Authors: Gerri Russell
Camden lowered his sword. "It would be an honor, sir."
The councilman turned a black look on the bishop. "As for you and your mother," he said, signaling for the other members of the council to come forward and restrain the two by the arms. "I have decided to transfer your services to a needy parish on a remote isle in the Hebrides. You leave on the morrow."
"The Hebrides?" the bishop gasped. "We will perish that far from civilization."
"Or find penance," the councilman said.
"No! We must stay and fight," the old woman cried. "You will be named archbishop, Harold. It is your destiny!" She was still protesting as she and her son were hauled out of the castle.
With the threat of the bishop gone, Camden sheathed his sword. He offered the councilmen a respectful bow before he turned to Rhiannon.
Slowly, he drew closer until he took her hands in his own. "Can you forgive me for what I did to your brothers?"
A flicker of pain crossed her face. "That they are dead saddens me. No one deserves to die so violently."
"I regret—"
She brought her finger to his lips, silencing him. "No regrets. You told me once before that we should concentrate on the here and now."
He held her gaze, hoping that she could read all the love and sincerity in his eyes. "Stay with me. Marry me on the morrow as we'd planned. The future is ours if we take it. If you can forgive me…?"
Chapter Twenty-Seven
He asked for her forgiveness.
Rhiannon's eyes stung with tears as she brought her gaze to his. Mother Agnes had said to fill her heart with forgiveness. Had the abbess known, somehow, what would transpire between herself and Camden?
She startled at the tenderness in his warm blue eyes. "I should be angry with you."
"Furious," he admitted.
She kept her expression neutral, not allowing him past her guard. Not yet. She had to be certain. "As a Ruthven I have grown up with nothing but pain and devastation in my life. For a short while, I had hoped you would offer me something different, something more."
He opened his mouth to speak, but she silenced him with a finger to his lips.
"I came to you in one of the darkest moments of my life." She looked about the hall at the castle residents who lingered there, some talking with the members of the Church council, some watching her and Camden with pensive looks on their faces.
She offered them an encouraging smile before returning her gaze to his. "I never imagined becoming married when I came to you. Later, it did not seem reasonable that you could love me, a Ruthven, your enemy."
"And now?" he asked, his gaze filled with hope and possibility.
"I've learned that good things can come from bad." She held her hand out to Violet who flew to her side.
"I cannot imagine living a single day without your sweet smile to greet me," she said to the little girl.
Violet hugged Rhiannon's legs all the harder before she scowled at her uncle.
Rhiannon forced back a chuckle. Poor Camden. He didn't stand a chance against the two of them.
"And what of me? Will both of you allow me into your lives?"
Violet pursed her lips. "As long as you don't cheat any of us again."
"Cheat you?"
Violet nodded. "Don't cheat me of a mother. Don't cheat Rhiannon of a husband. And don't cheat yourself of a wife."
Camden shook his head, dazedly. "I'm so glad we cleared that up."
Violet nodded, then grabbed his leg, pulling Camden up against Rhiannon. "Please say you'll marry him?" Violet pleaded.
Rhiannon's breath caught at the sensation of his body pressed so intimately against her own. "I'll marry him."
"You will?" Camden breathed. The smile in his eyes contained a sensuous flame that warmed her to her soul.
"I bring nothing into this marriage but myself and my notorious last name."
"Milady, I vowed to give you all that I have. My surname included."
Rhiannon smiled, hiding none of her pleasure. She had wanted nothing more than to change her last name only a few weeks ago. But now she understood that a person's worth was not determined by a last name. She reached for Camden's hands, lacing her fingers through his. "I accept."
"My lady, my love." He leaned forward and brushed his lips against her temple. "I will spend my life protecting you, and making amends for the pain I caused you."
With joy rising where there had once been emptiness, Rhiannon replied, "And as your warrior's lady I look forward to it. Exactly when will these 'amends' begin?" she asked in a sultry tone. She meant to comment further when he pressed his lips to hers, interrupting her words and her thoughts with the most overwhelming kiss of her life.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Rhiannon stood on the battlements where she and Camden had first made love and drew a deep breath of fragrant morning air perfumed with newly blooming heather. Camden had asked her to wait up here for a signal of the bagpipes to come to him.
The tranquility of the morning calmed her sudden nervousness. She was not nervous to marry the man she loved. Nay, she knew that the rest of their days would be filled with joy. They had both suffered so much already, she with her family, and he while being held prisoner in the Holy Land away from those he loved. Rhiannon lifted her chin, allowing a whisper of the breeze to tug at her thick cascade of hair. She wore it loose about her shoulders as he liked it best. The staff, dressed in bright plaids, brought the grounds of the inner bailey alive with their joyous dancing and lilting voices. Yesterday's tragedy was but a memory on this day that she and Camden would marry.
Camden.
He waited across the courtyard for her to join him. The sound of bagpipes rose above the din of voices, calling her forward to join her groom. Knowing she had started her journey toward him, Camden looked up and a slow, sensual smile came to his lips. Rhiannon forgot to breathe as she drank in the sight of him.
He wore his plaid green and blue and red cloth over a crisp white shirt that did nothing to hide his bold masculinity. He was powerful, forceful, yet gentle. And he belonged to her from this day forth.
With the bagpipes soaring, she continued to drift toward him down the stairway, through the castle and out of the keep. As she neared, he clapped his hands, twice. Instantly, the warriors formed a makeshift aisle, drew their swords, and held them in an arch for her to pass beneath. Rhiannon's breath caught in her throat as Camden took her hand, smiling into her eyes. "You are breathtaking, my love."
"As are you, my husband." Rhiannon was very glad she had decided to wear the Lockhart plaid as her wedding gown. It was her family plaid now.
At the end of the row of swords, Violet waited for them, wearing a new dress made from Lockhart plaid as well. Rhiannon held out her hand. There were no longer shadows in the girl's eyes, only joy. Camden took Violet's other hand and walked with the two women toward the eldest Church councilman who had offered to return this morning to perform the wedding ceremony. When they stopped, Rhiannon released Camden's hand and knelt before Violet. "Before your uncle and I marry, there is something I must ask of you."
"What?" Violet grew serious.
"Will you, Lady Violet Lockhart, accept me as your mother? I cannot replace the mother who bore you, but I will promise to love you as she would have loved you all of your days."
Violet's face brightened and she threw her arms around Rhiannon's shoulders. "Nothing would make me happier."
Rhiannon ruffled the little girl's curls. "Then we will be a family, the three of us."
Violet released Rhiannon. "Hurry and marry each other so I can have a new mummy and daddy."
Rhiannon stood and placed her hand in Camden's larger one. She stood proudly before him as they took their marriage vows. At last they were pronounced man and wife. The sound of bagpipes rose and swelled over the thunder of cheer and applause from the crowd.
"Before we seal our vows with a kiss," Camden said in a suddenly somber tone, "I have something I must give you." He stepped back to where Orrin stood, and accepted two narrow wooden boxes, one longer than the other, from his hands. When he joined her once more, Camden held the object out to her. "My gifts."
With hesitant fingers, she lifted the lid of the longer box, and tears misted in her eyes. "Camden," she whispered brokenly. Inside the box lay a newly milled bow and six arrows.
"For the woman who can protect herself, though her husband hopes she never will need to do so."
Then she opened the second box. Inside lay the Charm Stone.
He picked up the Stone and held it out to her. "Now that you are a Lockhart, you have the power to use it," he said.
She accepted his gift, twining it in her fingers. "Thank you." Filled with overwhelming joy, she slid her arms around Camden's neck. "But I have nothing to give you in return."
With a possessive hand at the small of her back, he pressed her closer. "You have given me two gifts I never expected." At her startled gaze, he brought his lips to hers and kissed her with a reverence that touched her very soul. After what seemed like an eternity he broke the kiss, but did not release her.
"And what is that?" She looked up at him with her heart in her eyes.
"Freedom and love." He cradled against his chest. "For a warrior who once had neither of those things, they are the most precious gifts of all."
And from her vantage point, still holding on to Rhiannon's skirt and her uncle's leg, Violet looked up. Not at her new mother and father, but at the Charm Stone that dangled from Rhiannon's fingers. The red stone at the center of the coin seemed to glow with happiness beneath the warmth of their affection.
Warmed by their love and the happiness within, Violet smiled. The Charm Stone's magic had certainly worked to heal two wounded hearts.
Afterword by the Author
In the final book in this series of Scottish Stones of Destiny, I set the story around a famous Scottish amulet called the Lee Penny. For the purposes of the story, I renamed the amulet the Charm Stone.
The Lee Penny was obtained by the Locard family during the Crusades in 1330. After the death of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland in 1329, his friend Lord James of Douglas set out to take the dead king's heart to the Holy Land, making the pilgrimage that the king was not able to undertake in his lifetime.
While making their way through Spain, Douglas and his band of knights battled with the Saracens. Douglas died on the battlefield, but the king's heart in its silver casket was rescued by Sir Simon Locard of Lee, who brought it back to Scotland for burial. After that event, the family changed their clan name to Lockhart to reflect the service they had done for their king.
It was during this same battle that Sir Simon Locard imprisoned a wealthy emir. His aged mother came to pay his ransom, and in the course of counting out the money, a pebble inserted in a coin fell out of the lady's purse. She was in such a hurry to retrieve it that the Scottish knight realized it must be valuable and insisted that the amulet be added to the ransom. The lady reluctantly agreed and explained what virtues the stone possessed.
The stone was a medical talisman believed to drive away fever and stop bleeding. The amulet was used frequently in the past, according to tradition. In 1629 the Lee Penny was used to cure sick oxen, but as a result a young woman was burned at the stake for witchcraft for using the stone. There are records of an accusation of witchcraft against Sir Thomas Lockhart during the Reformation, but the Church Synod at Glasgow merely reproved Sir Thomas and advised him to cease using the stone.
During the reign of Charles I, the citizens of Newcastle, England requested the use of the Lee Penny to cure a cattle plague. In order to guarantee the stone's return, Sir James Lockhart required a bond of 6,000 pounds. The penny was used, and the plague abated.
Many cures for both animals and humans, directly related to the use of the Lee Penny, are recorded through the middle of the nineteenth century.
The Lee Penny is the most widely known of all the Scottish amulets thanks to Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman that also features the mystical stone.