Bride of Ice (The Warrior Daughters of Rivenloch #2) - Glynnis Campbell Page 0,128
soon forget how close she’d come to dying.
Colban, sharing her discomfort, murmured, “Hallie wasn’t killed. Not exactly.”
“The hell she wasn’t!” Jenefer said. “I saw it, Hallie. You weren’t breathing. ’Twas miraculous. If ’tweren’t for Colban, we’d be digging a grave for you right now.”
“’Twasn’t a miracle,” Colban protested. “’Twas science.”
Morgan smacked Colban’s shoulder with the back of his hand.
“For God’s sake, don’t argue the point, ye dunderhead,” he chided. “’Tis your savin’ Hallie and her ma that’s put ye back in good graces with the Rivenlochs.”
“It has?” Colban asked.
Jenefer crossed her arms. “Well, ’tis put you back in my good graces, and if anyone wants to challenge me on that…”
Colban frowned. “But what about Archibald?”
“He deserved to die,” Hallie said.
She’d never uttered those words before, and they shocked Jenefer and Morgan.
Morgan narrowed his eyes. “What did he do?”
When Hallie refused to say, Morgan looked to Colban, who also sealed his lips.
Jenefer defended her. “If Hallie says he deserved to die, then he deserved to die.”
“That’s what Ian said as well,” Hallie told Colban. “He said if Colban the Champion thinks Archie did something bad, then logic dictates he did something bad.”
“Ian said that?” Colban breathed.
“Aye.”
He looked as if a yoke had been lifted off his back. “I’m truly forgiven?”
She nodded.
Colban let out a relieved breath. “Then there’s somethin’ I’d like to ask ye.”
“Aye?”
Morgan cleared his throat. “Would ye like us to—”
“Nay,” Colban said. “Stay. Ye can bear witness.”
Hallie stiffened. Bear witness? What was he going to say?
“Hallidis Cameliard o’ Rivenloch,” he said, “if ’tis your will, ’twould be my great honor to be a husband to ye…and a father to your bairn.”
His confession, at first so sweet and adoring, twisted quickly into a mortifying revelation of her secret. Bloody hell. How had he found out she was with child?
“Wait,” Jenefer burst out. “You have a bairn, and you didn’t tell me?”
Hallie blushed in answer, clasping a defensive hand across her belly. But her heart was breaking. Was that the only reason Colban was asking her to wed him? Out of honor?
“How did you know?” she mumbled.
“Isabel may have said something,” Colban admitted.
“And how did she know?”
Morgan tried to explain. “’Twas through a tangled web o’ gossip. But the point is Colban knows, and he wants to do the honorable thing.”
Jenefer smacked her husband on the shoulder. “The honorable thing? A marriage is based on more than honor.”
“How can ye say that?” Morgan asked. “After all, Hallie’s first marriage was based on honor. She honored the king’s bidding.”
Jenefer scowled. “And you see how that ended up.”
“And what about us?” Morgan said. “Our marriage was ordained by the king as well.”
“But we didn’t know that.”
“Still, ’tisn’t a bad way to start a marriage, with honor.”
“Pah!” Jenefer spat. “Hallie and Morgan? They’ve spent a lifetime doing the honorable thing. Don’t they deserve something more?”
While Morgan and Jenefer continued their skirmish, Hallie let her gaze slide to the man lying on the bed, who was looking at her with bemused adoration.
“I love ye,” he silently mouthed.
She bit her lip. This wasn’t going to be a marriage of honor or convenience or duty. This would be a union based on respect and generosity. Honesty and patience. Forgiveness and devotion.
Reaching across the bed, she took his hand. He lifted it to his lips and kissed the back of her hand with genuine affection.
“I love you too,” she mouthed back.
Epilogue
It was time. The wedding feast was over. Hallie had gone upstairs.
Even if this was the bride’s second marriage, Colban knew Morgan wasn’t about to spare his right hand man the indignities of the wedding night ritual.
A mob of rowdy mac Giric men hefted Colban up on their shoulders and bore him up to her bedchamber, threatening to remain to witness the consummation. Colban feigned to be mortified that they would wish to gaze upon his wife as she lay in their bed.
But when he opened the door to the gleeful shrieks of the Rivenloch ladies guarding his bride, one glance at Hallie made him glad his clansmen could feast their eyes on the prize he’d won. And then it made him want to get rid of them as soon as possible.
“That’s enough, ye greedy sots,” he chided, winking at Hallie. “Out with ye.”
They crowded around the door to steal a glimpse, cursing in mock complaint when Colban pushed them back.
Hallie dismissed her ladies with a grin, and after they all dutifully filed out, Colban closed the door.
Then he took a moment to look at his stunning bride.