Page 23 of MacAlister's Hope
“Too long?” Fia looked from her foster mother to Symon, who had one of those silly grins on his face she had seen so often when he was cooking up a surprise for one of his lasses. “Why too long?”
“May I see that pretty stone,” Elena asked, ignoring Fia’s question completely. She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers impatiently.
Fia pulled it from the pouch she had yet to tie back on her belt and placed it in Elena’s palm. Elena held the stone out for a puzzled Symon to take from her.
“Hold it in your palm and tell them what you told me,” Elena said to him
Symon looked from the stone to his wife and back, then shrugged. “I told her Kieron loves you very much, Fia, enough to keep his promises to you even when faced with the Devil of Kilmartin. I told her I believed he was a man worthy of you.” A milky, but distinctly pink, ribbon of light filled the stone.
Fia had not heard that name in many years, an epithet used by many until Elena came among them. Now it made her smile as she reached for Kieron’s hand.
“Kieron is brave beyond measure,” she said, looking up at the man she loved with all her heart.
Symon chuckled. “He also told me that he wants to wed with you. Do you feel the same?”
“Aye, but—“
“No buts, sprite. You’ve said enough.” Elena held her hand out and Symon poured the stone into it. Elena held it up for all to see.
“Symon and I would be very happy to see the two of you wed.”
The stone turned a brilliant pink, with a shimmering deep blue weaving through it.
Fia stared at the stone. “What does that mean?”
“I do not ken, love,” Kieron answered her.
“I think it means happiness,” Elena said, “for I am abidingly happy today. I think a month is long enough to wait, do you not?” she said to Fia and Kieron.
“Wait?” Fia asked.
“To be wed,” Symon said. “Elena and Mairi need you here until my love is recovered fully. ’Twill give you a little time to train Mairi some more, too, though I think we should be able to spare her now and again so she can visit you at Kilglashan when she is ready to learn more.”
“I would like to see the daughter-of-my-heart married where I was,” Elena said, “in the stone circle where first I saw my Symon. In the stone circle where we were wed.”
Fia was unable to speak around the emotions that raced through her. Symon cleared his throat and threw a pointed look at Kieron who suddenly pulled Fia to face him.
“Fia, you are my love, my destiny, my hope.” He took her face in his hands and kissed her lightly. “Will you be my wife?”
She looked back at the couple who she owed so much to. “You are sure?” she asked them.
“Dinna keep the lad waiting, imp. ’Tis cruel.”
She turned back to the man she loved with all her heart. “I will!”
Kieron whooped, startling the bairns from their sleep.
Epilog
Kilglashan Village, 1323
“’Tis a perfect tincture, Mairi!” Fia placed the small glass bottle on the shelf above the workbench in her stillroom. “I do not think there is aught else I can teach you of herbs.”
Mairi grinned. “Mum says the same for the Lamont healing gift.”
“I do indeed,” Elena said as she walked through the wide open door, bringing the scent of spring inside with her. We’ve brought someone to see you,” she said as she shooed the toddling twins, Fia and Ranald, into the chamber on the ground floor of the hallhouse. Upon Fia’s marriage to Kieron, the MacAlister chief had insisted she take the space for her stillroom.
“Who?” Fia asked, trying to look around Elena to see out the door, though the sound of a fussy bairn gave away the answer.
