Love's Magic (40 page)

Deirdre laughed. “A woman who has realized that she had more vanity than she thought, eh, daughter?”

Blushing, she said, “Nicholas liked my hair.”

“I am so glad that this has turned out to be a love match after all.” Deirdre hugged her daughter from behind.

Celestia threw her mother’s arms off, her chin tilted high. “It will be a love match once his beautiful hair is as lopsided as my own.”

Nicholas poked his head in the chamber full of women. “Did I hear you calling for my beautiful head?”

Celestia’s brandished the sharp blade in her palm. “Aye! Come sit here, and let me brush your hair.”

Galiana squealed, “Nay! Nicholas, she means to shear one side of it.”

“Traitor!” Ela threw a pillow at her older sister.

Celestia leaned back with a sigh. “I suppose she is right; you are much too handsome to walk around with uneven locks.”

Nicholas chuckled, a sound so full of manly pride it made her knees tremble. He bravely came inside and kissed her cheek. “If saving your life was not proof enough of my love for you, then shear away.”

“Honorable brute, can I get no sympathy at all?” She tossed the blade to the vanity table.

Lord Robert knocked on the partially opened door. “Did you start the revels without me, then? I’ve brought the good Father Michael upstairs with me. I hope ye’re all decent.” He said loudly to the priest, “Ye never know, with a gaggle of women.”

“Enter,” Celestia called.

The priest’s one eye glittered with joy. “My Lady Celestia, I am so relieved to see ye safe. I have Maude in custody with the nuns. She’s confessed to the killing of your good servant, Bess, and shooting Viola, and other things.” He shuddered.

“But why?” Celestia asked, her eyes tearing as she remembered her sassy maid.

The priest shifted his feet. “It seems Bess saw her sneaking into the tower and thought to investigate. At the first, Maude insists that it was just an accident, that she did not mean to hit her so hard on the head.”

Nicholas scoffed, “I think not—what about the apron tied around the girl’s neck? That was no accident; that was deliberate. Poor Bess was an innocent.”

Father Michael made the sign of the cross. “Maude says that she could not let Bess live after she had seen the secret entrance into the tower. Bess was unconscious from the blow to the head, but still breathing, so Maude finished her off by strangling her with the apron strings. Then she dragged the body in the moat, and hoped it would sink.”

Nicholas shook his head. “The knight’s bodies did, and if she had helped Joseph dispose of them, she would have known that.”

Galiana blinked rapidly. “Poor Bess!”

Father Michael nodded his head and forced a smile. “The nuns are saying prayers for Bess, that her murdered soul will find the light of heaven. And as for Maude—she is in solitary confinement. Those nuns could give lessons on earthly retribution. If Maude is not sorry now for the sins she has committed, she soon will be.”

He said in a loud whisper to Lord Robert, “Now talk about a gaggle of women!”

“Father,” Celestia exclaimed. “And have you prayed for Joseph, as well?”

“Yea. He was a simple man, doing as he was taught. I pray that God will forgive his misguided sins.”

The good priest shuffled his stance and peered closely at her. “Is something amiss with your hair, my lady?”

Celestia pouted. “Hand me the veil, Mother.”

Father Michael puffed with pride and clasped his hands. “On to a happier subject—a ceremony?”

Galiana sighed with delight. “Aye, a renewal of vows in the old apple orchard.”

Lord Robert clapped his hand on Nicholas’s shoulder. “A true welcome into the family.”

Nicholas smiled past the grunt of pain stuck in his throat. “Any more welcomes like that and I won’t make it out the door.”

Robert flushed.

Ed and Ned raced into the room, their tunics the same ruby red as Nicholas’s. “Viola said Sally has everything ready; we have but to show ourselves.”

Nicholas gazed at his wife, a vision in ivory and gold. The others around them faded from his mind, and every fiber in his being focused on Celestia. She stood, then walked to him with love shining from her eyes and placed her hand on his arm. He leaned down and captured her lips in a kiss that both promised and demanded.

Ela giggled and Galiana blushed a pretty pink as the older women smiled in remembrance. Lord Robert huffed. “Enough of that! Ye’re married, now!”

Deirdre punched her husband in the arm. “And since when has that stopped you from behaving like a man claiming his bride?”

Lord Robert’s fair face turned a hot scarlet.

She pursed her lips smugly. “That’s right!”

Evianne pulled her granddaughter aside as the boisterous Montehues filed out for the reaffirmation of vows beneath the early summer sun.

“Remember,
cariad,
that
new
love is splendid.” She bent down and whispered, “
True
love is uneven hair and onion breath.”

Epilogue

Five months later
Santiago de Compostela, Spain

N
icholas, are we there yet?”

He used his knees to turn around on Brenin, the loyal stallion that had been one of many gifts from his wife. “Aye, a bit farther, ‘Tia. How are you feeling?”

Her veil billowed in the slight breeze as she shouted, “How do you think I am feeling? My back aches, my hind end is sore, and I am bloody hot!”

She immediately retracted her complaints. “I am sorry, Nicholas. It’s not hot. The rain is falling, the wind won’t stop howling. I am hot. Burning from the inside out. I am honored to make this pilgrimage with you. All the way to Spain.” Her eyes watered and she rubbed her swollen belly. “I didn’t know I was pregnant with ten babies when we left! I’m carrying a litter, Nicholas, and you just don’t understand.”

Nicholas hid his smile as best he could. Ceffyl carried her rider with care, and they had traveled with no hurry. He thought his wife beautiful with her added flesh; she fairly glowed with good health.

He bit his lip and gave her a wink. She was only five months along, yet her frame was so petite that the babe took up most of it.

He cantered back to her and offered her his hand. “I told you that we should have stayed in that pretty village along the coast. We could have made this journey after the babe is born.”

She stuck her chin in the air. “Nay. We said that we would make this pilgrimage, and we shall. But I want our child born at Falcon Keep, Nicholas, so no dawdling.”

“I could have come alone, Celestia, and you would not be discomfited.”

She turned on him, a round and feisty warrior. “You’ll not leave me behind! You said you wanted me to make this journey with you. Are you trying to get rid of me, Nicholas?” Her cheeks pinkened. “I am too fat!”

“You are lovely. I am only thinking of you, ‘Tia.”

She sniffed and studied the landscape, refusing to be mollified.

He chuckled and looked to his men. Forrester doted upon Celestia’s every need, even before she thought of it. All doubts as to the knight’s loyalty had been put to rest when he’d arrived, with Ed and Ned and Brenin, to help him escape Peregrine Castle without being killed. It seemed the twins had found him in the village stocks, and set him free. Henry, Willy, and Bertram had sworn their fealty, and he knew that any of the four would lay down their lives for his wife.

He was more than content with his lot in life, even if his wife did fluctuate from tears to joy faster than he could keep up.

Nicholas led the way into the village that housed the Cathedral of Santiago. He dismounted before the shrine, bowing his head. He had arrived at the end of this pilgrimage a better man than when he’d planned it so long ago. He helped Celestia down from Ceffyl.

They walked hand in hand through the doors of the cathedral. There, beneath a high altar, lay a marble sarcophagus containing the body of Saint James the Apostle.

They each went to their knees. “I’ll need help getting back up again, Nicholas,” Celestia said playfully.

“I imagine, ‘Tia, that being pregnant is akin to wearing armor.”

“If you were to wear it all on your belly, I suppose!”

“We have traveled far to be here,” he whispered. “This is truly a holy place.”

“Yea. So take your time, husband, in asking for your boon.”

He looked at Celestia in surprise. “I have no boon to ask for! I but want to give thanks.”

Her heart fluttered. He was such a good man. She bowed her head, sending her gratitude, as well.

Nicholas kissed the velvet box before laying it at the base of the sarcophagus. The sun beat down upon his head through the stained-glass windows, creating a multicolored halo around his body.

Celestia’s heart turned. She placed a hand on her stomach. Or was that the babe?

A foot kicked her in the ribs.

Light and warmth suddenly bathed her from the inside out, and she felt both filled and surrounded with love and knowledge. She basked in contentment.

After a time Nicholas nudged his wife, who appeared to be in some sort of a trance. “Celestia? There are others behind us awaiting their turn to kneel.”

She allowed him to haul her to her feet. “I am ready, Nicholas.”

They walked together out of the cathedral and into the sunshine. “Thank you, Celestia, for coming with me on this journey. I know it has not been one of luxury or comfort.”

“Oh, hush, Nicholas!” She rubbed her belly. “James and I are enjoying every minute.”

Nicholas stopped. “James?”

She grinned. “Yes. James. A fat and healthy baby boy who will have a wild Scot’s heart along with some stubborn English honor. I am most pleased, Nicholas.”

Nicholas laughed. “I am delighted that I could accommodate you, my lady.”

The smile slipped from her face. “My knees are sore from kneeling so long on the cold floor, and I am hungry. Yes, hungry! I want some fruit—nay—I want bread and gravy.” She waddled toward Ceffyl and allowed Forrester to assist her onto the horse.

“Nay, not bread and gravy. Mutton with mint? Beef and lemon? Eels in butter? I vow I am starved, husband.”

Nicholas gave a last glance filled with thanks toward the saint who had helped him find his soul.

Saint James the Apostle and
Someone’s
sense of humor.

Blessed be.

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