She ran her hands up and down his back, luxuriating in the way his slick skin felt beneath her fingertips. And despite how impossible it felt, after everything that had happened the last few days, there was no doubt in her mind as she opened her mouth and replied with the purest truth that she had ever known.
“I love ye, too.”
EPILOGUE
ONE WEEK LATER
“Ye look so bonnie,” Abigail said, staring at Marissa with wide eyes.
Somewhere in the room behind her, Freya sniffed as she choked back her tears.
“Are ye cryin’ again?” Marissa let out a chuckle, looking over her shoulder and finding that, indeed, Freya was once again crying.
“It’s the bairn,” Freya argued, pointing at her protruding belly. “Ye ken it’s comin’ any day now. And the wee thing wants me weepin’ over everythin’. I cannae help it.”
“She cried over how lovely yer flowers looked this morning,” Ayla chimed in from the settee by the window, prompting Amara, who was sitting beside her, to laugh.
“Ye ken I like daisies,” Freya quipped. “It’s nae a crime to think that lovely things are worth sheddin’ a tear over from time to time.”
“Speakin’ of lovely,” Abigail said pointedly, clearly trying to steer the conversation away from anything that would get their sister going again. “Ye are lookin’ quite well, Amara. Do ye think ye’ll be savin’ a dance for Cody after the weddin’?”
The apples of Amara’s cheeks turned pink, and she lowered her eyes. It had been an open secret in the castle for the last week that Cody and Amara’s affection for one another had grown. But no one had brought it up. And now that someone had, every eye in the room turned to Amara.
“I dinnae want to assume,” the young maid stammered. “He’s made his intentions clear. But I dinnae think… I am just… I cannae…”she trailed off as Freya crossed the room, reaching down to take one of the young woman’s hands in her own.
Amara’s lips dropped open in surprise, her blue eyes going wide as she turned her gaze up to Freya.
Marissa’s throat tightened as she watched the exchange, the very clear affection between the two women.
Freya’s voice was soft and filled with love when she spoke.
“If ye’re sayin’ that ye want to be with me stepson,” she said, “then ye have me permission. And I ken that me husband willagree. I see what ye’ve done for me sister. How ye and Ayla welcomed her into this castle and made her feel at home. We already think of everyone here as family. So, it would be an honor to have ye two make our family ties official.”
“I dinnae ken if that’s what he wants,” Amara stammered, her eyes suddenly doubtful.
“I do,” Freya answered, her lips stretching into a grin. “He asked both me and his faither about it this mornin’. We were goin’ to tell ye both after the weddin’, but I dinnae want ye worryin’ about it until then.”
Amara’s expression shifted then. Where doubt and insecurity had been, there was suddenly joy. It transformed her face. Her round cheeks looked as if they might split with the force of her smile.
“We’re happy to have ye,” Abigail added, giving her a bright and welcoming smile before turning her attention back to Marissa. “But now, we have other matters to attend to.”
Everyone nodded, and then the room was filled with a flurry of activity as the final touches were put on Marissa’s hair.
I am gettin’ married today.
The thought had been the only thing echoing in her mind since she’d opened her eyes that morning.
After the altercation with Eric and his men, Marissa and Arthur agreed to postpone the wedding. However, neither of them had wanted to wait for too long.
The most that anyone had been able to talk them into was three additional days. One week from the day Eric had shown up.
It was just long enough that neither of their injuries were bothering them anymore. And neither Marissa nor Arthur had been able to wait any longer than that.
When the final flower was placed in her hair and a sash was draped around her neck, the women in her chambers started ushering her out the door.
“Late to yer own weddin’.” Freya tsked with a shake of her head. “Can ye imagine?”
“I am nae late!” Marissa argued.
