Page 40 of Highlander's Escaped Prisoner
Bryce nodded slowly, squared his shoulders, and took a deep breath. “Since we have been strangers for so long,” he said in an authoritative voice, “and due to the grievous wrong you have done me, I cast you out of my life. I am ashamed to be your son, so you are my father no longer, and your name will never be spoken by me again. If you hang, I will feel nothing. Goodbye, Gregor Blair. You are one of the most despicable men who everlived.” He watched, his face expressionless, as his father was dragged away.
Despite his bravado, Bryce was bleeding inside at having to say goodbye to the man who had taught him to ride, to climb trees, to play chess, and to handle the estate accounts. Gregor had hugged him when he fell and hurt his knees, picked him up when he fell off his pony...where had it all gone wrong?
Nessa saw the shine of tears in his eyes and wished that she could wipe away his hurt. His outward strength and size belied the tender heart that beat within him, and as she watched him, she could see it breaking.
Suddenly, he took a deep breath and forced a smile onto his face. “Come, Nessa. We have an announcement to make.” He took her hand.
The entire assembly looked up expectantly, and Roy glanced anxiously over at his daughter, but Nessa smiled at him. This was their moment.
“Lairds, ladies, gentlemen,” he said proudly. “This lovely lady, Nessa Guthrie, daughter of Laird Roy Guthrie, has consented to be my wife. We hope that our union will heal the breach between the Blair and Guthrie clans and that no more lives will have to be sacrificed. However, we are not marrying for that reason, but because we sincerely love each other. We hope that our union will produce children who are loyal to both families and that instead of being adversaries, we will become allies. Perhaps there are some of you who are still doubtful, but we are not. Whether Nessa and I were McDonalds, Frasers, Beatties, McKinnons, or any other clan, we would still be in love with each other, and true love heals every hurt, so we ask you all to give us your blessing.”
A great cheer erupted from the assembly, and when Nessa and Bryce smiled at each other, it was obvious to everyone that their marriage would be a lasting one.
“And since our families will now be related to each other,” Roy said happily as he looked around at the sea of faces before him, “there will be no more arguments about the disputed lands. We will both govern it, and so will the children of Nessa and Bryce, forever.”
More cheering began, then Roy raised his glass. “To Nessa and Bryce!” he exclaimed. “And to love! Sláinte Mhath!”
“Sláinte Mhath!” came the joyful chorus, and after that, the happy couple was surrounded by a throng of well-wishers, and if anyone noticed the sadness in Bryce’s eyes, no one remarked on it except Nessa.
“The past is the past, my darling,” she murmured, when the throng had dispersed. “We cannot change it, but we can make a wonderful future.”
Bryce looked into Nessa’s cloud-colored eyes and smiled. “You are right, Nessa, and I suppose I will learn to forgive him in the end, but it will take a long while.”
“Then I will help you,” she whispered. She looked around as someone touched her elbow.
“I think,” Lady McAllister remarked with a twinkle in her eye, “that we ladies should have a meeting to plan the wedding. There is a bridal dress to design, and we cannot leave such important matters to men!”
“Indeed,” Nessa agreed, laughing. “But if I had to marry this man in a cave with nothing but a sack to wear, I would still wedhim and count myself the most fortunate woman alive.”
22
“For pity’s sake, stand still!” Maudie said irritably as Nessa shifted nervously from foot to foot.
She was trying with all her might to make a tuck in the waist of her wedding dress, but the bride-to-be was finding it impossible to stay in one place long enough to allow her to do so.
“I swear there is half a stone less o’ ye than there was last week. Ye are wasting away before my eyes!”
Nessa could well believe it. She had hardly been able to eat for the last fortnight, and half of the meals she had been served in that time had been sent away untasted. “I am too nervous to eat, Maudie,” she said anxiously. “Did you feel like this when you were a bride?”
“I can hardly remember that far back, hen!” Maudie laughed. “I remember my mammy takin’ me aside an’ scarin’ the wits out o’ me wi’ stories about her weddin’ night. I was frightened tae death.” She raised her eyebrows almost up to her hairline andchuckled.
Nessa squealed. “And...was it bad?”
“Not at a’,” Maudie replied, shaking her head. “I was frightened, but my Tam was that gentle an’ lovin’ that he made my first time wonderful.” Her eyes misted over with tears as they looked far back into the past to her wedding night. Her beloved husband had died of typhus after sixteen happy years of marriage, and she had never looked at another man since.
“I hope I am as happy as you were, Maudie,” Nessa said tenderly. “I remember Tam. He always made me laugh, and I was so sad when he left us.”
Maudie dashed the tears from her eyes impatiently. “It was a long time ago, lass, an’ I have my bairns tae comfort me, an’ my grandbairns.”
“I long for a child of my own,” Nessa said longingly. “And if we cannot conceive one by ourselves, we will take in a foundling.”
“Shhh!” Maudie was outraged and shook Nessa by the shoulders. “Dinnae talk like that, mistress! Of course ye will be a mother, an’ a fine one at that. I have seen the young laird lookin’ at wee babbies, an’ I know he was born tae be a father. Now, stand still an’ let me look at ye.”
She took a few steps back and clapped her hands together as she smiled at Nessa in sheer delight. “Oh, ye look like a princess fae a fairy tale, mistress,” she breathed. “The loveliest bride I have ever seen.”
Nessa looked down at the dress that Maudie had slaved over for weeks. If she looked beautiful, it was because of her friend, since love had gone into every stitch of the garment. It was made ofblue-gray satin that matched her eyes perfectly, with a modest round neck and long sleeves that came to a point at her wrists. It hugged her tiny waist, then flared out into a bell shape, draping over her curving hips and falling a few inches short of her feet to allow the frill of her cream-colored petticoat to peep out. There was a crown of spring wildflowers in her hair—crocuses, snowdrops, and bluebells—and she carried a basket of them on her arm.
Maudie sighed as she gazed at the girl who had become a woman before her eyes. “I remember when ye were just a wee thing,” she said wistfully, clasping her hands in front of her. “I could see that ye were goin’ tae be a beauty even then, mistress, but I never dreamed o’ this.” Once more, her eyes had filled with tears, and Nessa stepped forward to wrap her arms around the little woman who was more dear to her than the mother she had never known.
