Death of an Adept

It was the love theme from El Cid, the film that had inspired Teresa Lockhart to name her daughter for the wife of Spain's great national hero. Hearing it, Ximena smiled and slipped her arm through her mother's, tears glistening in her eyes. Together the two of them came slowly into the room, pausing briefly to bow their heads before the icon. When they moved on to places at the right side of her father's bed, Ximena bent down to kiss him and receive his kiss. The music faded to silence as she straightened to gaze across the bed at Adam, who had almost forgotten to breathe as he watched her enter. "Dear friends," Jenny Carstairs said quietly, gathering their attention and embracing the room with the warmth of her smile, "it is both my privilege and my pleasure to welcome you on behalf of Ximena and Adam, who have come before us on this most holy night to be joined together in the estate of holy matrimony. Following the wedding itself, we will celebrate Holy Communion according to the Anglican Rite, but I invite all men and women of good will to share in this Feast of Love, regardless of denomination. For the Light that entered into the world on this night of nights was born for the salvation of all humankind, and those who partake of this sacred mystery become partners with Christ in the work of that redemption." So saying, she opened the prayer book clasped to her breast and began to read.

"Dearly beloved: We have come together in the presence of God to witness and bless the joining together of this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony. The bond and covenant of marriage was established by God in creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by His presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee…."

Adam had attended many a wedding in his lifetime. Even so, as Jenny Carstairs delivered the familiar opening words of the wedding ceremony, it was suddenly as if he were hearing them for the first time. Whole phrases leapt to his attention with the dazzling suddenness of a lightning flash, infused with new and intimate meaning.

He knew a moment's mental pang when Jenny made the required inquiry regarding the lawfulness of the marriage, for there had been no time for the legal paperwork that would have made possible a valid civil marriage; but glancing at the woman standing across the bed from him, Adam could entertain no doubts that the covenant about to be sealed between the two of them was a sacred one.

"Will you, Ximena Maria Sophia Lockhart, have this man to be your wedded husband," Jenny asked, "to live together according to God's law in the holy estate of Matrimony? Will you promise to love him, comfort him, honor him, and keep him, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, remain faithful to him alone, so long as you both shall live?"

"I will," Ximena said, never taking her eyes from Adam's.

"And will you, Adam Iain Geoffrey Sinclair, have this woman to be your wedded wife, to live together according to God's law in the holy estate of Matrimony? Will you promise to love her, comfort her, honor her, and keep her, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, remain faithful to her alone, so long as you both shall live?"

"I will," Adam said. Ximena's face was luminous in the candlelight. Never had she seemed more beautiful.

"And will all of you witnessing these promises do all in your power to uphold these two persons in their marriage?" Jenny inquired.

"We will!" came the heartfelt response of everyone present.

"Who presents this woman to be married to this man?"

All eyes turned to the man lying in the hospital bed, and Ximena leaned down to take his hand and give him a kiss. As she straightened, her hand in his, Lockhart reached out with his other hand to take Adam's, drawing them closer and joining their two hands with more strength than anyone but Adam would have believed possible.

"Take care of my girl, Adam," he whispered. "And Ximena, you take care of him. You've got yourself a good man."

"I know, Daddy," she mouthed almost silently, tears in her eyes.

Smiling, his eyes bright with tears of his own, Lockhart released their hands and took his wife's, shifting his fond gaze to the white-clad priest.

"Her mother and I present her, Reverend. Go on now, quer-ida, scoot," he concluded, making a faint shooing motion for Ximena to move to the other side of the bed and stand beside her betrothed.

Buoyed up by the intensity of his emotion, tears running down his cheeks unheeded, Lockhart followed the subsequent Scripture readings with avid attention, holding his wife's hand tightly and silently mouthing the words as his daughter and her intended then exchanged their wedding vows. Smiling, he shared the whispered sigh that rippled among the rest of the company as Adam produced his grandmother's sapphire and reverently placed it on his wife's ring finger.