Chapter 19 #2
"Ye're doing it again," Cormac said beside her.
"Doing what?"
"Worrying." He refilled her cup. "Stop."
"I am not worrying," she said. "I am thinking."
"About what?"
She looked at him. "About the fact that ye grew up in a Keep and I have spent my entire life in a village. I dinnae want to disappoint or embarrass ye. In front of yer family. Or anyone else."
He was quiet for a moment. "Ye could never embarrass me."
"Ye cannot know that."
"I can." His voice was certain. "I know ye, Una.
I have watched ye on the road and in that inn with my men and last night with Nessa.
Ye are not a woman who embarrasses herself or anyone else.
" He held her gaze. "The Keep is just a building.
My family are just people. And ye are my wife. That is all that matters."
She wanted to argue. She could see several very reasonable objections.
She ate her bread instead.
"Just a building," she muttered.
"Just a building," he agreed.
***
THE SEAMSTRESS ARRIVED after breakfast with two assistants and a large trunk.
Una watched her open it and felt her stomach drop.
The fabrics inside were extraordinary. Deep wool in jewel colors, silk borders, panels of fine linen that would have cost more per yard than Una charged for a full gown.
She knew these fabrics. She had worked with their like when dressing the thane's daughters and had never expected to wear them herself.
She stood very still as the seamstress began draping samples against her, and said nothing, and looked at the colors, and thought about what each bolt would cost.
"The green first," the seamstress said, making notes. "And the dark gold. Both will suit yer wife well."
"Cormac," Una said quietly. "The green alone will cost a large sum."
"No expense is to be spared," he said from the chair by the fire. "Whatever she needs."
"I do not need all of these."
"Whatever she needs," he said again, to the seamstress.
The seamstress nodded and went back to her notes.
Una scowled at him. He stared back with a raised brow, daring her to argue.
"Ye are impossible," she said.
"Aye," he agreed.
Una allowed herself to be measured. Watching the seamstress work, she could see the woman was a master of her craft.
She noted the way she handled the fabric, the cut of her samples, and filed it all away.
When the seamstress asked about embroidery at the cuffs, Una gave a considered opinion, because she could not help it. The woman nodded and wrote it down.
Two gowns by the end of the week. A third if the silk arrived in time.
Una did not ask the total cost. She was not certain she wanted to know.
When the seamstress left, Una stood in the middle of the drawing room feeling overwhelmed.
"Ye are doing it again," Cormac said.
"I am not."
"Ye are. Stop." He stood and came to her and tipped her chin up. "Ye are my wife. Allow me to dress ye properly. It gives me pleasure. Can ye not give me that much?"
She frowned.
"It is not charity," he said. "It is not pity. I want to see ye in beautiful things. That is all."
She breathed out slowly. "All right. But not the gold. The gold is too much."
"The gold," he said, "is perfect."
She just shook her head.
***
THE JEWELER ARRIVED soon after: a timid man with a case of velvet-lined trays that he set out on the drawing room table.
Una looked at the rings and immediately pointed to the cheaper end of the tray.
"That one," she said, indicating a plain band, thin and modest.
Cormac looked at it. "No."
"It is perfectly serviceable and—"
"No." He moved her hand along the tray to a pair of matching bands, broader, worked with a simple interlace pattern. Plain at a glance but the craftsmanship was unmistakable up close, the gold warm and deep. "These."
"Cormac—"
"These," he said to the jeweler.
The jeweler lifted them out. Cormac took the smaller one, picked up Una's left hand, and slid it onto her finger.
It fit perfectly. She did not ask how he had known the size.
He lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her knuckles, just below the ring. "Now it's perfect," he said.
Una stared at the ring on her finger, warm gold, the interlace catching the light, and felt something settle in her chest. She place the matching band on Cormac’s finger and thought that it suited him, and that she was glad to see it there.
The jeweler was not yet done. He turned the tray and set out a row of further pieces: earbobs, a fine chain with a small pendant, a bracelet of twisted gold, and others set with emeralds and rubies.
Una's eyes studied the pieces she liked before she could stop herself. She looked away.
Cormac had been watching.
"The earbobs," he said quietly to the jeweler. "And the gold chain. The emerald bracelet, the ruby ring, the pearl and diamond brooch."
"Cormac!"
"Ye stared at them," he said. "I purchased them for ye."
"I was only looking."
"Aye." He nodded to the jeweler. "All of them."
Una pressed her lips together. The jeweler wrapped each piece in cloth, placed them in small velvet pouches, and set them aside. Cormac paid a tidy sum and the jeweler thanked him several times on his way out.
When he had gone Una sat in the chair by the fire and looked at the ring on her hand and the small pouches on the table.
She had spent her whole life making beautiful things for other people. She had never expected anyone to do the same for her.
She did not know how to receive it without feeling as though she were living someone else's life.
Cormac crouched in front of her chair and looked up at her. "Ye are not going to disappoint me," he said. "Ye are not going to be out of place. And ye deserve to wear fine things."
"But it is all too much."
"Not to me."
She smiled and thanked him. He kissed her forehead and stood.
***
SHORTLY AFTER, CORMAC and Seumas prepared to leave. Cormac checked something in the writing table drawer, pocketed it, and straightened his plaid.
"My appointment," he said. "I should not be more than an hour."
"Yer friend who works in the castle?"
"Aye." He crossed to her and kissed her cheek. "Hilde will see to ye while I'm gone. If ye need anything, Ros and Tam are in the corridor."
"I am perfectly capable of sitting in a room by myself for an hour," she replied.
"I know ye are." He kissed her again. "But I feel better knowing ye are not alone. We will be back before noon."
He left. Seumas gave her a small nod on his way out.
Una stood in the drawing room and listened to their boots on the corridor flagstones until the sound faded.
***