“I vow to be your wife in every sense of the word. I vow to give you the first bite of my bread and the first sip of my wine. I vow to cherish you and spoil you every day with my cooking. And I vow to love you as long as my heart beats.”
Her vows made a wave of happiness swell in him, like fresh Highlands air after the heat of a desert. Hearing her say those words out loud released the last of his doubts about his worthiness. If God had given him this woman, God must have forgiven him. Abaeze must have forgiven him.
So Ian would forgive himself.
Forgiveness and acceptance flooded his body, warm and soothing, releasing and unfolding the last of his tension and pain.
“Before God, ye are now wedded as husband and wife,” the priest announced. “Ye may now kiss the bride.”
Ian didn’t hesitate. He pulled Kate close and took her into his arms. Then he planted the kiss he’d wanted to give her for a while. She was his, aye, had been ever since he’d first laid eyes on her. But now she was his before God, and no one could dare to say otherwise.
It was their first kiss as husband and wife.
The first kiss of them bound together.
He kissed her gently, but with the power of all the love that he had for her. Her lips opened to him like the petals of a rose in spring—soft, and warm, and tender. His tongue stroked hers, licked it, promising what he’d do to her next, to consummate the marriage. She exhaled a moan, audible only to him, and set his blood on fire with just that.
A cough brought Ian back to reality. He stopped and glanced at the priest who looked at him with reproach.
“Now I invite everyone into the church to bless the union with the sermon and the prayers,” the priest said.
Their crowd of guests erupted in a cheer, and they followed the priest inside the church. During the sermon, Ian welcomed it as an opportunity to ask God personally to bless him and Kate.
After the sermon, they all went back to Dundail. The guests went in first, ceremoniously. When everyone was inside, Ian squeezed his wife’s hand and they entered the great hall. Cheers and hoots burst from the small crowd of a hundred or so, and coins were thrown at them as a symbol of wealth and prosperity.
Kate and he stopped before their guests, and Ian’s heart filled with warmth at the sight of his clan. They gave way to Kate and Ian, and he walked with his wife through the crowd to the table of honor.
“I must be the happiest man in the world,” Ian said to Kate.
“Not as happy as I am,” Kate said, leaning her head on his shoulder.
Amy Cambel came up to them, and Kate beamed, and the two women turned around and talked in English. Ian marveled at the two of them, from the future, who had both come to the past to find the happiness of their lifetime.
When Amy returned to her seat, Kate turned to Ian, giddy with excitement. “She’s really from my country, my time. I just found a new friend,” she said joyfully. “Such a wonderful woman.”
“Nae as wonderful as ye are.”
The servants Ian had hired for the feast brought in the dishes. Ian had to hire more cooks, too, to help Kate. But she was still in charge of the kitchen together with Manning. The Crazy Mary was brought in, emitting all kinds of delicious aromas, as well as roasted fish, game, venison, and pork. Bread and cooked vegetables were brought in, as well as more wine, ale, and uisge.
A minstrel started a Gaelic ballad, and the atmosphere grew even more cheerful. Ian had asked Manning to find the Cambel banners, and Cadha had cleaned them with pleasure. Now they hung on the walls of the great hall, just as Ian remembered from his father’s early days.
Ian didn’t think he’d ever been as happy as he was now.
“You’re smiling,” Kate whispered. “You haven’t stopped smiling.”
“Aye, since I saw ye by the church.”
“I love it when you smile.”
“’Tis because ye filled my heart. Ye mended all the cracks and found the broken pieces. Yer love healed me.”
“And your love healed me.”
“Do ye ken what I’d like to do now that my heart is healed?”
“What?”
“Consummate the marriage. And see if that fertility custom of holding a bairn has any powers.”
Kate giggled, her cheeks blushing.
“But we have all these guests.”
Ian stood up and raised his glass. “Good men and women,” he announced. “’Tis customary that the marriage doesna have powers until ’tis consummated. Do ye, good people, mind if my bride and I retreat for that purpose?”
The hall erupted in cheers of approval and wolf howls. Men and women beat against the tables with their fists.
“See,” he said. “The guests dinna mind.”
He offered his hand to Kate and she placed her palm into his.
“Come, Katie” he said. “I canna wait to make ye my wife—as ye said, in all senses of the word.”
She followed him, Ian’s cock hardening in anticipation of giving her the pleasure she deserved.
But as the door of his bedchamber closed and he began undressing, the part of his body that swelled the most was his heart.
THE END
Loved Ian and Kate’s story? Read Owen and Amber’s story in Highlander’s Love.
Find out why Sìneag started matchmaking people through time in a free prequel: https://mariahstone.com/sineag/
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