The crowd cheered as Rose ran to Ram to give him a hug, and the Clan laughed when he insisted upon a kiss instead. They saw Rose’s lips move, but none could hear her whisper. “Thank you. With Jack gone, the threat to me has vanished. You can marry Flora to save your land and your family’s honor.”
Everyone heard Ram’s reply. “Sweets, you are my love and my existence. You carry the future of my clan. ‘Twould dishonor love itself to disavow the only vow I can honorably make.”
“What of your land and your people?” Rose asked, forgetting to whisper.
“Indeed,” Dair said, sauntering forward, holding aloft the note. “What of your land and your people? Do this and it shall all be mine.” At the Sutherland’s shouted challenges, he turned and read the note. When he’d finished, Dair said, “Your laird admits that the writing on this note is his father’s. What say you to your laird now?”
Dingwall walked over to Dair, spat upon the note and drew his sword before he backed up until his brother stood at his back, with the Bible out, ready to perform a wedding. Gormal followed suit. By then, disgusted, Dair dropped the slimy paper, but it didn’t halt the procession. One by one, every member of the Clan Sutherland passed by, spat upon the note, the men drew their swords, and all gathered for the wedding.
Only when the last Sutherland had passed did Ram say, “My clan says that we will keep our Rose and our land.”
Ram turned to Rose, “And now, my lady, I believe we’ve a wedding to attend.”
As Father Donald performed the ceremony, David ended up standing beside Flora. Her tears weren’t the only ones in the crowd, but they were the only ones filled with sorrow rather than joy. At the end of the ceremony, when the Priest bade the groom to kiss the bride, Ram paused to meet Rose’s gold-dusted green eyes. Ram’s gaze held more than love, it held adoration, devotion, respect and forever–most of all, forever.
“He never looked at me like that,” Flora said. “Why couldn’t he consider my arguments about how happy our marriage would be? Why didn’t he accept my reasoning?”
David tossed back his head and laughed. “Sprite, love has no logic and hears but one thing. Do you know what it hears?”
“What?” Flora asked.
David donned his most seductive grin and spoke in the midnight velvet voice that made the ladies melt. He reached down and laid his palm over her upper chest. “This.”
Flora blushed and looked into his swirling grey eyes in confusion.
“Love hears only the melody of two hearts beating as one.”
THE END
Romancing the Rose Page 19
