“’Tis only for a brief time, lad.Ye should look your best this day,” his father told him in his most authoritative tone from behind Ailbert.
Bernard was not wrong, and William’s brother and father had ensured William’s wedding costume was worthy of nobility.The soft leather coat buttoned from the detailed hem to the neck with shiny silver buttons.
Instead of loose braies, he wore proper trews, fitted and far too clingy at the groin, but complemented the loose cotehardie.His belt was a silver-studded, wide strip of polished leather, inset with a large emerald at the buckle.Bernard had lent him the belt and said William should wear it but didn’t exactly say why.
The gift was a treasured one regardless, and despite his agitation and zeal for this moment, William gave his father an appreciative nod.His father always had William’s best intentions in mind, and he would wear the belt knowing Bernard offered it with good reason.
Caitir popped in to brush his wild blondish-brown hair, plaiting small braids at his temples and smoothing the rest back with a bit of thinned beeswax.
“Is she ready?”William asked, grabbing her arm as she tried to slip out the door.
Caitir grinned, her eyes sparkling and teasing.
“Why do ye no’ go to the kirk and find out?”
“Donas!”William cursed under his breath as Caitir closed the door behind her.
Bernard’s head snapped up, his jaw twitching.“William!No’ on your wedding day!”
William brushed his hands over his hair as he gave himself a final glance in the mirror.“Och, definitely on my wedding day.Come on then.I canna wait any longer.”
He grasped the final pieces of his wedding outfit: his green-and-brown plaid cape and the silver-and-garnet Lukenbooth gifted by Ailith.He fastened the brooch to the cape across his shoulders as he strode from his chambers.
It was time.And by the old gods, he had waited long enough.
The processional and most of the wedding itself went by in a blur for Ailith.She was probably in a state of shock for most of it.
What she did remember was the look on William’s face when she stepped through the kirk door and entered the church.Sunlight burst through the tall stained-glass window above the altar, casting William into shades of gold and blue.He resembled a Nordic god, standing tall and ready at the altar, waiting for her.
More ready than she was, to be certain.
His eyes widened when he saw her in the green dress, and she noticed that the belt at his waist was the same deep emerald as her gown.Once on her body, with her hair braided into a complex crown style and the rest curling down her back, held in place by a pearl-studded circlet and a thin veil, the gown breathed new life into her.She agreed that she rivaled the goddess Brigid in this gown.From the gazes and gasps from the guests, Ailith presumed they believed the same.
As for William, his eyes were transfixed, as if he could not move them even if he desired.
The wedding progressed.William drank from the double-handled quaich cup, then offered it to her, and she sipped the sour red wine.She didn’t recall even sayingI do,though she must have, or the wedding would not have continued.All she remembered was seeing William’s blue eyes, as blue as the stained glass shining above them, and how they never left her face.
After he placed a signet ring on her hand, one with the MacDougal crest etched in miniature, he turned her palm over and placed his palm next to hers.Before she could question what was happening, William’s brother Ailbert nicked the tip of his sgian-dubh across the fat pad of her palm, then did the same for William.As she gasped, the priest worked quickly, pressing their palms together and binding them tightly with a wool cloth.
Thatshe remembered.
What –?
But William was grinning at her, and after the priest intoned something about blood of blood and bone of bone, he was celebrating them as man and wife.
What –?
That thought was cut off when William wrapped his free hand around her waist and lifted her off her feet to crush his lips to hers.The crowd cheered and hooted (in a church?), andOh My God!She was married.
William kept kissing her until Ailbert pulled him away.
“We have a feast to attend first, aye?”he joked.
A high-pitched note resonated from outside, a lone piper, and the notes followed, one crescendo of sound after another as William led her off the altar step, past the wooden pews, and bursting out of the doors into the pale sunshine, their hand still bound, ready to start their new life together.
Oh my God,she thought as she squinted into the sunlight.I did it.
William did not hesitate once outside.Instead of waiting for the rest of the guests, he continued to walk, or rather run-walk, across the inner bailey to the keep.His sense of urgency burned off his skin like a furnace.
