"Traditions in my time make it impossible to just wed in some random kirk." Lucia sighed. "Ye cannae expect any priest to merry us without postin' the bans."
Aetius sighed. "We can't. It isn't as if you're actually from there now. You haven't lived there for years."
"I ken, Aetius." She put her hands on her hips. "So, I hae an idea."
"You do?" Aetius bit his lip. "I feel terrible for not being able to pull off the original idea."
She shrugged, a smile playing on the corners of her lips. "Dinnae. Ye did yer best. Noo, we'll just hae to go back further in history. Back to when the druids did the unions."
"Back to the druids?" Aetius winced. "Haven't seen their kind in decades, I'd guess. They didn't have much place in the Empire right before the fall."
Lucia grabbed his hands in hers, a wide smile spreading across her face. "Well, ye said ye wanted to give me a traditional weddin'. Didnae ye?"
He nodded.
"An' whit gets more traditional than druids?" She wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head on his chest. "I ken ye dinnae prefer it. But—"
Aetius pulled back, stroking the pad of his thumb over her soft cheek and dipping his head to press his lips to the corner of her sweet mouth. "It doesn't matter. Given everything else that's gone wrong, I'd just as soon wed in a clearing with a druid than wait any longer to make you mine."
She snorted. "Considerin' ye had me that first night—"
"A mistake to behave that way, I know." He ducked his head, his cheeks heating. "I should've refused you."
"Well, I offered it, didnae I?" She rolled her eyes. "Ye cannae take all the blame."
He sighed. "I can't take it back, at any rate. What's done is done. Kind of like how this whole mess is done." He waved a hand at the museum curator's office nearby with a groan. "Kenneth's ruined everything for sure now."
"An' who cares if the whole world goes to flames noo?" She shook her head with a frown. "Forget aboot it. History—" She shrugged. "It'll hae its mix o' good an' bad noo matter whit ye do. Dinnae fash yerself aboot it."
Aetius dragged his fingers through his hair. "Still, I feel as if after everything we've done, we should've saved this place."
"Whit more would ye hae done, Aetius?" She laid a hand on his arm. "Ye cannae truly think we didnae do all we could?"
He shook his head and flopped down on the iron stairs leading up to the curator's office. "All I know is that Kenneth is dead now because of the others, and it still didn't fix anything. The timeline's gone to shreds, and we can't fix it anymore."
She eased down beside him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I ken. But there isnae anythin' more we can do."
He nodded and wrapped an arm around her waist. "I know that, love. I know. Just wish there was."
"Ye willnae let this ruin our weddin', will ye?"
"Never." He buried his face in her hair. "You make me the happiest man alive."
She leaned into him with a soft exhale. "Look at her. She's miserable, she is."
Aetius lifted his head and looked out over the small crowd milling about in the museum first floor below. The Egyptian Queen, Nefertiti, wandered aimlessly through the Egyptian section near the main entrance. Her soft keening flitted up to them as she passed beneath the perch they'd found. "She misses him. And she's not able to cope with everything that happened."
"Should we send her back? Whit do ye think?"
He chewed the inside of his cheek for a long moment, watching the woman pass back and forth through the aisles in her section of the exhibits. "We can't. Not like this. She'll only end up dead or worse."
Lucia burrowed closer to him. "True enough. So, where do ye think the others will go?"
"No clue. Perhaps they'll stay here and help us get the doors open for the public again?"
"An' tell whit history, Aetius?" She waved a hand to draw his attention to the museum below. "Ye cannae expect people to believe this is true anymore. 'Tis no their reality."
"Well, we'll advertise it as some new alternate reality museum. How things could've turned out if they'd been different. People love that kind of thing nowadays. I've been reading up on the trends." Aetius drew her into his arms. "Don't worry about it. We'll figure it out. For now, focus your attention on planning your wedding. And I'll worry about getting a druid on board for it."
She squeezed him close to her. "Yer an angel, I swear it." Then she released him and tripped lightly down the stairs.
Aetius watched her go with a small smile on his lips. I'm lucky to call a woman like her my own.
***
He caught his first sight of her as she rounded the copse of trees to the East and entered the clearing. She splashed through the trickling stream, her blue wedding gown growing a darker shade of blue as the water caressed its linen hem. The tinkling of bells filled the clearing as her easy gait jostled the belt of bells slung low around her waist. A garland of daisies and lavender rested on her shining blond curls, and the sun lit her hair until it shone like molten gold. He drank in her appearance, pausing to frown at a tear in the gown's hem. How did that get there? I hope she won't be too upset when she sees it.
She lifted her gaze to his, and a smile wreathed her face. A delicate blush spread over her pale cheeks as she crossed the clearing and headed to him. He stood beside the stone altar, staring at her and trying to quell the pounding of his heart. For a moment, he glanced back at the altar and the druids, looking for some way to keep himself calm. The altar bore a silver quiach—as Lucia had named it—and a small silver dagger alongside a bowl of water, a feather, salt, and three candles.
The druid stood behind them in his white robes, hands crossed before him. On either side of him, his fellow druids waited with a vessel of sand and a leafy garland. Aetius wasn't sure what either of them would be used for, but it didn't matter. His lovely bride was all that could hold his attention, and his gaze wandered back to her. His palms slick with sweat, he waited, praying this wouldn't be some cruel dream that he would wake from. No. It's real. Out of all the bad things that have happened, this is the one good thing. It's real.
Lucia walked past the sparse group of people left from the museum, who had been persuaded to come along as witnesses to the wedding. She lifted her chin as she reached him and came to a stop before him. The druid cleared his throat, stroking a wild white beard with a toothy grin. He said something to the younger man beside him, but Aetius didn't catch it because his focus was mostly on Lucia.
The young man with the clay container of sand walked forward and began pouring out the sand in a circle around the two of them. Aetius eyed him with a frown then turned his gaze to his bride. Her lips quirked up in a smile, and she shrugged. "Ancient tradition. Symbolizes our becomin' one."
"I see."
The druid who was conducting the ceremony droned something in Gaelic. Aetius tapped the earpiece hidden in his ear, turning it on so he could understand what was being said. The man turned to the East, the direction Lucia had come, and began the consecration. "I call to the East. Raise my arms, hear my voice, that your winds will forever blow through us." He turned South. "I call to the South. Raise my arms, hear my voice, that your fires will forever burn in us." Then West. "I call to the West. Raise my arms, hear my voice, that your waters will forever flow through us." Finally, to the North. "I call to the North. Raise my arms, hear my voice, that your earth will forever ground for us. May the four corners smile their blessings upon this coming union."
The younger druid returned to his place beside his elder. The man then looked to the couple and took Lucia's hand in his. "Who gives this woman away?"
Lucia lifted her chin an inch higher to look up at the druid. "I do, druid, for I hae noo family to do so for me."
The druid looked at her with a thoughtful expression then nodded. "Very well." He placed her hand into Aetius's and crossed the couple's wrists. "Rhydian, the cord."
The man who had been holding the garland stepped forward and handed the cord to the druid.
"Does anyone object to this?" The druid scanned the crowd.
No one moved or spoke. In fact, many of them looked confused or concerned, but they held their tongues and didn't say anything that might offend the druids or the bride and groom. The druid nodded with a smile. "Then I bind you two together." He wrapped the leafy garland of ivy around their entwined hands several times.
As he did so, Lucia cleared her throat and lifted her voice to speak. Her clear, bell-like tones rang around the clearing as the sun beat down on them through the trees, and the wind whistled merrily through the leaves. "Aetius, ye cannae possess me for I belong to myself. But while we both wish it, I give ye that which is mine to give. And ye cannae command me for I am a free person. But I shall serve ye in all the ways ye require and the honeycomb will taste sweeter comin' from my hand."
Aetius swallowed, forgetting for a moment the response he was supposed to give. The elderly druid raised bushy white brows, waiting. He wracked his brain for a moment, slowing his racing heartbeat and calming the quiver in his hands. Then the words came. "Lucia, I pledge to you that yours will be the only name I cry in the night and the eyes into which I smile in the morn. I pledge to you the first bite of my meat and the first drink of my cup. I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care. I shall be your shield, as you are mine. I will not slander you, nor you me. I shall honor you above all others, and when we quarrel, we shall do so in private and tell no strangers our grievances. This is my wedding vow to you."
She ducked her head with a quiet smile. "This is a marriage of equals," she murmured in response.
The druid pressed their hands against the stone altar beside the wine-filled quiach. "Then, in the sight of the gods, I pronounce that you now belong to one another. May the gods honor your union." He picked up the knife from the altar, unwinding the cord from their hands. "As a symbol of your union, take this knife and cut the locks from one another now. Place them in this." He withdrew a box of yew from the folds of his robe. The top of the little chest bore a carved infinity knot.
Lucia took the knife first and cut a single silky lock from the curls by his ear. She laid it into the box and extended the knife to him by the hilt. He reached out, taking the end of one golden strand in his hand. Shame to cut it, but I don't want to ruin the ritual. He severed the end of the lock and nestled it in the box alongside hers.
Snapping it closed, the druid nodded. He set the box on the altar in view of everyone assembled there and took the dagger back, placing it beside the box. Then he ushered a boy standing off to the side closer. The boy approached, bearing a brass basin hanging from chains. Upon closer inspection. Aetius realized the bowl contained a small fire. As he watched, the druid took the candle from the center of the three and pressed the wick to the flames. When the candle lit, he lit the other two and returned it to its place. "To your long life and many blessings in your marriage."
Aetius watched the dancing flames with a smile. She's really mine. Really and truly mine after all that's happened. He turned to his beaming bride and drew her against him with a tug. Arms around her waist, he lowered his mouth onto hers, inhaling her gasp of surprise. The people watching broke into clapping, and the bells around Lucia's waist tinkled as she shifted in his grip. He squeezed her hip as he pulled away, a broad grin on his face. "Is the party a must?"
The druid behind them burst out laughing. "Of course it is a requirement, son. No wedding is complete without it."
Lucia laughed too, drawing him over the circle. "Noo we dance, Aetius!"
***
Lucia tilted her head back against the bathtub of the small apartment they'd taken over after Kenneth's death. Attached to the museum, it had offered a perfect solution for living arrangements, and the others had happily allowed the newlywed couple to do so. Now it would provide them the privacy for their wedding night.
Strong, warm hands wove through her hair, massaging her scalp. She groaned and opened her eyes."I cannae believe we finally made it here. I thought we never would."
Aetius's hands worked the shampoo into her tangled locks. "I did think that was a possibility for a time. Now, while we're relaxing for the moment, why don't you explain the ceremony? I didn't understand much except that we're now properly man and wife."
"Whit do ye want to ken?" She leaned into his touch, sinking deeper in the hot bath water. Steam curled over her shoulders and up her neck, washing away the tension in her muscles.
"What was that circle with the sand? And why blue instead of white? And the bells. Why did they give us bells and a horseshoe at the feast?" Aetius swirled the ends of her long hair through the bath water.
"Well, the circle was to symbolize our new life together, as I told ye at the altar. Blue is the traditional color o' purity, or it was afore Queen Victoria made white the reignin' color." She smiled, dunking her head back under the water to rinse out the suds. "As for the horseshoe, it's good luck, or so they say. An' the bells are for if ye an' I ever fight. They're so we can ring them an' bring an end to the contention."
Aetius grinned down at her. "So, you think a bell can silence me if I ever have the notion to argue with you?"
She sat up, bringing her lips to brush along his. "Noo when did I say that?"
He nibbled at her bottom lip with a snicker. "Never, but you were thinking it, weren't you?"
Scrambling out of the tub, she tackled him to the tiled floor with a snort, spraying water everywhere in the process. "No, I was not. Yer such a bloody fool sometimes, Aetius." She feathered kisses over his face, noticing for the first time that he was bare-chested. His hot skin pressed against her palms, and she lowered her lips to drag them along the pulse point of his neck. "But yer my bloody fool, I ken."
His hands wrapped round her waist, tumbling her off him.
The cold tile of the floor met her heated skin, and her hair splayed across the floor. Aetius hovered over her with a twinkle in his eyes. "Aye. I'm your bloody fool as you so eloquently put it." His lips descended on hers, and he plundered her mouth with his. "And now, I'm going to make you mine in every way, love."
She arched her back to press closer to him, the chilly air of the bathroom biting at her skin. When he pulled back for a moment, she wriggled out from under him with a smirk. "Ye'll hae to catch me first!" While he sat on the floor and stared, she bolted out of the bathroom.
His footsteps followed seconds later.
She'd just made it to the bed and was about to weave around it when he put an end to her teasing. He tackled her onto the king-size bed, and they went down in a tangle of limbs on the fur-covered mattress. Flipping her, he hovered above her, his cheeks flushed and his eyes ablaze. "Thought you could run, did you?"
Her lips spread into a satisfied smile as his hands ran over her frame. "Never." Lifting a hand, she placed it against his warm cheek and stared up at him. "There'll be no more runnin' noo. I'm right where I want to be. And I'm with the man I wanted."
He propped himself up on his elbows over her and stared into her eyes with his light-colored ones. "You mean that?" A frown creased his brow. "You're not scared of my bedding you after all you went through with Charles and Kiereth?"
She smiled up at him, brushing her fingers over his brow to smooth out the wrinkles. "Yer not like them, are ye, Aetius?"
He shook his head.
"Then no. I'm not feart. Yer a good man, and I ken ye'll protect me like ye promised. Ye love me as I love ye." She cupped his cheek in her palm. "I'm not runnin' away. Not noo. Not ever."
He dipped his head, slanting his mouth over hers. Their breaths mingled, but he didn't take it further. Just let his lips touch hers in an open-mouthed caress as he held her. "I'm glad of that," he murmured. "We'll make a home here then. With Nefertiti and anyone else who'll stay."
She nodded, her fingers splaying across his back and pressing him nearer. "O' course. But ye'll work out the details later. For noo, yer mine."
He trailed his lips down her jaw, nibbling at the soft skin of her earlobe before pressing gentle kisses to the places he'd nipped. "Forever and always, Lucia. Forever and always."