a MacCordy mon would make the curative power of the match e’en stronger.”
Sophie nodded. “It was verra hard to say naught, but that also had to be.” She smiled slightly when she saw how carefully Nella watched her. “Dinnae fret o’er me. I may have hoped for something different, but I anticipated such an ending. And, aye, I suspect I shall trouble ye with some bad days, but, at the moment, I am numb. ’Tisnae just that I have lost the mon I love, but I fear I have lost all chance of ending Rona’s curse. And mayhap my pain is already eased by the knowledge that I will still have his child to love.”
“His what?!”
“Hush, Nella. His child,” she whispered.
“Nay. How can ye tell so soon?”
“Trust me, Nella. I am certain. I felt it the moment the seed was planted. ’Tis odd, though, for Alpin was certain no MacCordy laird had e’er bred a bastard. Who can say? Mayhap the end of the curse will come through this child. Mayhap ’tis fate at work here.”
“And mayhap your kinsmen willnae bring the roof down with their angry bellows?”
“Ah, there is that. Weel, we shall deal with that trouble when it presents itself. Best we get some sleep now,” Sophie said as she moved to the rough bed of blankets arranged for her and Nella. “We didnae cover much distance this day and I should like to get an early start in the morning.”
“Alpin?” Sophie heard herself say as she abruptly sat up.
“M’lady? Is something wrong?” asked her guard, Angus.
“A dream, I think.”
Since Angus had chosen the first watch, Sophie knew she had only slept an hour or two. She looked around but saw no sign of Alpin. Yet she could not shake the strong feeling that he was near at hand. Just as she was deciding that she was letting false hope lead her, Alpin and Eric rode into the camp. She sat stunned as Alpin dismounted and walked to her bed to stand over her.
“What are ye doing here?” she asked. “’Tis your wedding night.”
“Nay, not yet,” Alpin replied and held out his hand. “I have come to give ye a choice, Lady Sophie Hay.”
“A choice?” she asked as she put her hand in his and let him tug her to her feet.
“Me and all the darkness that surrounds me, or freedom and the sunlight.”
“What of Lady Margaret?”
“The last I saw of her, she was kissing the hem of the priest’s robes and thanking God for saving her from an unholy union.”
“Then I choose you,” she said, so choked with emotion that her voice was barely above a whisper.
Alpin’s only outward reaction was to nod and brush the back of his hand over her cheek. The look on his face, however, told Sophie he was deeply moved, as did the faint tremor in his hand. She knew she would get all the emotion she could handle later when they were alone.
There was little time for her to think about the big step she had just taken. She and Nella were told to collect their cloaks and mount the horses. The three young men from Nochdaidh were ordered to return at their own pace. Then they were racing over the countryside, Sophie clinging to Alpin and Nella to Eric. A little unsettled by how swiftly they moved through the night, she closed her eyes.
The promise of dawn was in the sky when they reined in before the tiny stone chapel in the village. Sophie was so unsteady when they dismounted, Alpin had to carry her into the church. She nearly laughed when he roused the people sleeping in the church with a lot of yelling and a few well-placed kicks. It became even harder to hide her growing amusement as a yawning priest married them, Alpin briefly kissed her, and she was hurried out of the church. The sight of the rapidly lightening sky sobered her quickly, however, and she said nothing as she was tossed into the saddle, Alpin mounted behind her, and they raced to the keep.
“Why is Nella crying?” Alpin asked the moment they were safely within the walls of the keep. “I had thought she had come to trust me, or, at least, nay fear me.”
Sophie ached to tell him what she thought this marriage might accomplish, but bit back the words. She could be wrong. It would be cruel to convince him all would be well now, only to discover nothing had changed. One look at Nella’s wide-eyed expression told her that her maid was thinking much the same.
“My arse hurts,” Nella blurted out.
There was a moment of heavy silence. Sophie could feel that Eric and Alpin were struggling as hard as she was not to laugh. She finally croaked out the word “bath” and headed toward her bedchamber, Nella quickly following. If she understood Alpin’s strangled words correctly, he was also going to bathe and wanted her to join him in his bedchamber in one hour. Just the thought of what would ensue when she joined him in an hour had Sophie’s blood running so hot she doubted she would need the fire to heat her bathwater.
Alpin stared at the meal set out upon a table near the fire. Coward that he was, he had eaten the meat prepared for him and had quickly had his plate removed. Sophie might understand and accept him for what he was, but he still shied away from complete exposure. It was one of the things he had been reduced to that he himself found hard to bear.
Sensing her approach, he turned to face her as she entered the room. She looked beautiful in her thin, lace-trimmed nightshift, and he found her scent to be a heady perfume. She also looked delicate, soft, and innocent, and he felt doubt assail him. Surely it was wrong to drag such a warm, gentle soul into his world of shadow and blood?
“Ye cannae change your mind now,” Sophie said as she moved to the table and helped herself to a honey-sweetened oatcake.
“Ye dinnae belong here, locked into the darkness,” he said.
“I belong with ye, Alpin, be it in shadow or in sunlight so bright it makes our eyes hurt.” She looked at the food on the table, then back at him. “Ye cannae eat any of this?”
“Nay. There is nay longer a taste to it for me, and the act of eating it only serves to stir up a strong need for the other.”
“Do ye miss it?”
“Och, aye. I yearn to sit at a table weighted with food of all kinds and eat until I cannae move. I yearn to stand in the sunlight and nay fear the warmth of its light. I yearn to have people look at me without fear, without crossing themselves or making the sign to ward off evil. I yearn to see the flowers grow in the bailey.”
Sophie moved to wrap her arms around his waist and rest her cheek against his chest. “Ye shall have those things again.”
He gently gripped her by the chin and turned her face up to his. “Ye sound so sure of that.”
“One of us has to be.”
Alpin smiled faintly. “When I knelt beside the Lady Margaret, that undying hope of yours was one of the things I thought of. I may ne’er share it, but I wanted it. I thought of smiles, your smiles and your sweet laughter. I thought of how ye dinnae fear me, e’en when I am bellowing and ranting. And when the priest asked me to speak my vows, I looked at my trembling and weeping bride, and realized I couldnae say them to her. She was terrified of me and repulsed. If ye hadnae come into
