Page 37 of Moon Awakening

The warrior named Angus put his hand out to her and she smiled at him as she took it for a lift up. He looked confused by her smiling all right and stopped in the act of puffing her onto his horse with a stupefied expression on his face.

She simply waited, wondering how simpleminded were these soldiers that her poor plan was having such success so quickly.

"Angus!"

Lachlan's command snapped the soldier from his reverie and he swung Emily into his lap.

She sat primly forward, but turned to smile up at him once more. "Thank you kindly for allowing me to ride with you."

"He allows nothing. I have ordered it," Lachlan growled.

Emily ignored him, deciding then and there that her campaign to confuse the soldiers with her cheerful countenance would not stretch to their leader. She never wanted to speak to him again.

She faced forward without another word. The trip up the cliff was not as harrowing as the water crossing, but she did give thanks to God more than once that she had no fear of heights. The trail zigzagging up the side of the cliff was barely wide enough for the large war horses, its right side a rock face and the left a sheer drop back down.

Unless there was another path to reach the cliff-top castle, she could not imagine a force of any strength could ever surprise the Balmorals with their arrival, or even make it as far as the castle unless the Balmorals wanted them to.

Cait had been right. There was no way her brother would be able to rescue them once they were inside the castle walls.

When they reached the top of the cliff, they could see the drawbridge was down and so they rode right into the lower bailey before they stopped and dismounted. Men and women wearing the Balmoral plaid looked with open curiosity upon Emily and Cait. They didn't scowl like the Sinclairs had even though Emily knew her dress had to give away her Englishness.

One older woman with a kind face and eyes very like Angus's even came forward. "Who is that you have with you, son?"

"The Balmoral's captive. She's promised to the Sinclair."

"So, we've taken two in retaliation for Susannah, then?" The woman's face creased in a satisfied smile.

"Aye, we have."

Drustan laid a possessive hand on Cait's protruding belly. "Nay, we have taken three."

Cait's eyes filled with tears and Emily wanted to smack him.

But keeping with her intent to confuse them, she smiled instead. "I still say it is a poor man who takes his revenge through women and a child."

She'd said the words sweetly, so Drustan's scowl didn't come for two heartbeats after she'd spoken. When it did, it was fierce enough to fell the monster werewolves Emily's faraway housekeeper had told her and Abigail so many stories about.

Cait, however, no longer looked ready to cry and that was all Emily wanted. She was shaking her head, her eyes questioning Emily's sanity.

Angus laughed though.

"You find the insult to your brother amusing?" the older woman censured.

"Our laird has said she is English and will therefore have to learn our ways to understand them. I'm inclined to agree."

His mother shook her head. "An insult is an insult, Angus… even to an Englishwoman."

"Enough of this foolish talk." Lachlan's harsh voice came from directly behind Emily. "The priest waits for us up at the keep."

And that was when she learned there was to be a wedding between Cait and Drustan. Immediately.

"But the marriage sacrament is to be spoken in the morning," Emily said, scandalized as she followed the soldiers to the keep. She was still intent on ignoring Lachlan, so she was haranguing Drustan instead. "And Cait cannot go to her wedding without the opportunity to prepare her person. This is too barbaric even for you Balmorals."

"Yon would prefer I took your friend to my bed tonight without making her my wife?" he asked in a lazy drawl that made her want to scream.

"I would prefer you waited until she has had sufficient time to prepare."

"And how long would that be, English?"