Page 83 of Lady Len and the Mysterious Mac

“But she saw me,” he whispered, emotions straining his voice and eyes. “She put me back together just like she did that wee chapel. First my sight, so I could see what you need clearly. Then my soul,” he added, putting his hand to his heart, “so I could believe myself worthy of serving all of you.”

Saying it out loud in that moment, he realized it was true.

“I’m not perfect. I will make mistakes, but I will own them and make them right. So yes.” He turned to the cousin who had demanded to know what was more important than the ceremony. “This once, I’m afraid there is something I must put before the clan. I must be a husband first, because if I do not find her—if I lose her—then I will stand before you an empty husk, completely worthless to you all. If that means there’s to be a ceremony without me, so be it, but there is no me without her.”

The rumble started up again, with shouting from the kitchen, and Si grew desperate. He’d waited far too long already.

“Please, forgive me, but I must go search for my—”

Those blocking the kitchen door were jostled aside and a bedraggled figure stepped in, swathed in MacKenzie plaid closed with his mother’s Luckenbooth brooch, long blonde hair matted with twigs, and mud smeared on her face.

“—wife,” he finished. “Because she is the Lady Kintail you all deserve.”

“Ye should’ve seen the wee girl,” Fraser the groom gasped, carried in between Leask and the blacksmith, his legs looking worse for wear. “Strength of ten men, I tell ye.” He beamed at Len, who stood quite still, staring at Si, until he pushed forward into the crowd, and then she was moving again, towards him, and nothing could keep them apart.

* * *

The moment they’d entered Leod, Ellen had instructed Ced the piper and his brother to settle the laird comfortably and then ride for a physician with all due haste. She believed his shoulder was separated and several fingers broken, but with proper care, he could recover.

Now she was shaking, and not just from being cold and wet and in pain. Hearing Si’s voice addressing the clan even before she could see him made her stomach run circles around her heart.

She needed to get to him, urgently, but she had feared the whole way back to Leod that he wouldn’t wish to see her, and for a moment, when their eyes met and before her ears caught up to his words, I must go search for my wife, a small but noisy part of her brain was still trying to convince her heart he might not want her.

But then he came to her, breathless, and the crowd parted to let them meet, and Si stared at her in wonder like he was watching the first dawn of creation.

“You’re alive?” he whispered. “It’s really you?” He reached towards her, but then hesitated, afraid to touch. She turned to kiss his palm and pressed it to her face with her good hand.

“I’m not a ghost.”

His countenance softened, but then he frowned again. “My father?”

“Upstairs.”

“I was coming to find you. I’m so sorry, I—”

“It’s all right,” she said, touching his cheek in a way that she knew would relax his creased brow. “I’m here now. May I speak?” she asked, because even though she’d interrupted his ceremony, she’d practiced her speech the whole way back.

“Aye. As much as you like. Or as little. You should never feel you have to, not with me, not ever, though I do love the sound of your voice,” he babbled.

Ellen smiled. “I meant to them.”

“Oh.” The tips of his ears grew pink. The tips of his ears were one of her favorite parts of him. “Of course, if you wish.”

She turned to face them, and he caught her hand.

“Only if you wish.”

She smiled and drew a tremulous breath, but then Si tucked her under his arm, safe, and she was strong again.

The new man, Angus, whistled to get everyone’s attention, and she nodded her thanks when the crowd fell quiet.

“Apologies for my tardiness. We had a wee misunderstanding.”

The gathered MacKenzies nodded and chuckled appreciatively because she and Si were still newlyweds, and most of them remembered what that could be like.

“My cousin always did say that marriage means war, so I guess those are bound to happen from time to time.”

The MacKenzies laughed again.