Susan King - [Celtic Nights 01] (51 page)

"I could hardly go myself—if I left you, our handfasting vows would be annulled." He smiled. "When is our wedding to be? Can I not convince you to hold it before Christmas?"

"My kinfolk want us to wait the year and a day, so that they can have a Christmas wedding and benefit from all the luck that such an event would bring. And our child will be born by then, so I would prefer to wait as well."

He frowned, and stood silently, watching his golden-haired son chattering with Eoghan as they stacked stones on the beach.

"What is it? Does the idea of handfasting still concern you? We are married, in God's eyes, and in the eyes of every Highlander."

He nodded. "I know."

"You are worried about the birth," she said gently.

He shrugged, unwilling to admit to her how concerned he was, how fearful he sometimes felt when he thought of what Alainna would face with the birth of a child, and how his first wife had not survived her second travail. He could not bear to lose Alainna. He took her hand in silence.

"We will be fine," she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. "This I know. Our future is bright and long before us."

He slipped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her close as they looked out over the loch. He kissed the top of her head.

"It is indeed," he said. "And we will live together in that castle on the green isle."

He pointed across the loch toward the island. The base of the tower, partly constructed of sandstone blocks, was golden in the sunlight. From the shore to the pebbled island beach a wide new causeway, built of stone and rubble, formed a walkway. The sound of mallets and chisels wielded by the masons echoed over the loch.

Alainna turned and looked over her shoulder. "Ah," she said, "here they come. Now the children need not wait much longer to see your castle."

"Our castle," he murmured. He heard a dog bark and looked up to see Finan dashing across the green meadow that skirted the loch, with the members of Clan Laren following him. Conan and Eoghan scampered to meet them, calling and waving. The dog barked ecstatically and ran up to lick their faces. Giric lunged forward to keep the dog from knocking the boys over with his enthusiasm.

Lorne and Una walked in the lead, with Ruari and Esa behind them. Niall, Lulach, Beitris, Donal, Aenghus, and the rest came behind them. Lorne laughed and bent down as the two small boys greeted him and showed him the stones they had collected. Giric picked Conan up and hoisted him to his shoulders, and Ruari swooped Eoghan onto his own shoulders.

Sebastien chuckled, watching them. "I sent word to Struan that I would be happy to foster Eoghan here at Kinlochan when he reaches that age," he said.

"I am glad. Lileas is not yet ready to give him up, but I have good news—she told me that she and Struan expect a child of their own by next spring."

Sebastien lifted a brow. "That wedding was a surprise to me, I will admit."

"Not to me. Cormac was never as good to her as his own brother was. And there is an old custom in ancient Celtic tradition that encourages a man to wed a widowed sister-in-law to take care of her and his brother's children. Struan saw fit to follow that old tradition. I think he has always cared for Lileas, and Father Padruig was certainly pleased. Clan Nechtan will be a different clan now, with Struan as their leader until Eoghan reaches manhood."

Sebastien gazed over his shoulder, where the Stone Maiden rose, silver gray and gleaming in the sun, overlooking the loch. "The Maiden must be greatly pleased by these changes, by the peace that has finally come to her land, and to her people."

"It is what she wants for us," Alainna said. Her smile was soft and beautiful, and he leaned down to kiss her lips, unable to resist that sweetness.

"Did I show you the newest design for the castle?" he asked.

"You show me a new one nearly every week, adding this feature, improving that, as the work goes along," she said. "You and the master mason have become fast friends, and you are on the island so much these days that I think I have lost you to your stone castle."

"You will never lose me," he said. "And besides, you have your own stones to keep you happy. Whenever you want me for any reason—"

"Any reason?" she asked, eyes glittering, smile delightfully wicked.

He kissed her then, hard and deep and fast, so that she moaned beneath his mouth, and he felt her begin to melt in his arms. "Any reason," he emphasized, as he drew back. "Just send someone across that new causeway, and I will run back to you." He smiled at her. "Master John and I have designed the walls of the great hall with niches all around the room, to allow for other stones to be inserted later."

She looked up. "My stones?" she asked.

He nodded. "Each one, as you finish it, will be set into place in the great hall, where the story of Clan Laren will be seen by generations of this clan, long into the future."

She hugged him, her head on his shoulder. "Thank you," she said, her voice muffled against his chest. "A thousand blessings on you for thinking of that."

"A thousand blessings,
mo caran
," he murmured, "are already mine."

"We are ready to see this island castle of yours, Sebastien
Ban,"
Lorne called as he and the others drew near. "And a fine day it is to see such a place." He smiled, his white hair blowing in the soft breeze.

"Then we shall go," Sebastien said, and took Alainna's hand to lead her down to the stony beach, the others falling into line behind them.

The causeway, built of a variety of limestone, sandstone, shale, and rubble, stretched in a bridge of stone from the beach below the Maiden toward the island, wide enough for three horses to ride abreast, high enough that the water, even in spring flux, would not cover the stones. Men sent by the king had worked for months to construct it, and although it was not yet done, it was ready to be used.

"What will you call this place?" Niall asked, as they stood together on the pebbled beach and looked across the water.

"We have not yet decided," Sebastien said.

"Castle MacLaren," Lulach said, and others nodded agreement.

"Kinlochan," Donal said. "Castle Kinlochan."

"Maiden Castle," Esa suggested.

Sebastien smiled as he listened to each one. He lifted his head to the winds that swept across the loch, and looked up at the stone pillar, and then smiled down at Alainna.

"What do you think we should call our castle, my love?" he murmured.

She tilted her head, considering. "Castle Promise," she said. "For the island that it rests on is the Land of Promise."

He smiled, and felt his soul fill to the brim with love for her, and for these people—his own—and for this place, his home. He reached down and took Conan's hand in one of his, and Alainna's in the other, and he stepped forward with them to cross over to the Land of Promise.

* * *

Alainna left an offering at the foot of the pillar stone at dawn, a handful of flowers and a small stone carved by her own hand, a relief of an endless knot inside a circle. She looked up at the Stone Maiden and whispered a chant of gratitude.

Then she stepped back, the green of summer all around her, the sun gentle and warm, a scattering of bright flowers in the grass at her feet. She began to walk away, while the waves of the loch shushed peacefully and birds sang in the trees.

She felt her skin prickle gently, and she turned back.

In front of the pillar, where the rising sun should have cast the stone's first shadow, a young girl stood gazing toward the loch. Newborn sunlight lent a soft glow to her form.

She was slim and delicate, with hair like pale gold spilling down her back. Her plain gown was the same dove gray as the stone. Alainna noticed that the long, trailing hem of the gown touched the granite and seemed to disappear within it, as if the girl were the stone's shadow come to life.

As Alainna stared, the girl turned and looked at her. Her eyes were kind, their color the soft silver of the light before dawn. Her lovely young face looked familiar, somehow.

"Alainna," the girl said, smiling. Her voice was like a breath of wind. "Peace and grace be to you, and to yours."

"Peace and grace to you, Maiden," Alainna whispered, awed.

The maiden smiled. "When all seemed lost for us, you were our only hope. The legends and the people of Clan Laren were placed in your safekeeping. You honored them, you and your golden warrior, and saved them. Now our clan will live on."

"And you?" Alainna asked. "Will you live on, now that you are free of the stone?"

"I am free," she said, her voice soft as the summer air. "And I will be with my clan once more. You will see me again."

"When?" Alainna asked. "Here?"

"Soon," the maiden said. As the sun rose higher, she became translucent, like a delicate slice of rose quartz.

"Maiden—"

"You will know me," the girl whispered. She vanished with the growing light, only the shadow of the stone remaining where she had stood.

* * *

"Hush," she heard a voice say. "Your mother sleeps."

Alainna opened her eyes. She sat in the summer grass with her back against the pillar stone, the granite warm in the sun. Fresh wildflowers lay pooled in her lap.

She looked up to see Sebastien and Conan sitting in the grass nearby, plucking flowers. Sebastien smiled at her, and tossed another flower into her lap. Finan, ears pricking, watched Conan pull flowers and toss them.

"You slept so peacefully," Sebastien said. "We did not want to disturb you. But the others have gone back up to the fortress, after seeing the castle on the green isle." He stood over her. "Our little adventure on the island this morning tired you out,
mo caran.
Almost as soon as you sat there to rest, you fell asleep."

She smiled up at him, and at Conan who laughed and stood to run in circles with Finan. She smoothed her hand over the sweet curve of her belly.

"Sebastien," she said, "would you mind if our first child is not a son, but a girl?"

He reached down and took her hand and helped her to her feet. "I would not mind at all," he said. "I would be pleased."

She smiled as she felt his arm settle on her shoulders. The child tumbled within her, a joyful turn. "I think our child will be a girl. A beautiful girl, with pale gold hair and silver-gray eyes."

"I think you must have had a dream," he said as they walked away, with Conan and Finan loping around them in circles.

"I am living a dream," she said, and smiled at him.

The End

Want more from Susan King?

Page forward for a Special Author Note

followed by an excerpt from

THE SWAN MAIDEN

The Celtic Nights Series

Book Two

Dear Reader,

While many clan names originate from Normans who settled in Scotland, a few medieval documents exist to prove that some Norman knights adopted the Celtic names of their Scottish brides, particularly where the bride's inheritance was considerable. Although surnames were not in consistent use in the twelfth century, a prestigious surname symbolized honor, status, and lineage in Norman culture. Highland clan names, which also indicated honorable, ancient heritages, appear in the documents with more frequency, especially as Normans filtered into Scotland.