All The Time You Need (27 page)

Unable to do anything else, Alex nodded his agreement and took a seat next to his father, breathing through the shock of all that had happened. He knew his father meant well and certainly he understood the need to save Annie from the Gordons, if for no other reason than the one his father had given. She had saved the elder man’s life.

But, as his father had said, there was much the elder MacKillican had missed out on while he slept, and Alex would do his best over the next hours to tell his father everything.

Everything, starting with Annie’s claim to be from seven hundred years in the future.

Chapter 18

There would be no church decorated with flowers and ribbons, no expensive caterer, and no white gown. But in just a few hours, Annie would be every bit as married as if all those missing pieces had been present.

She wiggled her toes, sending ripples in the water to the edges of the big wooden tub in which she sat. How her steaming bath had cooled so quickly was a complete mystery to her.

Or, more likely, it hadn’t cooled quickly at all. She had been prone to lapsing into little fantasies and daydreams recently.

She was getting married!

A trill of excitement ran through her body, followed by the now-familiar shudder of apprehension.

To her surprise, she’d realized that she wasn’t the least bit opposed to the way things were turning out. In fact, if she were forced to tell the truth, she was happy about it. The only irritant to her happiness was that she had no earthly idea how Alex felt about all of this. Her only clue as to his feelings remained her one glimpse of his stricken face in the great hall when his father had announced that they were to wed.

Since that time, they hadn’t been allowed one minute alone together. Oh, they had seen each other at mealtimes, but only from opposite ends of the long table. And after the meals, one or the other of them had always been quickly whisked away.

If Annie were the suspicious type, or if she didn’t know better, she might be tempted to think the old laird was intentionally keeping them apart.

“I actually don’t know better,” she grumbled aloud, fingers closing over the edge of the tub to push herself up from the now-tepid water.

The diamond on her left hand sparkled in a stray shaft of sunlight, sending her thoughts in a new direction. A direction that left an oily, uncomfortable feeling on her skin in spite of the lovely bath.

It felt completely wrong to have Peter’s ring on her finger while she prepared for her wedding to Alex.

Guilt gnawed at the back of her mind as she climbed out of the tub and wrapped herself in the drying sheet Lissa had left for her.

The aroma of lavender wafted up to her nose as she wrapped the large cloth around her. Unlike most times, its calming effect was lost on her today. Too many little worries over things completely beyond her control burrowed their nasty barbed tails in her brain to allow her to relax.

But not all of them were beyond her control. Not the one sparkling on her left hand.

With a sigh, she slipped Peter’s ring off her hand and let it drop to the bed.

In spite of eliminating one worry, her stress levels didn’t feel any lower. There was still the nagging concern about Alex.

She scrubbed her face with the corner of the drying sheet, wishing she could scour the suspicions from her thoughts. Surely she was only letting her nerves get the best of her. After all, what logical reason could the old laird have for keeping them apart?

Unless maybe it was because his son was so adamantly opposed to their union?

This wasn’t the first time that particular worrisome thought had drifted through her mind. It plagued her each time she caught sight of her intended. Each time he glanced away, refusing to meet her gaze.

The more she considered it, the more it seemed the most logical explanation. It also happened to be the explanation she dreaded most of all. After the time they had spent together in the arbor she had hoped—

“Ah, lovely! Yer out of yer bath.” Lissa swept into the room wearing a broad grin, her arms loaded down with a pile of pale-yellow cloth. “The hall is filling with clansmen such as I’ve no’ seen since I was a child. And the Gordon laird himself has claimed a seat front and center, flanked by all his sons, including a very contrite-looking Peter.”

A crowd was forming? Annie turned to stare at her friend, confusion clouding her thoughts.

“I thought you said the wedding was no more than a public exchange of vows? ‘Nothing out of the ordinary,’ I believe, were the exact words you used.”

“And it’s no’,” Lissa claimed with a grin. “It’s no’ the actual wedding but the feast that follows that has them coming for all corners of our land. One thing you can say about a MacKillican is that they’ll none of them miss a chance at a good meal. Especially a good meal that someone else has paid for.”

A wedding feast? No one had said a word about a feast.

Annie shrugged, quietly accepting Lissa’s help with her hair. Big white weddings might not be the tradition of the day, but it appeared that people had always been up for a good party.

When she stood, Lissa helped her into a shift of soft, creamy linen, followed by an overdress of the palest yellow Annie had ever seen. She didn’t need a mirror to tell her that both items clung closely to her body after her friend tightened the ties on either side of the gown.

“Lovely,” Lissa said appreciatively, stepping back, as if to admire her handiwork. “It’s proud I’ll be to call you sister, Analise.”

It was good to know that at least one family member was happy to have the wedding proceed.

“Thank you,” Annie responded, throwing her arms around the other woman. “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that.”

Lissa returned her hug before pulling away. “And now we must go. We’ve no time left for gentle talk. They’re waiting below for yer arrival so that the day’s events can begin.”

Annie had almost reached the door before she remembered what she needed to do. She hurried back to the bed and retrieved the ring she’d dropped there earlier.

“Is there someplace I can leave this? Someplace where it won’t get lost?”

“Aye,” Lissa replied, the hint of a frown crossing her brow. “I’ve a small chest where I keep my treasures. Would you like me to put it there for you?”

Annie nodded her agreement, handing over the ring. “It’s not like I’ll need it back. I’d just feel better knowing it’s safe.”

Lissa opened the large chest at the foot of the bed and withdrew a small wooden box that she held close to her chest as she lifted the lid. Once she’d dropped the ring inside and returned the box to its resting place, she hooked her arm through Annie’s and they headed out of the room and down the stairs.

When they reached the heavy wooden doors leading to the great hall, Annie stopped, squaring her shoulders and breathing deeply. Once she passed through those doors, everything would change.

“All will be well,” Lissa encouraged, squeezing Annie’s hand before pulling open the door to allow her to enter.

Alex waited at the far end of the great hall when Annie stepped inside, his father standing tall at his side. The general noise in the room subsided as she and Lissa entered, and she felt the weight of all the eyes in the hall turned in her direction. Her walk to join Alex was the longest journey she had ever taken until the moment her eyes locked on his. He held out his hand and smiled at her, and the next half-hour passed as if she floated through a dream, watching everything from outside her own body.

She remembered repeating her vow to take him as her husband. She remembered hearing the tremor in her own voice as she spoke. Unlike her, his voice had never wavered, just as his gaze had never left her face, giving her the strength to keep standing under her own power.

And then it was done. She was married.

They moved to the long tables and took their seats, hers directly next to Alex, her husband.

Her husband!

It hardly felt real, though she knew it was.

Food was served, food she doubted she’d be able to eat, and the hall was filled with the growing noise of all these people eating and drinking, and sharing stories with one another.

Down the table, a tankard banged against the wood and the noise in the room began to subside.

“To our brother,” Morgan called out, lifting his tankard in toast as he stood. “To Alex, who’s proved himself a worthy laird.” He paused and grinned before continuing, “When the time comes, that is.”

“When the time comes,” echoed through the hall, the words dissolving in cheers and laughter until Morgan, tankard banging once again, brought relative quiet back to the room.

“And to our new sister, Analise, whose expert care returned our laird and father to his rightful place at the head of our table.”

More cheering erupted throughout the hall, quieted when Alex rose to stand, banging his own tankard loudly against the heavy wood.

“I’d have you raise yer drinks one more time for my brothers, Morgan, Aiden, and even young Cullen, who have supported me as if they were my best friends. And to my best friends, Jamesy and Finn, who have stood with me, shoulder to shoulder, as if they were my brothers. I am blessed by the presence of all five of you in my life. I know of no others with whom I would so willingly ride into battle.”

Again the cheers rang out, but Alex silenced them almost at once.

“And, most important on this day of days, I’d have you all join me in saluting the woman with whom I will now share my life.”

“And yer bed, aye?” someone shouted from the crowd, drawing laughter all around.

“And my bed,” Alex repeated, quietly, as if only for Annie’s ears, reaching out to take her hand in his.

A lovely shiver of excitement ran the length of her spine. Whether it was the husky tenor of his voice that elicited her physical response or the expression he wore as he gazed down at her, she couldn’t say. Nor did she care. All that mattered was the way she felt as he looked at her in that moment.

Had her life depended on it, Annie couldn’t have begun to describe the meal that followed, any more than she could have remembered any of the inane conversations that wafted around her head. None of them mattered.

Alex filled her thoughts, allowing room for nothing else. It was as if she was on sensory overload. The heat of his shoulder touching hers each time he reached toward their shared trencher. The masculine scent that filled her nostrils each time he bent his head close to speak. The feel of his whispered breath on her cheek. These alone were what she would remember.

Above all else, the expression he’d worn as he’d taken her hand at the front of the hall would live with her forever, a cherished moment she would never forget.

The meal passed in a blur until, at last, Alex took her hand in his, urging her to follow him quickly toward the back of the great hall and out through the same serving doors where she’d hidden only two weeks prior.

Two weeks past, when her whole life had detoured unexpectedly, leading her to this very moment.

This moment, escaping the wedding feast, headed up the narrow flight of stone steps that led to the family’s bedchambers, her hand firmly grasping her husband’s.

There it was again.
Her husband.

She could almost swear her heart skipped several beats every time she thought those words.

Torches lined the wall, spaced at intervals only close enough to allow the castle’s inhabitants to find the proper room without having to feel their way in the dark. Their flickering light added to the dreamlike feel of Annie’s passage.

Alex led her past the door to the bedchamber she’d shared with Lissa since her arrival in this time. She’d known when she’d walked out that door earlier today it would be her last time to call it her room, but now, passing the door, her heart began to thump a little harder.

On they continued, past the old laird’s room before turning into a second hallway where Annie had never been before. She’d never had a reason to come down this way.

When Alex stopped moving forward, she realized that the door they stood in front of must lead to his room. Her husband’s room.
Their
room now.

The thump in her chest intensified and, for a moment, she felt sure Alex must be able to hear the sound pounding in her ears.

He reached out to touch the door, his other hand still firmly clutched around hers, his gaze focused down the hallway as if he were lost in thought for what felt to her like an eternity. When he cleared his throat to speak, she jerked as if someone had yelled at her in a silent room.

“I am fully aware that it was no’ yer choice that we should wed,” he said quietly, pausing again until he met her gaze and their eyes locked. “I remember well enough yer despair at being forced to wed Peter. I’d no’ ever choose to be the cause of such unhappiness for you. If you wish it, I will find other accommodations for this night. And for every other night so long as you wish it to be that way.”

Was it possible that Alex might be as insecure about her feelings toward their marriage as she was about his?