“And the color!” she said, rolling her eyes. “Nothing could have been worse.”
Though they were laughing, it was a bitter memory for both of them. Still, it made Sileas feel better to talk about it.
“But ye did get the man ye wanted, aye?” Ian said, squeezing her shoulders and giving her a wink.
“Having the groom say his vows with the point of a dirk in his back is not what a lass dreams of when she imagines her wedding day.”
Ian’s expression turned serious. “I’ll make it all up to ye. The ring is just the start.”
Looking into Ian’s eyes was like being pulled into the sea—and she wanted to go wherever the current took her.
“I’m ready to be a good husband to ye,” he said, taking her hand. “Tell me ye want to be my wife.”
“I do.”
Ian took the ring from her hand and slipped it onto her finger.
“It looks good on ye,” he said, and raised her hand to his mouth. His lips were warm and soft on her fingers, reminding Sileas of how they had felt on her belly.
She swallowed. “I have a gift for ye as well.”
When his eyebrows shot up, she was pleased that she had surprised him. She pulled the crystal out of her pocket and held it out for him to see. It was no bigger than her thumb and a lovely misty color that was like seeing a green sea through a thick fog.
“Do ye know what it is?” she asked.
“A wee stone?” Ian said with a grin.
“It’s a charm stone,” she said in a hushed voice. “The MacDonald Crystal.”
“I thought it was lost.” He took it gingerly between his fingers and held it up, trying to see through it. “Isn’t this the one they say was brought back from the Holy Land by Crusaders?”
“Aye. My grandmother had it.” Sileas dropped her gaze to her hands resting in her lap. “Ye see, she didn’t like my father, and she knew my mother was weak. To keep it out of his hands, she gave it to the old seer to save for me. Tearlag gave it to me after I came to live with your family. She says it protects the wearer.”
“Then ye must keep it.” Ian put the crystal in her hand, then closed his hand over hers.
Sileas met his gaze and shook her head. “Ye tell me ye will protect me, and I believe ye. But who will protect you? This is my wedding gift to ye, and so ye must take it.”
It was the most precious thing she owned. By giving it to him, she was showing him that she trusted him with her life—and with her heart.
“I will guard it and you,” he said, meeting her eyes.
“Tearlag made this pouch to keep it in.” She pulled the leather thong from her pocket. “She said words over it to enhance the strength of the crystal.”
Sileas did not add that Tearlag told her that if she slept with it next to her own heart first, his heart would remember hers. She hoped it was true.
When she opened the pouch for him, Ian dropped the crystal inside it. Tears stung at the back of her eyes as she reached up to put it around his neck.
She placed her hand over the pouch, where it rested over his heart.
“I can feel your heartbeat through it,” she said, looking up at him. “Keep it close and be safe for me.”
Ian gathered her in his arms. His breath was warm in her ear as he whispered, “Thank ye, Sileas.”
They held each other for a long while.
Then Ian kissed her softly and said, “I’ll come to you tonight, then.”
“Aye. Tonight.”
Tonight. The start of their new life together.
CHAPTER 19
“Such a lovely babe Annie has,” Sileas said, as she walked arm in arm with Beitris on their way home from their visit to the neighbors. “Niall, it was sweet of ye to come with us.”
Ian had planned to accompany them until Payton asked him to practice in the yard. It would be Payton’s first attempt to use his claymore since his injury.
“You’re looking happy today,” her mother-in-law said, and winked at her. “Maybe you’ll have a babe of your own to show off by this time next year.”
Sileas’s heart lifted at the thought. Beitris had guessed that everything had changed between her and Ian—and was almost as happy about it as Sileas.
When Niall gave her a searching glance, she blushed. She wasn’t about to tell Niall that she and Ian were going to start sharing a marriage bed, though he and the rest of the household would know it by morning.
“Ach, look who’s coming,” Niall said with a sour look on his face.
It was Gordan, and he was marching straight for them, looking like a man with something on his mind that would not keep. Sileas took in a deep breath. She had feared they would see him, coming or going, since they had to walk past his house to get to Annie’s.
“ ’Tis best to set him straight,” Beitris said in her ear just before Gordan reached them.
