Robert nodded with a smug smile and walked out the door. Once it shut behind him, Scott turned to Astrid.
"I am sorry you are forced into a union you don't want, but it is done and as my heiress, I ask that you honor the marriage arrangement though it is just in name."
"Not the homecoming I expected," Astrid said.
"Unfortunate, but you are home with family, and that means more to me than you could possibly know," he said. "And a union is necessary to the future of this clan. Vevina may not be someone of your choice, but to ease your troubled mind, you can do anything else you want. But for now, I want you two to settle together as woman and wife."
Scott reached out and took Vevina's hand, then held his hand out to Astrid. Scott hoped and prayed silently that his words wouldn't repel his daughter. He knew his daughter's character too well. She was different in all the right places and she took pride in it. Their clan becoming stronger and bigger was also because of Astrid's constant support to her father's side, whether in politics, trades, or internal affairs. She was a natural leader, not to mention a brave warrior from the start.
Vevina, in contrast, prayed for Astrid not to take her hand, to deny her, but she knew better. Like all Sinclares, Astrid would do her duty and serve and protect her family under any conditions.
Indeed, Astrid did not hesitate. She stretched her hand out to her father, and Scott placed Vevina's hand in his daughter's. "To the future of the Sinclare clan," the man said.
The brothers shouted out a cheer, and then Lancer suggested they join the celebration, to celebrate not only the unique, never done before, wedding, but also Astrid's safe return.
Vevina attempted to slip her hand out of her wife's grasp but she held tight. She wasn't about to let go of her, and she wondered why.
"Go and I will join you soon enough," Astrid said. "I wish to wash up and wear the clan colors proudly."
Elaine stepped forward. "I will see that a bath is prepared for you, daughter."
"Thank you, Mother, but it will be my wife who tends me."
~*~
Astrid climbed the stone staircase to her bedchamber on the third floor, close to the battlements she had often walked on sleepless nights. Tonight, she felt, would be one of those nights, where sleep eluded her and thoughts plagued her, even more so now that she had acquired an unexpected and most unwanted wife.
Vevina followed dutifully behind her on the staircase, quiet as a mouse. She sensed her worry and need to flee, but also sensed her fear of doing either. She was not made of strong stuff, and Astrid had wanted, actually expected, to have a courageous partner just like her, no other would do for the next Chieftain of the Clan Sinclare.
Fate had dealt her a cruel blow, returning home only to discover she was married to a weak woman. Would she give her brother the sons we hoped for, she wondered, or stand strong on her own while she was off to war like her mother?
Worst of all were her concerns about how Vevina would deal with her now after she'd been held away for a year in hardship to get home. She was different and most uncomfortable with who she had been forced to become.
Astrid stood at the open door, waiting for Vevina to enter before her, and when the door shut with a slam, she jumped, her hand rushing to press against her chest, and there she remained.
Astrid was disgusted that she should just stand there and do nothing, not take the initiative and see to the preparation of her bath. She did not want a wife who needed instructions. She didn't even look at her, she kept her head bowed and her eyes focused on the floor.
"Do you know how to tend someone's bath?" Astrid snapped, irritated with her and the situation.
Her head came up but she avoided her eyes. "I will see to it."
She made a wide berth around Astrid when she approached the door, but Astrid's reflexes had sharpened considerably over the year and her hand snatched Vevina's wrist and yanked the woman to her so quickly that Vevina swiftly braced as if Astrid meant to strike her.
Astrid softened her grasp but held Vevina against her for a moment, allowing her sweet scent to drift around them, to gratefully fill her nostrils and remove the everlasting stench of blood, sweat, and fear that had clung to her for the past year. God, but she smelled so good, so sweet, so pure, and she simply wanted to bury her face in her and get lost in her alluring scent. Astrid had missed the smell of women. It had been so long since she had any sexual fantasies about them.
Instead, Astrid snapped more harshly than intended. "I will not hurt you, I promise."
Vevina's eyes rounded like full moons in the night sky, only they were violet, the color of the wildflowers that grow on the moors, the color that had always managed to capture attention, as it did now.
Only it was not the flower Astrid gazed upon but her wife's eyes, and she found them beyond lovely, she found them profoundly innocent.
Astrid shoved her away. "See to my bath now."
Vevina ran from the room, leaving the door to shut behind her.
Astrid growled low beneath her breath. She did not need this extra burden upon her return. She had hoped Rohan had found his way home and took it all away. She and Rohan had fought side by side and were captured together and then he had helped her escape without thinking of himself first. She wanted to keep her promise to find him.
Astrid rubbed her eyes and knew she must look a sight. She had walked endlessly, and when in safer territory begged farmers on their way to market for a ride in their carts. She had bartered a day's service on a farm for fresh garments, having been dirt-ridden and threadbare, not that the ones she wore had been as fresh as promised, but they were far better than what she had and fair enough to wear to her arrival home.
Now home, she wanted nothing more than a hot bath and her own fresh clothes. She quickly searched the room for her trunk and sighed in relief when she spotted it under the window. She felt a tug at her gut realizing that her mother had kept her bedchamber the same, she had expected her return. The confidence she had in her strength gave Astrid more of it and made her feel all the more pleased to be home with family and...
Astrid didn't want to think about her wife again. She still couldn't believe it herself that she was married and to a woman, no less. However, none of that mattered now, she was her wife though Astrid felt like a proxy instead.
The door creaked open slowly and Vevina gave a quick peek around.
"What are you waiting for?"
She hurried in without saying a word, followed by several servants lugging a wooden tub and pails of water. The tub was filled and Astrid disrobed, wanting to get into the heated water before it cooled. It wasn't until she was settled in the steaming water, hair soaked wet, that she noticed her wife stiff as a statue standing at the end of the bed a few feet away staring at Astrid.
"Don't tell me you've never seen a naked woman before?"
The two remaining servant maids giggled and her wife's cheeks grew bright red.
"Shall I see to wishing you, my lady? After all, we wouldn't want to get the bride's dress all wet," one of the servants asked with a smile.
Astrid glanced at her wife, waiting for her to advise the servant that it wouldn't be necessary, that she would see to Astrid herself, but once again she remained silent.
Astrid kept her eyes on Vevina as she answered the maid. "No, my wife will see to me."