...Or to Wed (MMM Joy)
... Or to Wed (Under the Gallows prt 2)
Lily wrings her hands, ignores her urge to hide in the back of the crowd. At that moment, he opens his eyes and looks down at the scene before him. She might have been invisible to the men who guard the scaffold, but not to him. Her hair makes her stand out in any crowd and she knows he has seen her when his eyes lock with hers. A horrible thought runs through her mind, what if he thinks she's here to enjoy this, that she wants to see him hang? That makes her feel even worse, she wants him to think well of her.
To her relief, he does not look at her with reproach or disapproval. Instead, he looks at her as if she’s the one who needs comforting. He smiles at her.
Lily didn't think she could feel worse, but she does.
A hush runs through the mass of people and she knows the priest and the executioner must be on their way.
Her face is wet with tears.
She stays rooted to the spot and shakes her head when an old man climbs up the steps, followed by a hooded giant of a man. The wood creaks. Lily bites the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood, she needs pain to keep the tears from blurring her vision.
She watches as the priest speaks to the prisoner. He must confess his sins and accept his sentence, because the priest nods to the executioner. The sun is still shining, and Lily finds that fact hard to reconcile with a God that's Good.
A profound silence falls over the square. The man's hands are tied, his sword, that he carried until now, is unbuckled. If only he could somehow use it to escape, Lily thinks.
The people strain their necks to see what comes next. They are here for a show, and this man has earned their respect. He might be a murderer but he is fearless in the face of death and the people appreciate that. They would enjoy the opposite, their joy in the spectacle of men who wet themselves in their final hour, in men begging and wailing for mercy, in men who refuse to repent and thereby forego a swift death, is just as great.
In the silence you can hear the leaves rustle in the breeze as the man kneels down, his head held high.
Lily understands with a shock that his noble birth saves him from death by hanging. Instead, he will be executed with the sword.
Her hands go up to cover her eyes. She can’t watch that. Still, she can't desert him either and she peers through her fingers, to find him watching her. His eyes are focused solely on her and as the sword rises high in the air, he winks.
She moves without thinking. She rushes forward and reaches for the floor of the scaffold, this time the silence helps her.
“Stop, please stop. I will wed him, stop,” she shouts, the executioner hesitates, his arms hover above his head.
"You go lass, take that man, he's far too pretty to lose his head!" Lily hears a woman’s voice shout, then there's sound everywhere. People cheer and scream, there's booing over the interrupted proceedings. Hands grab her, she's pushed and lifted higher, and without another thought, she scrambles to climb the platform.
“Please, I will wed him. I will wed him under the Gallows,” Lily says again, now standing in front of the three men on the scaffold. A swooshing sound and a half-eaten apple lands at arm's length of her. There's loud booing and more cheering. She doesn't look behind her, she's only focused on the men in front of her.
The priest approaches her, stroking his thick long beard, and asks in a gentle voice for her name.
“My name is Lily Evans, father. I am a free woman and I want to wed this man under the gallows as is my right," she says, her face growing unbearably hot under the old man's gaze.
“Are you certain you want to take this sinner as your husband, my dear?” he asks. Lily is trembling with nerves, but there is simply no way she will let this man die for her. She nods.
The priest turns to the man, who is looking at her with a bemused expression on his face.
“Well, Mr Potter, it seems you have a choice. Will you wed Lily Evans today?”
James Potter meets her eyes, and Lily feels as if he's asking her wordlessly if she’s sure. When she shakes ‘Yes’ his face breaks open in a smile that’s more radiant than the sun.
“If this lovely lady will have me, I'd be honoured to wed her today,” he says.
The crowd erupts in a cacophony of sounds, shouting their approval of this turn of events loudly, flowers are thrown on the scaffold. The executioner growls but resheaths his sword and unties James Potter. He stands and reaches for her before bothering with his sword or anything else. She melts into his arms, the magnitude of what she's done sinking in and she can't stop herself from shaking.
"Thank you, my brave sweet wildflower, for saving me," he murmurs into her hair. The priest clears his throat and they kneel before him to take their vows.
He holds her hand through it all, and when the priest declares both of them banished for life from her hometown he gives her a gentle squeeze.
James Potter, the man who rescued her and brought her home without laying a hand on her, who had asked her permission to kiss her that evening, who she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about, will not be executed today because she saved him.
At last the priest, his blue eyes twinkling, pronounces them husband and wife, and James Potter kisses her again, it’s as heavenly as when they first kissed in sin.