“I’ll tell you of the more noteworthy skirmishes, if you like.”
Jamie cleared his throat roughly. “I’d have those, aye, but perhaps not tonight. Your betrothed is scowling at me. Perhaps she fears I will make you draw your sword, after all.”
Cameron laughed and shook Jamie’s hand, spared a brief moment to consider the absolute improbability of standing in the MacLeod keep in any other century with his poor form unpierced by dozens of MacLeod blades, then went to retrieve his beloved, who was indeed giving Jamie a warning look.
The rest of the evening was passed most pleasantly with supper and conversation and he found himself soaking up the warmth of family that he hadn’t had in years.
It was all because of Sunny.
A handful of hours later, he was sitting with her in front of the fire in Patrick MacLeod’s great hall. He held her on his lap and trailed his fingers through her hair. His heart was so full of things he’d never expected to feel, he simply couldn’t find the words to speak.
He counted his blessings instead. First and foremost, he had a woman who loved him, who accepted him and wanted him because of what he was, not in spite of it.
He had a little clan of four souls who had gathered around him that night and vowed to stand behind him no matter what.
He had other souls who were loyal, if not a little less knowledgeable.
He had the money to keep the roof at Cameron Hall fixed far into the future and to buy Sunny the occasional fancy supper and the odd fifty-quid dress.
“Wed me?” he murmured.
She met his eyes and smiled. “Yes.”
“I may keep asking you that for a few years.”
“And I’ll be happy to answer you the same way every time you ask, even after the fact.” She touched his face. “Happy?”
“Very. The only thing that will improve upon that is the right to carry you to my bed, but we’d best not discuss that right now.”
She laughed. “Probably not.” She kissed him softly, then crawled off his lap and held down her hands for him. “The doors are locked, the gates are secure, and I need my beauty sleep.”
“Heaven help me,” he said. “I can hardly keep my feet as it is.”
She smiled and pulled away from him. “Be here in the morning? ”
“Aye.”
He watched her as she walked away, then waited until he’d heard her door close before he walked down the passageway and poked his head into Patrick MacLeod’s study. Patrick was sitting in front of the fire with a book in his hands.
“You can go to bed now, my lord chaperon,” Cameron said dryly. “She’s gained her bedchamber unmolested.”
Patrick shut his book, then banked his fire. He came to the door and put his hand on Cameron’s shoulder.
“You’re worthy of her.”
“High praise.”
“Aye, it is,” Patrick agreed. “You know, I wouldn’t allow you to have her if you hadn’t earned it. Now, just don’t run out all the cold water in the morning when you shower, aye?”
Cameron pursed his lips. “I’ll do my best.”
Patrick patted his cheek rather too firmly, just as Breac had done scores of times, then laughed and walked away.
Cameron watched him go, then smiled to himself and sought his own bed. He was very grateful indeed for family.
But he was grateful for Sunny most of all.