Page 78 of The Cruel Highlander's Healer
“Are ye ready?” Marissa asked.
Eliza nodded. She had never been surer of anything in her life.
As the music swelled, Eliza and Marissa walked through the doors of the church. It was filled with people, most of whom Eliza did not know. Apparently, the wedding of a Laird was a well-tended event.
But Eliza did not care that she was in a room filled mostly with strangers. Because Conall stood at the end of the aisle, brown eyes locked on hers, and Eliza could see nothing else but him.
Her mother delivered her to him at the end of the aisle, placing her hand in his. The sound of the music cut off, and the priest began to speak.
“Wife,” Conall said under his breath, giving Eliza a wink as the priest addressed the congregation.
“I’m nae yer wife, yet,” Eliza whispered back, smiling at him with fondness.
“Ye will be, though,” he answered, “and then ye will bemine.”
The growl in his voice was not lost on her, and her cheeks flushed at the thought of all the ways he would stake his claim on her. She was spared any further answering as the priest announced the beginning of the handfasting.
The tartan of the MacKinnon clan was placed over their linked hands, wrapping and twining around them until they were bound to one another entirely. Eliza stared at it, love and emotion rising thick in the back of her throat.
The knot was tied, sealing their marriage as she stared deeply into Conall’s face.
Many thought him brutish. And he was, when it came to protecting the people that he loved. But she could not think of anyone who she could love more than the beautifully scarred man standing before her.
“I now pronounce ye man, and wife.”
The priests voice rang out over the crowd and Eliza beamed at her husband. Cheers went up, and she locked eyes with her mother, who was beaming at her from the front row of the church, clapping her hands enthusiastically.
“Ye may now kiss yer bride.”
Eliza leaned forward, allowing her new husband to press his lips to hers for the very first time. The rope binding their wrists together in the knot tying ceremony chafed against her skin, but she didn’t mind. Not as Conall kissed her for all the world to see.
Arms wrapped around her, pulling her away from her husband’s kiss, and Eliza looked down to see Marissa with her arms wrapped tightly around her waist.
“Ye did it,” Marissa cheered, beaming up at her daughter with tears brimming in her eyes. “Ye married the Beast of the MacKinnons. What will God have in store for ye next?”
Conall grumbled, bristling at the nickname he hated so much. Of course, when Marissa had found out how much the name grated against his skin, she’d made it a point to use it whenever she could. Usually followed up with a wink.
Kate was standing just behind Eliza’s mother, waiting with a smile to congratulate her friend. The sound of bagpipes filled the air, announcing the nuptials as the church bells began to ring.
Eliza smiled, waving her friend forward and wrapping her in a hug the moment she stepped forward.
“Ye look beautiful,” she breathed, squeezing Eliza one more time before letting her arm drop.
Flower petals filled the air as everyone tossed them up, but Eliza could see no one else but her husband.
She smiled at him, a tingle running down her spine as she knew what was about to happen next.
The day they buried Conall’s mother was the same day that they’d planned their wedding. Eliza had worried about the timing, had asked Conall if maybe they should wait. But he had been adamant.
“I willnae wait to make ye me wife,” he had growled. “I willnae wait to claim ye.”
He had meant it. And, as Eliza thought of all that claiming would entail, a thrill rocked through her. They left the church in a flurry of activity, and all through the wedding feast Eliza could hardly sit still.
Her hands kept fidgeting in her lap, and she could hardly focus enough to eat.
Finally, blessedly, much too long after their wedding ceremony, Conall stood and announced that they’d be retiring for the evening.
Hand in hand they exited the dining hall, everyone stopping to congratulate them on their way. Eliza had no doubt that the celebration would last well into the night, but she had a different type of celebration in mind.
