Page 64 of The Laird's Masked Desire
Annabel smiled. “That’s because ye’ve never seen yerself properly.”
Margaret let out a quiet, incredulous laugh. “If me maither could see me now, she’d accuse me of enchantment.”
Annabel’s eyes shone. “It suits ye.”
Margaret studied her reflection again. She looked… whole and chosen.
“I look like someone else,” she murmured.
“Nay,” Annabel said gently, coming to stand beside her. “Ye look like yerself, when nay one is telling ye who ye need tae be.”
The words settled over her like a blessing. Margaret drew a slow breath and smiled.
“Well,” she spoke cheerfully, “if I am tae be a fairy fer a day, I suppose I should try tae dae it properly.”
Annabel laughed softly, brushing a final stray curl into place. “Our laird will nae stand a chance.”
Margaret’s smile lingered in the glass.
Beyond the chamber walls, the castle was already awake in a different way. The bells would have been rung by now and the church filled with voices and shifting feet, with men and women gathered not merely to witness a marriage, but to mark a turning point they could not yet name.
Everyone was waiting.
She closed her eyes for a moment and let the knowledge settle.
This would change everything… the freedom she had known, the shape of her days, even the way she moved through the world, all of it would be altered by the vows she was about to speak. There was no pretending otherwise.
Marriage, especially one forged as hers had been, was never a small thing.
And yet… her heart lifted, light and unafraid. She felt exhilaration. It was the same feeling she had known as a girl, standing at the edge of a path she had never walked before, knowing only that it led somewhereimportant.
An adventure,she thought with a quiet laugh at herself. The greatest one of her life.
She sensed, without really knowing how, that she had not been brought there by chance or convenience. She also knew that whatever trials lay ahead, whatever dangers pressed at their borders and their hearts alike, this union mattered.
She opened her eyes again and met her own gaze in the glass.
“All right,” she whispered. “Let’s see where this leads.”
Annabel reached for her hand, squeezing it gently. “They’re ready fer ye, me lady.”
Margaret nodded once, feeling a thrill run through her that had nothing to do with fear.
Whatever waited for her beyond that door, she would meet it head-on and strangely certain that this beginning, however unexpected, had been chosen for a reason.
Domhnall was standing at the altar, feeling the weight of the moment pressing down on him like the stone of the church itself. The soft murmur of the gathered guests drifted to him as if from some distant place. Cameron stood beside him, as expected, his face as neutral as ever, though there was an edge of something else beneath the surface. It was the same alertness Domhnall felt in his bones.
It was time.
Ruaridh, Niall and Colin––who had all come for the event, as promised–– were gathered in the pews, their eyes flicking to Domhnall with varying degrees of interest and curiosity. It was not just the union of two people they were witnessing today. It was a declaration, a seal on the alliances that would shape the future of Argyll.
The weight of it settled on Domhnall’s shoulders, but it didn’t hold him. No, what gripped him most was not the politics of the day, nor the power or the promises being made between men, but the simple, relentless pulse of his heart, thudding harder with every minute that passed.
He was waiting forher.
He had known this would be significant. He had known that this marriage and this moment would reshape everything, notjust for him, but for his people, for the very land that had made him. He had come to accept the necessity of it. And yet, despite everything he had prepared for, the only thing that seemed to matter now was knowing that Margaret was safe.
His gaze flicked to the doors at the back of the church, where the crowd was still whispering in anticipation. The air was thick with it. Even the lairds, who had been present in body but not quite in spirit for much of the preparations, seemed more alert now. There was a subtle tension that would not ease until she arrived.
