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“Mmmm.” He did not seem inclined to do so.

Avelina laughed and pulled away further. “Niall.” She tugged on his arm, which was like moving a tree trunk. “The guests.”

“None of which we know.”

“Your brother. Our host?”

At the mention of his brother, Niall’s smile faltered. “I am sorry, lass, your brother refused to attend. I’d not have wished you to be wed with no family members present.” He frowned. “Even if that family member is your brother.”

She reached up to his cheek, wanting to touch him, to thank him for his concern.

Niall closed his eyes when her palm lay there for a moment.

“‘Twas my choice to marry so quickly. One I do not regret, family or nay. I’ve never been one of those maids to dream of my wedding day.”

He opened his eyes, and his hand covered hers. “What do you dream of then, my lady wife?”

“You.”

Niall smiled. “Before me?”

“Before you, I dreamt of being needed. Marching into battle with my brother and using the skills I’ve honed to mean something.”

He did not laugh at the notion as her brother had.

“From the display I’ve seen, you’d be quite useful in battle indeed.”

“Thank you,” Avelina said, having learned, though she was still practicing, to take a compliment without qualifying it. “Shall we go, then?”

Not letting go of her hand but dropping it to their sides, Niall began to walk toward the hall.

“You are my husband,” she said, a chill running through Avelina that had naught to do with the crispness of the air.

“And you, my wife.”

“Why is that so pleasing to me?”

“That I should call you wife?” he asked as those remaining in the courtyard clapped upon seeing her and Niall. Smiling, Avelina ignored the sudden pang in her chest as she thought of some of her clansmen who would have liked to see her wed.

Of course, not to Niall Duncraig. Which was, of course, the problem.

“Aye,” she answered as the front doors of the keep were opened for them.

“For the same reason ‘tis pleasing to me,” he answered, leaning down to whisper in her ear, “you know what a newly married couple do on their wedding night.”

They must have looked very much like the happy couple walking into the great hall, then, Avelina laughing at his words while knowing they were partially true.

As they made their way to the dais, Niall’s brother approached them. Standing before her, he looked into her eyes. Something passed between she and the brother, though Avelina could not say precisely what it was. She knew only that looking into his eyes was like looking at one of her own people. A familiarity that should not be there between two strangers, their only interactions thus far with Niall.

“You are family now,” he said. “As such…” He knelt, a gesture Avelina did not expect. “I vow to give my life to protect you and will love you like a sister,” he said, his head bowed.

Love. The one thing she did not have from her husband, but as she’d told him, it was not an emotion that could be forced. Neither did Avelina need love, as she’d told him, or expect it in a marriage. “Many thanks, my lord.”

“Kieran,” he said, giving her leave to use his given name.

“Kieran,” she amended, the kinship Avelina felt suddenly with her new brother-in-law unexplainable.

“I leave you to your wedding feast.” He stepped aside with a brief glance at his brother. Her husband seemed pleased by Kieran’s actions. As was she.