Page 145 of Laird of Flint
“Your pardon, Abbess,” Eve said, “but Sister Agnes and I have had a long journey. We can scarcely stay awake. May we retire?”
The abbess gave her a pointed glare. “Will ye join us for matins?”
“Ne’er fear,” Eve said. “My cousin has insisted upon it.”
The abbess gave Carenza a smug grin. “Good.”
As far as Carenza knew, Eve kept her promise.
Carenza, however, did not.
Well before matins, while it was still dark, Hew arrived at the convent on horseback.
Carenza could scarcely contain her relief and joy. How she’d yearned to fall into his arms. To feel his heart pumping with hers. And how she’d feared this day would never come. They embraced wordlessly, letting their eyes and hands and lips convey their longing.
“Och, ye two,” Sister Eve admonished in a whisper. “Save it for after the weddin’.”
Hew withdrew from their kiss. “How can I thank you enough, Eve?”
“Just give this wee one a proper da.” She ambled close enough to place a tender palm atop Carenza’s belly.
“I will,” he promised.
Eve gave him a scrap of parchment. Then she handed Carenza’s wedding dress, neatly folded, to her.
Hew read the parchment. “This is the place? In Mauchline?”
“Aye. I’ve told the father to expect ye in the morn.” She winked at Carenza. “He’ll marry ye then.”
“On the morrow?” Carenza asked.
Her first thought was that wasn’t enough time.
After all, she was Lady Carenza of Dunlop, daughter of the laird. She was representing the Dunlop clan. She had to look her best.
“The sooner, the better,” Hew said, gazing down at her with love.
She squirmed. She wore a nun’s gray tunic and a grayer scapular that was stained with leek pottage. Her once freshly bathed feet were caked with dirt. The pearls she’d pinned so carefully into her hair were lost. What remained of her braids had escaped her wimple in haphazard coils and springs.
Yet she knew he saw none of it.
He saw her shining eyes. Her gleeful grin. He saw The One he wanted to make his wife. The mother of his children.
And she knew in her heart of hearts that she would never be more beautiful to him than she was right now.
She gave him a smile so full of love, there was room for nothing else.
“What are we waitin’ for?”
Chapter 26
Summer
Carenza cast a last handful of grain to the three hens scratching in front of the byre she’d begun to think of as home.
Nearby, Hew sat on a stump, weaving wattle by the morning light, making more panels to protect them from the elements.
In a way, itwashome. This was the sagging byre with rotten timbers and a mossy roof where she and Hew had come long ago during the thunderstorm. The unexpected shelter at the edge of a forgotten jewel of a glen in the middle of the lush Dunlop woods. They’d made it their love nest that day.
