“You’ve forgotten about the church record, Laird.”
Lisette felt her heart jump, though she hastened alongside Conall to one side of the church where the old priest awaited them by a small table.
What was she going to do?If the record bore only Isabeau’s name, would that invalidate the marriage?
“Conall Adair Campbell,” he said to the priest, who dipped a pen with shaky fingers into a small bowl of ink and scratched the name onto the parchment.
When he was done, the old man settled his watery gaze upon Lisette, Conall squeezing her hand.
“Go on, lass.Mayhap not the name you wanted, but yours now, all the same.”
She nodded, swallowing hard against her sudden nervousness, her voice coming out in a strained squeak.“Lisette Isabeau Charpentier—f-forgive me, Campbell.”
“Lisette?”
Conall looked so sharply at her that she almost faltered.
“Oui…but my family called me Isabeau.My mother thought it a prettier name.”
“Mayhap, though if Lisette is your true given name, which one do you prefer?”
She gaped at Conall, the thoughtfulness of his query startling her after he had been so somber since entering the church.Somehow she stammered, “L-Lisette.”
“Aye, well, you could have told me already so I hadna been calling you by the wrong name.Lisette suits you better, if the truth be told.”
If the truth be told?Lisette felt her cheeks flare hot to have lied so boldly in a house of God, but what else could she have done?As Father Titus drew closer to inspect the church record, the old priest finally finished with his laborious scrawling, she looked down at the floor only to gasp when Conall once again drew her along with him.
“The wedding is done.Now on tae the other.We’ve a full day’s ride ahead of us, and then we’ll spend the night in Lanarkshire with an ally of King Robert.”
Lisette gulped, her face flushing even hotter, though Conall didn’t seem to notice as he shoved open the door, the bright sunlight nearly blinding her.
They had entered the church only a short while ago with dawn breaking, the wispy clouds streaked with pink and orange and gold—but now it seemed as if the world had come alive all around them.
Birds chirping.Honeybees buzzing by.Cows mooing and goats bleating.Villagers going about their morning chores as if the armed warriors clustered outside the church didn’t alarm them at all.
She realized then, as a breeze tinged with the sweet scent of wildflowers lifted her hair, that they must have arrived at a place loyal to King Robert.Why else would Conall have stopped at this particular church?She felt so giddy all of a sudden for the new life bestowed upon her by heaven that Lisette couldn’t help smiling, a laugh breaking from her throat.
At once Conall stopped in his tracks to stare at her, a look of bewilderment on his face.
“Something amuses you?”
For an instant she didn’t know what to say, imagining what he must be thinking…that she hadn’t just acted at all like a young woman abducted and made to marry a stranger—but nor had she since he’d awoken her.She hadn’t fought him or screamed or burst into tears, well, other than the ones he had misread at the end of the ceremony.
Yet let him think what he would!She had never felt so happy.She beamed such a smile upon him that she saw a flicker of a smile light his face, too, no matter Lisette sensed he had done so in spite of himself.
“A beautiful day, isn’t it?”
He nodded, though he sobered, looking at her now with outright suspicion.
“Do you feel well, wife?Mayhap the effects of the potion still linger…”
Wife.Lisette felt so lighthearted in that moment, so thankful for having been released from the wretched prison that had once been her life, she couldn’t help laughing again.
“Aye, the potion, it must be,” she heard Conall mutter as he took her by the arm and led her to his horse, the massive animal snorting and tossing its head.
Nothing could dampen her mood, no, not even her new husband’s scowl as he lifted her into the saddle and then hoisted himself up behind her to hold her close.
Poor Father Titus barely made it onto his own steed before Conall gave a shouted command for his men to set off.
