by Matie Cole
They needed to find out who she was, they no longer had any choice.
“So, I have a plan,” Bryson told everyone loudly. “I have been thinking about it for a while now, and I think that we need to search for anyone who might be connected to Rosalyn...”
“Is that definitely your name?” one of the men asked her. “Are you sure about that?”
“I am not.” She shook her head hard. “I do not know anything about myself. I am simply a woman with no memory. I do not know if I come from a wealthy family or a poor one, I do not know where I come from. I could only assume that it is from a town nearby because I could not imagine myself walking far in that state... I was very injured at the time, my head was hurting a lot... but again, I do not know. I am terribly sorry that does not give you much information. I cannot be as helpful as I would like.”
“Which is why I would like some of my men to head out to the nearby towns,” Bryson continued happily. “To see if there is anyone who is missing a family member. A woman of Rosalyn’s age. Someone must know her, I cannot imagine she has been unnoticed forever.” A murmur of agreement burst up from the crowd. They all found Rosalyn striking. She stood out wherever she was, her beauty captivated everyone that she encountered. “So, we can find someone and go from there. Plan the wedding after that.”
Excitement brewed. Everyone loved the idea of a wedding. Particularly one with Bryson and Rosalyn, whoever she turned out to be. She was popular and lovely. There was no way that anyone could find anything bad in her past. She was too sweet for that. The only person who had even a scrap of worry about that was Rosalyn, but it was out of her hands now. Bryson was in charge of it, men were headed out to find her history, so there was no turning back anymore.
Chapter 10
“G ood morning, Rosalyn,” June declared, the moment her eyes fluttered open and she let the morning light inside. “Sorry, I hope that I have not woken you up. I have just been excited to speak with you.”
“You... you have?” Rosalyn stretched her arms out and yawned loudly. “You did not wake me though...”
“Some of the men have returned at last from the nearby towns with news of you.”
Rosalyn’s heart stopped beating. A long time had passed since they all left to find out more about her, and she had lost the ability to continue worrying about their return because it did not seem to be happening. Just at the moment that she had finally found a way to relax, they came back and shocked her.
“Has anything been said?” she asked June desperately, fearfully. “Do you know what they have found?”
“I know nothing.” June shook her head regretfully. “I attempted to listen in for you but found it very hard to hear anything. A lot was said to Laird MacGregor though, so I assume that he knows the truth.”
“Oh, my goodness.” Rosalyn’s blood ran ice cold. She could not get any air into her lungs however hard she tried. This was the moment that she had been looking forward to and dreading in equal measures. The snake of truth had come for her at last and she was finally going to see herself for the very first time. “I do not know how to take this. I would love to know what sort of past I have left behind me.”
June grabbed Rosalyn’s hands and smiled at her warmly. “I cannot imagine you have anything bad in your past, Rosalyn. You are such a wonderful kindhearted person. You must have been that way always.”
Rosalyn would have loved to agree with June, but Bryson was the only person who knew about the nightmares she suffered, and even he was not aware of all the details. He did not know how scared she was. But if Bryson already knew that her nightmares were real, then she needed to discover the truth too.
“Do you know if anyone came back with the men, June?” she asked anxiously. “Do I have family?”
“I did not see anyone, but I cannot be totally sure,” June admitted. “I am not sure of anything.”
That was a feeling which Rosalyn could understand well, particularly now. She did not know what she was about to face, but she could not hide away in her bedroom forever. She could not run and escape for the rest of her life. Not when the truth was at the doorstep of Goraidh Castle.
“Will you help me get dressed?” Rosalyn whispered towards June. “I do not know what to wear.”
June could see the nerves in her friend’s eyes and she instantly wanted to help ease the anxiety, so she nodded and agreed to do whatever she needed. “Of course. We will pick the perfect outfit for you...”
As June assisted Rosalyn in getting ready for the news that were to come, Bryson paced up and down the main hall in his castle, wondering how to take the news that he had just received. He was not expecting to hear what he had been told and it was taking a few moments to sink in.
“Nothing?” he asked once more. “You have checked around and there is nothing? No information about Rosalyn at all? No one is out there looking for her? But that feels absolutely impossible...”
“Is this not good news though?” one of the men asked Bryson right back. “If there is no one out there looking for Rosalyn then does it not leave you free to marry her?”
That much was true, and Bryson knew it, but it still left him a little nervous. Rosalyn really needed to know who she was, he could tell, so he was not sure how she would take this information.
“Yes, I think so.” He nodded at his men. He knew that they had worked hard for him and had been away for a while, so he did not want to seem ungrateful for their work. “I think this shall be good. Thank you.”
Eventually, they all left the room and Bryson was alone in this conundrum. If the second bump on the head from the accident with the horse did not bring back her memories and his men had come back with no information, then perhaps there was nothing to remember. Not at the moment anyway.
“I will marry her,” Bryson whispered to himself. “And I will love her no matter what. When her memories return, we will deal with that moment when the time comes. If that moment ever comes.”
He smiled to himself once the decision was made. He felt awesome now and could not wait to find Rosalyn to tell her everything. This was the day when he would finally make his proposal official and ask Rosalyn to be his wife at long last. Then they could start on with the wedding planning.
“Anice will be thrilled,” he told himself happily. “She has been asking me about Rosalyn forever.”
He left the room and started his hunt around the castle to find Rosalyn, but at the same time she was searching for him, so they missed one another on too many occasions. It seemed like forever before they came across one another, and by the time that they did, Bryson was ready to yell out his love...
“The men have returned?” Rosalyn asked him anxiously, before he could get out his proposal. She reminded him that she did not know what news his men had come back with. “Who am I, Bryson?”
“I am sorry,” he replied with his head hung low. However happy he was, he knew that she would not take the news well. It was going to be a challenge for her to hear what he had to say. He needed to be gentle. “They could not find anything about you. No one from the nearby towns has any information.”
“Nothing?” she gasped, deflating with the word. “There is nothing about me? But I must have a family, do you not think?” Bryson was not sure what to say. “Perhaps they have all been killed.”
That was not something that Bryson had considered, but perhaps she was right. Maybe there was no one out there looking for Rosalyn because there was no one left alive. That was very tragic. But she was his angel and he was her hero. They did not need to worry about other people when they had each other.
“I can be your family,” he told her seriously as he took a step closer to her. “I know that we have already talked about it before, but if there is nothing in your past that could get in our way, then I would still love to marry you.” He took her hands in his. “I would love for you to be my wife, if you still want that.”
Rosalyn stared up at Bryson with tears blinking in her eyes. She
knew that she had a family at some point. The flashes of memories that she had seen when she was knocked out had let her know that much, but if there was a chance that they were old thoughts and now she was alone, then why not marry Bryson? He loved her, she loved him, and he clearly wanted to do whatever he needed to make her happy...
“I would love to marry you,” she whispered back happily, finally accepting that it was time to focus on the future instead of what could be following her. “If you do not mind marrying someone with no past.”
“I am not concerned about your past,” Bryson reassured Rosalyn. “I am simply thrilled at the idea of planning a future with you. Starting with our wedding day. We should go and tell Anice.”
“Anice, yes!” Rosalyn knew that speaking to Bryson’s darling daughter would cheer her up and not allow her to focus on any worry about her still unknown past. “Do you think that she will be happy?”
“Oh, yes.” Bryson caught Rosalyn by the cheeks and brought her lips closer to his. “She will be happy.”
He kissed her softly, gently, lovingly, enjoying the sensation of her mouth, knowing now that they were in love with one another, fully, truly, and that they were going to be married at long last. He had known that was what he wanted from the very first moment that he found her in the forest by the river and now it was going to happen. He was going for a second round of happiness and love, all while feeling like the luckiest man alive. Rosalyn did not belong to any other man, she did not have a husband coming to find her, so she could belong to him. They could start on with the next part of their adventure together...
“Oh, wow,” Bryson muttered to himself as he returned to Anice’s bedroom to find his daughter curled up in Rosalyn’s arms while the pair of them fell asleep together. “They look so lovely like that.”
He leaned against the stone wall and watched them for a while, just smiling to himself. He had always convinced himself that Anice did not need a mother figure because she had the whole clan around her, but the way that she had fallen so in love with Rosalyn suggested differently. She clung to her like she was the most important woman in her life, and it was just so lovely to see. It made his heart swell with love, his chest heated up with a family sensation that he needed more than he knew, it made him want more.
“I believe that Jane sent Rosalyn to me,” he commented as he watched them both. “It is the only explanation. She wanted me and Anice to be happy. She knew that this would work for us.”
Him and Jane were young when they fell in love, they were head over heels mad about one another, and assumed that would be the case for the rest of their lives. They had been so happy to know that they were going to have a baby, it was going to be the first day of their adulthood, but of course things did not work out that way. The day that Anice came into the world, Jane disappeared. She could not survive the pain.
It was a beautiful tragedy, a bittersweet day for him. He was given the greatest gift ever, but he lost the woman that he assumed he would love forever. He thought from that moment on he would never have love again. He thought that it would only be him and Anice for the rest of his life. He also thought that he was alright with that. He did not envision a time where he would yearn for more.
But Jane would not want him to spend the rest of his life without love. She would not want him to be lonely and unhappy. Sending him another perfect woman to love was just the sort of thing that Jane would do. Sending someone to fill in the hole that her death had left in Anice’s life would be just like his first wife’s wish.
So, it was up to him to make the best of the situation. Anice was already doing that by accepting Rosalyn into her heart, and once they were married, he would have done as well. This was like a second chapter of his life, another shot at making it wonderful, and he could not wait to get started.
Bryson crept out of the room, leaving Anice and Rosalyn to sleep in peace together. This was a bonding moment for the pair of them, not something that he needed to be involved in, he could let them have it.
Chapter 11
“Y ou look so beautiful,” June gushed as she drank in the image of Rosalyn before her. “I have seen brides before, but none of them have been quite as breathtaking as you. The dress is phenomenal.”
Rosalyn let out a little tinkling laugh as she turned around, allowing the gorgeous white flowing material to blow around her. She really did feel like a princess for the first time in the life that she could remember, her real life now, her only life since the one that she had left in the back of her mind, blocked out by memory loss, no longer mattered to her. This was the only thing that was important. This life, with Bryson.
Much as she was happy to look so stunning and to get the compliment from her friend, the thing that Rosalyn was looking forward to most was being able to call the man that she was head over heels in love with, her husband. He would be hers forever more and they could move forward into the happy ever after that she kept thinking about. Now that her and Bryson had committed to one another, and Anice could not have been happier to have her as a part of the family, all she could see was joy laying ahead of her.
“Do you think that Laird Bryson MacGregor will want to marry me in this?” she chuckled.
“Oh, my goodness, I have never seen the man so happy and in love,” June laughed along with Rosalyn. “He is already obsessed with you. This will only make him more so. You are like an angel.”
An angel. Those words meant a lot to her because it was how Bryson described her. He said it over and over, making her feel that way herself. Perhaps she was some kind of angel, which was why she had no memory of what happened before and why she seemed to have no family. And anyway, even if that was not the truth, she liked the idea of it. The idea of being his angel and no one else’s.
“We should get you to the wedding,” June suddenly said as she snapped into action. “Bryson shall be waiting for you and while it is a bride’s prerogative to be late, I do not believe you are like that.”
Rosalyn shook her head emphatically. She did not want to keep her husband waiting any longer than he already had done. They were both eager to be hitched already and she could not wait to get started.
“Please, take me to my husband,” she replied with a smile. “I cannot wait to marry him already.”
Everything was beautiful, just as Rosalyn wanted it to be. She had not been planning this wedding for too long, but it was everything that she had been hoping for since she started planning, and so much more. The best part about it was how happy everyone appeared to be for her and Bryson. Everyone wanted this and needed it almost as much as they did. It was an event for the whole clan to enjoy.
“Oh, my goodness,” Rosalyn muttered to herself as she saw her husband to be just waiting for her. He looked like the most handsome man alive. She could not believe how lucky she was. “He is wonderful.”
She could not stop herself from clutching to June because she was too nervous to let her go. Of course, she was excited as well, but the anxiety was gripping on to her heart and other organs. Any minute now she would be expected to walk towards Bryson in front of all these people and she was not sure that she could do it. Her knees had turned to jelly, and she was not sure that she could keep standing.
“You are going to be fine,” June whispered reassuringly to her friend. “Do not worry.”
“But he is so handsome, June. It is making me a little nervous. I do not know what to do.”
June chuckled playfully. “Well, he looks like he is nervous as well. I bet he cannot believe how lucky he is, getting to marry someone as beautiful as you. Particularly in that dress.”
As soon as she worked up the courage, she started what felt like the long walk to her husband. Her heart pounded with a deep thrill, every step making her more excited. Any minute now she would be with him, he would be able to hold her hands, and everything would feel right with the world...
“Wait, stop!” What Rosalyn was not expecting was a deep male voice to ring out behind
her. “Oh, my goodness, I have been searching the lands for you, my love, and here you are at last. As soon as I heard that there were men sending out messages about a woman who had lost her memory, I just knew that it had to be you. I just knew, and I was right. Oh, my goodness, my love, you are here.”
Rosalyn stared at this man in shock as he raced towards her and he scooped her up in his arms with the ease of someone who had done it a million times before. He held her close to him, the happiness rolling off of him in waves. She stiffened up, unsure of how she was supposed to react to this craziness.
“I have been so upset since I lost you,” he continued as if Rosalyn was not acting strange at all. “I could not figure out what must have happened to you. I can only think that you got into an accident then wandered off when your memory vanished. Oh, I am so happy that I have found you. I was starting to think that I would never see you again, and that is something I could not have handled.”
“Erm...” Rosalyn did not know what to say to that. This whole thing was insane. She was supposed to be getting married right now, moving on with the future, but it seemed that she did have a past after all. She was no angel, and the people that she had left behind had finally caught up with her.
The worst part of all of this was this man... this handsome young man had something a little familiar about him. Rosalyn could not quite put her finger on it, she could not recall a love story exactly, but he was shaking those memories deep within her brain, reminding her of who she was before. Just a little.
