The Blue Hackle (47 page)

Rebecca raised a camera and took photos of
Jean and her entourage arriving in the porch, where Orla McCrummin
stood holding six-month-old Linda Campbell-Reid. They were both
dressed in frilly party frocks, although Orla was standing on her
own feet, elevated in high-heeled shoes. Linda’s bright eyes took
in every color, every movement, and her soft, toothless mouth
opened in a laugh. The scent of baby powder emanating from her
blanket mitigated the porch’s aura of musty stone.

Beside Orla hovered Sanjay Thomson, smiling
and nodding. Brenda adjusted one of his buttons, more out of
affection than need—his kilt was perfectly arranged and pinned with
a miniature sword.

The door opened again, revealing Dr. Irvine’s
shock of white hair. “Is everything a go?”

“It’s a go,” said Jean, even as her voice
caught in her throat and her knees wobbled.
This is it. A leap
of folly and a leap of faith.

Irvine flung open the door. Diana took Jean’s
and Miranda’s coats. With a whispered, “Keep your pecker up,”
Miranda glided down the aisle and the audience rose.

Hugh Munro sat to one side of the chancel
cradling his small Celtic harp. His bald head with its fringe of
white hair glowed in the golden light of candles and sunshine both.
His round cheeks above their fringe of white beard swelled in a
grin. His fingertips stroked the strings and the graceful notes of
“Peace and Plenty” filled the room and spilled out onto the
lawn.

“Go on,” said Michael, and quelled a squeak
from his pipes. “In just a few moments I’ll be piping you back down
the aisle a married woman.”

Marriage, a state of grace
. . .

Far, far away, at the end of the aisle, the
blocky, bespectacled figure of Reverend Elphinstone led Fergie and
Alasdair out of the vestry. Alasdair took up his stance at the
altar step and looked Jean straight in the eye.

Alasdair. Her lodestone. Jean walked herself
past all the smiling faces and put her hand in his. His warm,
sensitive, capable fingers enclosed her chilly ones. His blue eyes
sparked. The curve of his lips moved and he whispered, “Bonny
Jean.”

Dizzy, and yet never more steady, Jean looked
toward Elphinstone. His voice rose and fell like the pulse of the
sea, and the words flew into her heart and nestled there.

“O God, who hast consecrated the state of
Matrimony to such an excellent mystery . . . look mercifully upon
these thy servants.”

Amen,
Jean thought.
Amen.

After starting out in science fiction and
fantasy, Lillian Stewart Carl is now writing contemporary novels
blending mystery, romance, and fantasy, along with short mystery
and fantasy stories. Her work often includes paranormal themes. It
always features plots based on history and archaeology. While she
doesn’t write comedy, she believes in characters with a sense of
humor. Her novels have been compared to those of Daphne du Maurier,
Mary Renault, Mary Stewart (no relation), Barbara
Michaels/Elizabeth Peters, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s colleague Charles
Williams.

Her fantasies are set in a mythological,
alternate-history Mediterranean and India. Her contemporary novels
are set in Texas, in Ohio, in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, and
in England and Scotland.

Of
Shadows in Scarlet
,
Publishers
Weekly
says, “Presenting a delicious mix of romance and
supernatural suspense, Carl (
Ashes to Ashes
) delivers yet
another immensely readable tale. She has created an engaging cast
and a very entertaining plot, spicing the mix with some interesting
twists on the ghostly romantic suspense novel.”

Of
Lucifer's Crown
,
Library
Journal
says: “Blending historical mystery with a touch of the
supernatural, the author creates an intriguing exploration of faith
and redemption in a world that is at once both modern and
timeless.”

Among many other novels, Lillian is the
author of the five-volume Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron
cross-genre mystery series: America’s exile and Scotland’s finest
on the trail of all-too-living legends. Of
The Secret
Portrait
,
Kirkus
says: "Mystery, history and sexual
tension blend with a taste of the wild beauty of the Highlands." Of
The Burning Glass
,
Publishers Weekly
says: “Authentic
dialect, detailed descriptions of the castle and environs, and
vivid characters recreate an area rich in history and legend. The
tightly woven plot is certain to delight history fans with its
dramatic collision of past and present.”

With John Helfers, Lillian co-edited
The
Vorkosigan Companion
, a retrospective on Lois McMaster Bujold’s
science fiction work, which was nominated for a Hugo award.

Her first story collection,
Along the Rim
of Time
, was published in 2000, and her second,
The Muse and
Other Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth
, in 2008, including
three stories that were reprinted in
Year's Best
mystery
anthologies.

Her books are available in both print and
electronic editions.
Here
is her
website.
Here
is her Facebook Group Page.
Here
is a listing of more Smashwords books.