“I might be old, missy, but I’m not deaf,” Roger muttered, still leafing through his tome. “Okay then,” he said, his voice booming with authority as he launched into a guttural litany that sounded more spat than spoken.
“Excuse me,” Luke interrupted. “That’s not Latin.”
Roger shot him a dark look. “It’s Gaelic.” He looked back down at his book with a heavy sigh. “Now I have to start all over.”
Which he did.
“But how am I supposed to know what I’m vowing?” Luke asked.
Roger stopped in midsputter with a fuming glare aimed at Camry. “Shut him up, missy, or you’re going to find yourself married to a toad.”
Camry bumped Luke’s hip. “Quit interrupting him.”
Luke leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Can he really turn me into a toad?”
Roger sighed heavily again. “You have the whole rest of your lives for her to explain the magic, Renoir. Can we pleaseget this done?” He looked up at the sky, then back at Luke. “My show starts in twenty minutes.”
Luke suddenly realized the sun had set, and it was completely dark out. Except that the three of them seemed to be standing in some sort of glowing light, which appeared to be emanating from Roger. Luke wiped a trembling hand over his face.
The magic that rules our science,Camry had called it.
Whereas he was thinking insanitymight be more accurate.
Roger launched into his litany again for what sounded like a sum total of eight or ten sentences, then suddenly stopped and looked at Camry expectantly.
“I do,” she said.
Roger turned his expectant look on Luke.
Oh, what the hell. “I do,” he firmly echoed.
Roger closed his book with a snap. “You may exchange your rings now,” he said with a regal nod.
Luke felt Camry’s shoulders slump. “We don’t have rings,” she said.
“We didn’t exactly plan to get married today,” Luke drawled, giving Camry a bolstering squeeze. “We’ll go straight to a jeweler when we get to Pine Creek.”
“You should wear the rings Fiona gave you,” Roger said. “They’re her wedding present to you. She went to a lot of trouble to find just the right stone to make them.”
“Fiona never gave us any rings,” Camry said.
Roger’s eyebrows lifted into the rim of his pointed hat. “She didn’t? But she said she intended to present them in a container that had very special meaning to both of you. She even showed me the paper she was going to wrap it up in. It was deep blue, covered with glittering gold stars.”
Luke stiffened.
“The transmitter!” Camry said with a gasp. She bolted out of Luke’s embrace and ran toward the tree where he’d thrown it.
“Come on, AuClair,” Luke said, falling in behind the dogs bounding after her. “We need your light.”
Luke immediately got down on his knees beside Camry and started searching the snow. “Don’t worry, we’ll find them,” he assured her, picking up and discarding tiny pieces of metal debris.
“Here! I found one!” Camry cried, holding something up. She suddenly tossed it away. “No, it’s just a rubber O-ring.”
Luke shoved Max out of the way, then snatched something out of Tigger’s mouth. He held it up to the light Roger was emanating. “This could be one of them.” He handed it to Camry. “It seems to be made out of some sort of stone.”
She also held it up to Roger’s light, then looked at Luke. “It’s black-and-white-speckled rock, just like the stone Kate gave you. Where’s your pebble, Luke?”
“In my pocket,” he said, reaching into his pants pocket. Only when he didn’t find it, he reached into his other pocket. When he still didn’t find it, he stood up and started shoving his hands into every pocket he had. He suddenly stilled, looking down at her. “I lost it.”
“No, thisis the special rock Kate gave you,” she said, holding it up to him.
Luke took the smooth stone circle from her, which certainly appeared to have been cut from the tiny rock Kate had given him. “But that’s impossible. I distinctly remember it was in my pocket this morning.”
Roger snorted, looking at Camry. “You sure you want to marry a man who doesn’t believe in anything but cold hard facts? The deed’s not fully done, missy; I haven’t given my blessing yet. You can still back out.”
Camry dropped down onto all fours and started searching the snow again. “I’m not backing out,” she muttered. “Luke, help me find your ring. That one must be mine, because it’s too small for your finger.”
By God, he wasn’t backing out, either! He didn’t care if he waslosing his mind, as long as he lost it with Camry. Luke got down beside her and resumed searching.
“What I can’t figure out,” Roger said, peering over their shoulders—his light actually helping them—“is how Fiona’s thoughtful gift ended up over here in the first place, all smashed to pieces.”
Luke straightened to his knees, lifting a brow. “Don’t you have some sort of crystal ball you can look into that will tell you?”
Roger shot him a threatening scowl. “From what I hear, women aren’t all that fond of kissing toads.”
Camry grabbed Luke’s sleeve and tugged him back down. “Leave him alone and help me find your ring.”
The light suddenly started to fade, and Luke realized that Roger was heading down the mountain. “Where are you going?” he called out.
“To unzip your sleeping bags,” the old hermit muttered. “’Cause in ten minutes, I intend to be sitting in my chair, watching an all-night Survivormanmarathon.”
“I found it!” Camry cried, scrambling to her feet. She grabbed Luke’s hand and ran to Roger. “Okay, we’ve said ‘I do,’ so now what?”
“Well, now you slide the rings on each other’s fingers, and pledge your troths in your own words.”
“But we didn’t have time to write our own vows. Wait!” she yelped when Roger turned away again. She took hold of Luke’s hands and looked directly into his eyes. “I promise to love you forever, Lucian Pascal Renoir,” she whispered, slipping the smooth stone ring onto his finger, “uncompromisingly, unpretentiously, and unconditionally.” She shot him a crooked smile. “And I promise never to lie to you, or send you any more unladylike e-mails, or imagine ten different ways to make you beg for mercy, or—”
Luke covered her mouth with a laugh. “Let’s at least keep our vowsin the realm of reality.” He lifted her hand and slid the smooth stone ring onto her finger. “And I promise you, Camry MacKeage, to love and honor you with every breath I take, forever. And I promise never to steal your work,” he added with his own crooked smile. “Or lecture you until your ears fall off. And if you decide to go on any more crime sprees, I will definitely have your back.”
Roger snorted. “Okay then. I guess you two do deserve each other—seeing as how you won’t find anyone else willing to put up with either of you.” He held his hands up, encompassing them both. “So I give my blessing to this union and pronounce you husband and wife—may God have mercy on allour souls,” he finished with a mutter, heading toward his cabin.
“Wait. Don’t I get to kiss my bride now?” Luke asked.
Roger turned and shot him a scowl. “Not until you get back to your tent.” He spun back around and headed to the cabin again, patting his leg to call the dogs to him. He opened the door to let them inside, then turned back. “I’ll be keeping Max and Tigger with me tonight, so the poor beasts aren’t scarred for life.” He pointed at the snowcat. “And you’ll be walking to your tent. That fancy snow machine is now mine.”
“But you can’t actually keepit,” Camry said. “We really only borrowed it from my father. We have to bring it back.”