[Druids Bidding 02.0] RenFaire Druids: Dunskey Castle Prequels

by Jane Stain

  She clung to him then, fiercely. It was all she could do. She felt so helpless in the face of that double curse.

  “I will that we marry here in your time, lass. It is safer here for you and for our children, when they come.”

  She just clung to him and nodded, her head still spinning with the enormity of the situation.

  He stroked her hair and went on.

  “Whenever I do go back to my time, I return the next moment. It will be as if I had never gone. So you will not be without me. Until I die.”

  “But I want to go with you.”

  Emily knew she was whining, and she became so frustrated that tears fell off her face into the hot water around them.

  “And I do want you with me, lass, you ken? However, the fates be against you going again. For one, you will not be safe there. For two, you will not remember being there once you come home. For three, you will be heartbrokenly stuck there, if we should slip and marry there in God’s way.”

  Emily opened her mouth to protest, but he kissed her quiet. She fought his kiss as long as she could, and then she gave in and enjoyed it even longer. And then a thought occurred to her.

  “So, if I won’t be going back to your time, then why did you insist I needed to learn how to ride a horse?”

  Dall took in a deep breath and let it out, and then he took both of her hands in his and looked her firmly in the eye.

  “I was a fool to say that, but… Do not trust in this, lass, but I do have a feeling it was not the truth, what they told you about being stuck in whatever time period we do marry. Why would you be stuck? I do not know this to be true. I just… feel it to be true. I do suspect that if we were to marry, you would be able to time travel with me—until you were with child. Do not count on it when you make your decision, howsoever.”

  He looked at her with deep concern in his eyes.

  Emily was confused.

  “What decision?”

  “Och, lass. Your decision to marry me or no.”

  Emily laughed.

  Dall’s brow wrinkled, and he started to look concerned about her sanity.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” she said, still laughing. “I’ve already decided to marry you. We’re just working out the details.”

  Dall’s eyes turned warm and tender, and then he nodded with seriousness, as if they were just negotiating a business deal. But his eyes sparkled mischievously at her.

  “Well then, do let us work out the details, lass. That does seem a goodly idea...”

  They smiled their contented cat smile at each other and enjoyed a moment of pure pre-marital bliss.

  But he hesitated, and Emily could tell he was thinking. Slowly, his face turned serious again.

  “Emily, there is very little we can change about my living arrangements—”

  “I won’t mind living in your tent with you.”

  She moved in and embraced him again in the hot water, wondering if his thoughts were drifting the same way as hers, getting impatient to be married already.

  To her disappointment, Dall pulled back just a bit so they were eye to eye again.

  “I do not mean the tent, lass. When we are married, we can get a better accommodation—”

  “Really.”

  “Aye.”

  They shared a smile about that, and Emily pictured their married life.

  But for some odd reason, Dall seemed set on talking her out of marrying him. He went on with his downer message.

  “However, what I mean to tell you lass, is that while I’m in this time period, I work the faires for them—”

  “And I will, too. I know they were auditioning me today, Dall. It was rather obvious. It was more fun than I’ve ever had in my life, Dall. I feel like I won the lottery, getting you and the faire.”

  He smiled at her.

  “Och, lass, it is I who would talk of winning…”

  They spent another while kissing and hugging, and then Dall broke away and looked serious again. This time, he gave a little speech, and he didn’t let her interrupt.

  “Do not make a decision without thinking it through, Drusilla, I beg of you. We have only one more faire in your lands after this one, and then we will be in faraway Australia for six months. As Mrs. MacGregor, I would have you come with me to Australia. You wouldn’t have to work the faires if you didn’t want to, lass, but you might be bored if you didn’t. Some of the locations are very remote. However, it is all very remote from your kin and your friends and the course you had your life on, lass. Your teaching.”

  His body language finally indicated that his speech was over.

  Remembering what Dall had told her about the way her eyes told him more than her words, Emily fixed her eyes on his now and willed her feelings to shine through them.

  “Dall, demonstrating and teaching the art and practice of stage fighting with you today… That was even better than the course I had my life on.”

  Emily felt her cheeks aching, she was smiling so big. Staring into Dall’s eyes was yet again better than teaching stage fighting, but only by a little bit.

  Dall grabbed her then and brought her into a fierce embrace, still being careful of her wound.

  “Your da said the same as you, lass, when I did talk it over with the man again this day. It is settled then. We will marry tomorrow.”

  Emily enjoyed his embrace and reveled in the idea of being his wife, and then she started thinking about all that went into planning a wedding.

  “Tomorrow.” she said to him, not quite believing it was possible.

  “Aye, lass, and it is soon we should be telling Ian and your da and mum. I did give them the money already, hoping your answer would be yes, but they have many arrangements to make.”

  Emily opened her mouth to say more.

  But Dall kissed her again.

  “Your da tells me the lasses now have what is called an engagement before they marry. I say that is rubbish. I shall have trouble waiting until the morrow.”

  The rest of the evening before Emily’s wedding passed by in a blur. She and Dall told her parents and Vange and Ian they were getting married.

  None of them were surprised, which made Emily mad at first, and then it kind of tickled her.

  Dall gave Emily a big kiss goodnight up on the roof of the hotel right at sunset while Ian and Vange and her parents all made phone calls.

  Ian and Dall’s kilts and leine shirts were delivered to them freshly laundered by the hotel, and the men were taken back to the faire site by a hotel shuttle.

  And then Siobhan arrived on the roof of the hotel—with a big smile on her face and two big garment bags in her arms.

  “If you’re going to be a MacGregor,” she said to Emily, “then you had better dress the part.”

  Everyone ‘ooh’ed and ‘ah’ed over the period clothing Siobhan had brought for Emily.

  There were two red plaid wool skirts—each of which coordinated with Dall’s kilt in a different way, two fancy embroidered shifts similar to the one Emily must have acquired during her forgotten time travel, two pairs of full and billowy bloomers, two different hats, a plaid bodice that had optional long sleeves which tied onto it, and a leather belt with built-in sheaths for sword and dagger and built-in pouches for all her belongings.

  It was all handmade and new, with no signs of wear.

  “Well,” said Emily’s mom with a big grin as she sat holding hands with her husband, “Go try it on and model it for us.”

  “Come on,” said Vange, helping Siobhan scoop it all up to carry into the women’s locker room.

  Siobhan started to leave once she had put everything down.

  “Oh, stay,” Emily said, grabbing the woman and hugging her. “Thank you so much for the Scots clothes. It can’t have been easy coming up with all that in just a week.”

  “Easier than you think,” Siobhan whispered into Emily’s ear so that Vange wouldn’t hear.

  Emily giggled a little.

  “What’s so funny?
” asked Vange with a big smile as she hung the clothes up.

  “I’m so happy.” Emily yelled, going to Vange and hugging her, too. “Dall and I are getting married.”

  Vange laughed too then, and Siobhan showed Emily how to tuck her skirt up into her sword belt for the best look while leaving her legs free to move about the way she would need to while stage fighting.

  When it all looked just so, they went out to show Emily’s parents.

  “You look beautiful, Emily,” said her dad.

  “I really like those colors on you,” said her mom. “That red brings out the rosiness in your cheeks just perfectly.”

  “OK,” said Siobhan, “Let’s go hang it up in your room so it’s all ready for you to put on in the morning.”

  They all stayed up for another hour talking about who all was coming to witness Emily’s wedding the next day and how long everyone had known this was happening and how on Earth Emily was going to get through a day of rehearsal first.

  Until Vange and Emily were alone in their room, they all talked about everything except the fact that Emily would be leaving for Australia in a few months, for half the year.

  “I’ll miss you, Vange.”

  “You don’t have my permission to miss me. We can email. Go be happy with your hottie, have lots of babies, and post me pics of them on Facebook, silly.”

  Emily laughed.

  “Good night.”

  “Night.”

  Emily spent the morning in a state of disbelief. She showered, lovingly put on her new Scottish clothes, and let Vange do her hair in a loose French braid with some flowers that had mysteriously arrived with a knock at their hotel room door.

  The flowers had come with a note that said it was fine for a maiden to go hatless on her wedding day. It wasn’t signed, but Emily was sure Siobhan had sent it. After all, Siobhan was the one who had given Emily and Vange the hats and explained that women of the period had to hide their hair.

  Mr. Simmons clapped when Emily got off the elevator.

  “You look stunning, my dear, just stunning.” He gestured for her to twirl.

  She obliged him.

  “Congratulations on your wedding day. I wish your parents had told me the real reason for your visit earlier. You could have had the wedding suite. But no matter. Call us when you are ready, and we will send our limo to pick you up. You will have the penthouse suite tonight, with my compliments. It’s almost as nice as the wedding suite.” He handed her his card, which had his phone number underlined.

  Stunned past knowing what to say, Emily glanced at her mom and fell back on the manners she had taught her. “Thank you so much.” she said to Mr. Simmons with a smile and a shake of his hand.

  “You’re very welcome. My cousin Nancy says you’re a lovely girl. I corrected her. You’re a lovely young woman, a credit to your parents,” he turned to them, “who Nancy is very fond of and says hello to, by the way.”

  “See you at dinner.” the Shaws called out to him as they all rushed out to the SUV to go to the faire site.

  Vange joked in the back seat all the way there, but Emily was only half paying attention. Every once in a while she would catch Vange’s eye and Vange would grin and nod at her, as if to say, “Yes. You’re really marrying Dall today. Enjoy it.”

  Emily’s dad drove up to one of the reserved parking spaces.

  Dall was waiting for her there. Looking even more handsome than usual somehow, he held out his arm. When she took it, he lowered it and put it around her waist as he had the day before, and then he squeezed her. And then he picked her up and swung her around, laughing and smiling and twinkling his eyes at her. And then they kissed for a long time.

  Dall stayed by Emily’s side the whole day, almost as if he was afraid she would disappear suddenly if he lost sight of her.

  She knew the feeling. She still couldn’t believe this was their wedding day.

  It both dragged and flew by.

  Emily had been switched from the ‘Basic Faire Accent’ workshop into the ‘Scottish Faire Accent’ one, which was on her wedding day. Dall went to it with her and amusedly went through all the exercises meant to teach them how to sound like Scots from his time period.

  “I’ll teach you Gaelic during the weeks between the faire weekends,” he whispered in her ear, and he winked when she met his eye.

  The two of them took a more stately approach to their stage fighting workshop that day, in order to preserve the cleanliness of their wedding clothes. Instead of doing demonstrations, they asked the students to spar. Dall said they needed to see who would be staying in the workshop anyway, and this was as good a test as any.

  Finally, all the workshops and the closing meeting of the day were over, and Dall was escorting Emily to their wedding site.

  Emily didn’t know how her parents had managed it in just a week, but all of her relatives were there, as well as many of her parents’ friends. Her clan, as Dall called it.

  The wedding site was the gazebo by the fighting arena. It had been completed the night before, and someone had been busy during the closing meeting that day, festooning it with ribbons and flowers. It was beautiful. Everyone was seated inside it, and a priest was waiting up front.

  Glancing over to the backstage area, Emily saw that the picnic benches had been covered in white tablecloths, and uniformed waiters and waitresses were putting out china and silverware and glasses. There was a wedding cake and a champagne fountain and even a raised parquet dance floor.

  A bagpiper played as Dall and Emily walked to the priest, and everyone smiled at Emily. Some of the women had tears in their eyes.

  The ceremony was short.

  The priest explained about marriage being a solemn and holy sacrament. He asked if Dall had a token he wanted to give his bride.

  “Aye, I do. It was my mother’s wedding ring, and now I give it to you, lass, with joy in my heart.”

  Emily had a strange vision when Dall put his mother’s ring on her finger. She saw the woman’s face in front of her, and she was sure it was a memory. She smiled big at Dall, bursting to tell him.

  But she couldn’t until they were alone, which she was looking forward to for all kinds of reasons…

  The priest had them sign the marriage license right then and there, and Emily’s parents signed as witnesses.

  And then, the priest had them speak their vows.

  Dall said his “I do” first.

  And then it was Emily’s turn. She was so ready for this to be over and to get to the hotel, and …

  But as soon as Emily said, “I do,” all her memories came flooding back.

  She remembered.

  She remembered all the details of time-traveling with Dall. And she remembered how lonely she had felt when she first arrived in his time and Dall didn’t remember her.

  Emily looked into Dall’s eyes and willed him to understand that she knew. She knew she had met his family and where they lived and how he spent his days in his own time. She remembered playing with Peadar and Peigi and little Domhnall.

  “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride,” the priest said.

  And Dall did.

  And Emily kissed him with everything she had, with all the pent-up longing she had stored, in both their times. With all the love and tenderness she felt for him. With the sympathy she had for the loneliness he must have suffered this past week while she hadn’t remembered how much closer they had grown in his time.

  “I remember.” she whispered in Dall’s ear when at last their first kiss as man and wife ended. “I remember everything.”

  While the two of them walked to the reception area arm in arm, Dall handed Emily her phone. It was vibrating.

  Mystified, Emily looked at the screen.

  The phone was fully charged. But she had her memories back now, and after that kiss, this didn’t surprise her.

  But the Time management app icon was blinking, so she touched it. The app opened up, and Emily gasped. None
of the buttons were locked anymore. It looked as though she could travel to any time and any place she chose.

  Looking over her shoulder, Dall closed Emily’s hand over her phone, and he helped her stow it in one of her new pouches.

  “Later, Drusilla. We shall speak about it later. And now, let us enjoy our wedding supper.”

  They enjoyed a nice dinner with their wedding guests. Ian toasted the groom and the bride. They cut the cake and fed each other and posed for pictures. They taught Emily’s family and friends how to do a few Scottish dances. The guests all gave the new couple envelopes, which Emily stuffed into one of her pouches, explaining there was an ATM at their hotel.

  Siobhan led everyone over to a brand new mobile home in the backstage area and gave Dall and Emily each a key. Theirs was much like Siobhan’s, but big enough for a family.

  Dall carried Emily inside while everyone cheered.

  And then everyone crowded inside to check it out. It was fully furnished, complete with bedding and all the kitchen items they would need.

  Emily was wondering how the two of them were ever going to get out of there when Vange helped her out.

  “OK.” Vange said to Emily, and then in her teacher voice that everyone could hear, she said, “Time to call the limo that whisks you off to your hotel so we can’t shivaree you all night.”

  Everyone laughed.

  Emily made a show of calling the limo on her old phone so that Vange could see she had it back.

  Vange laughed, and they slapped hands.

  Absentmindedly, Emily put her phone in her pouch and forgot it was there.

  While Emily was hugging her parents in thanks outside, Murray the weapons boothie came over with a nice bottle of Scotch whiskey and a handful of glasses, which he passed out to Dall, Emily, her parents, Vange, Siobhan, and Ian, who were all standing there.

  “I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve gathered you all together here,” he said with a smile once everyone had their drink. “Well, Emily needs a job at the faire—and sure, she’ll be teaching workshops with Dall. But I offer you both paying jobs.”