as her husband? In the sight of her father? In the sight of God?
“I take you as my husband, Tristan.”
He leaned in and brushed his plump lips over hers in a subtle promise of more to come. Her knees were unsteady but he held her up and smiled, looking into her eyes.
Was that it? “Are we…”
He nodded. “We are.”
“We will have a proper ceremony with a priest later.”
They all agreed with her father.
Mary cried and her husband pulled her closer under his arm.
“For now, let us do as my daughter suggests. Tie him up.” He pointed to Neill. “We will question him in the morning.” Tristan volunteered to do it. The captain and Mr. Jones offered to help.
Rose watched them move closer to the shadows. She heard the captain suggest tying their captive to a tree. Tristan shook his head. Rose didn’t hear his reply while Mr. Jones disappeared into the darkness.
“You were correct,” her father told her, laying his head on his folded surcoat. “He does seem to love you, Daughter.”
She nodded and bit her lip trying not to cry. So much for one night. So much. She was Tristan’s wife!
“What do you think of him, Father?” she asked as her gaze was pulled back to Tristan.
“We will see. As long as he protects you, I will have no quarrel with him.”
Rose wondered what had transpired between him and Tristan, and between Tristan and the captain. They all seemed to accept him, even like him. She smiled. She would ask her husband later. Her husband! Dear God, she closed her eyes and prayed for strength of mind and courage to be with him as a wife.
She smiled and kissed Mary’s cheek when she came near. Together, they watched Mr. Jones return with a coil of rope around his shoulder.
Tristan bent over Neill and pushed him over on his belly, his face in the dust.
Mr. Jones cut a length of the rope and handed it to him then he handed another cut piece to the captain, who knelt at Neill’s ankles. They tied his wrists and ankles together and left him lying where he was.
“Your husband saved me from the flames,” Mary said softly.
Saved me from the flames.
He’d saved Rose, as well. She understood such gratitude. “What happened?” she asked the captain’s wife.
Mary looked off into the distance, remembering, the smoke, the fire, the fear. “They bolted the door from the outside and set fire to the house. I was locked inside.”
Rose glared at Neill, realizing that he did know Mary was in her home when her cottage was lit on fire. They’d bolted her door to keep her in. Oh, how could he have become so despicable?
As Mary spoke, her eyes glistened with tears in the firelight. “I think the smoke would have killed me sooner than the flames. I could not breathe anymore. I know I was dying. But then I heard something loud like a crash. It was the door being kicked in. Light and fresh, clean air filled the house. I took a few blessed breaths. He picked me up and asked me about you before I passed out. Next thing I remember I was waking in their presence—alive.
“We set out to find you and William and Tristan would not rest. He would not even sleep.”
“I am thankful he saved you, Mary,” Rose told her, looping her arm through her friend’s.
“As am I,” the captain said, reaching them. “He got to us all just in time.”
Rose grinned at her friend. How long had he admired Tristan and now to meet him, to know he saved him and his wife?
“I knew he would come, Captain,” she reminded him.
The captain smiled and then put his arm around Tristan when her husband grew closer.
Tristan’s smile was slight, his green eyes, vivid and eclipsed by a few black curls when he looked at the captain. “We will talk aboot yer curiosity over me tomorrow, on the way to Hamilton. All right then.” He swept the curls over his head with a quick rake of his fingers and looked around at all of them. He took Rose’s hand and pulled her away.
“Good dreams,” Rose called out when what she really wanted to do was cry out for help.
No. Hadn’t she nearly purred all over him just a few short hours ago? She didn’t know what to expect! No one had ever told her what it was like or how she should feel.
“Tristan,” Jones called out softly before they disappeared into the