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CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
“Hold still, Murdina, I need to pin the dress,” Freya said as Murdina tried to adjust her position.
“Oh… I cannae hardly move in it,” she complained, but Freya only pulled tighter at the material.
“If ye stayed still, I wouldnae have to pull so hard,” she said, and Murdina was forced to do as she was told.
It was the day of the wedding, and she and her sisters had risen at first light to begin the preparations. The castle was filled with guests from near and far, and the ceremony was to take place in the gardens, followed by a sumptuous feast in the great hall. Murdina was not used to wearing a dress, but her father had insisted on ordering the very finest design from Edinburgh, and Murdina had not liked to refuse to wear it.
“Ye look very pretty, Murdina,” Ella said, and Murdina could not help but smile.
Her sisters had been diligent in their preparations for the day, and Ella had brought with her a beautiful posy of flowers for Murdina to carry in the procession, picked that very morning from the castle gardens.
“And so dae the two of ye,” Murdina said, looking at her sisters, who wore matching blue dresses and had garlands of flowers in their hair.
“We wanted everythin’ to be perfect for ye,” Freya said, rising to her feet and inspecting her handiwork.
“Ye have… oh, tis’ far easier to walk now,” Murdina said, taking a few steps forward.
“I let it out just half an inch. Ye look beautiful, Murdina,” Freya said, and she put her arms around Murdina and kissed her.
She and her sisters had become far closer in the weeks following their shared ordeal, and it was as though the three of them now shared the bond they should always have shared–of blood and family, of sisterly affection, and the knowledge of a shared future.
“Look at all those people down there,” Ella said, glancing out of the window.
Murdina and Freya came to join her, and Murdina was surprised by the number of guests gathered below. They had come from far and wide, some she recognized and some she did not. She knew that members of the order would be there, identified only by the signet rings on their fingers. Murdina could not see Kin, but she had not seen him since the evening before, and now she turned away for fear of seeing him now–she wanted her first glimpse of him to be the moment before they were wedded.
“Here is father now, tis’ nearly time,” Freya said as a knock came at the door.
Their father was dressed in his noble finery, a waistcoat, shirt, cravat, breeches with stockings and buckled shoes, a bonnet on his head, and a sprig of heather in his buttonhole. He smiled at them and held out his hands.
“My three beautiful daughters,” he said, as they came now to embrace him.
“What would Aoife say if she were here today?” Murdina said, smiling at the thought of her sister.
“She would say ye looked every bit the part,” the laird replied.
Murdina took her father by the arm and, followed by her sisters, the four of them made their way downstairs, pausing in front of the door leading to the gardens.
“Are ye ready, Murdina?” Freya asked, and Murdina nodded.
“I think so, aye. I have never felt so nervous–nae in all my adventures,” she said, laughing at the thought of what she was saying.
But it was true. She had faced down the enemy, traveled over land and sea, risked life and limb for their cause, but nothing she had known before had filled her with such trepidation as this. It was not that she was scared, far from it, but she wanted this moment to be perfect, a perfect memory for them both to share.
“We shouldnae keep poor Kin waitin’ now, should we?” their father said as the castle bell struck the noon hour.
Ella opened the door into the gardens, and a shaft of sunlight broke through as cheers went up from the assembled guests. Murdina blinked, smiling as her father led her through the door and down the steps onto the grass. The guests were assembled all around, but a way lay clear before them, an aisle of grass over which to walk and at its end stood Kin, waiting with a nervous smile on his face.
“How beautiful you look,” he said, as now her father gave her hand to Kin, who was dressed in waistcoat embroidered in gold thread, with blue stockings, black breeches, and a white shirt.
“And how handsome ye are, too,” she whispered.
The priest had come to officiate at the ceremony, and he smiled at them both, opening his prayer book as the sun caught the knot symbol ring on his finger.
“What a pleasure tis’ for me to be here today to celebrate this happy marriage with ye,” he said, as Murdina and Kin now turned to one another and prepared to pronounce their vows.
The ceremony was the happiest of occasions. Murdina and Kin promised faithfulness and fidelity to one another all the days of their lives and vowed to care for another in good times and bad.
