Page 76 of Moon Awakening

"I assure you the marriage is valid."

"Recognized by the Church?" Emily pressed.

"Yes."

"Oh." She still wasn't convinced.

"The marriage is valid," Lachlan said, speaking to her for the first time since she had sat down.

She frowned at him for his arrogance. "Are you implying that not only are you above the king when you feel like it, but the Pope as well?"

"Do you think to try to give my wife an excuse to run from me?" Drustan asked in a hard voice before his laird could answer her impudence.

Emily shook her head vehemently. "Oh, no. That would not be in her best interests after well… after. If you know what I mean. It is the next day, after all. I am merely concerned for her standing with the Church, but if the priest is not worried, then I realize I should not be either."

"The marriage Sacrament is no less holy spoken at night than in the morning," the priest hastily intervened. "There are dispensations for unusual circumstances to almost all of Rome's traditions."

"There are?"

"Especially here in the Highlands," Lachlan said in a mocking voice.

"Why especially here?"

"Because it was the king who chose to follow Rome's dictates, not the lairds."

"But the lairds must follow the dictates of their king." Even if they grudged him his place of power.

"Must we?"

"You speak treason."

"Nay, simple truth."

The others around them nodded their agreement. Even Cait. And Emily stifled the urge to argue further. The Highlanders saw the world differently and that was that.

One thing was certain. They all believed Cait to be well and truly married.

Thank goodness.

Chapter 13

After the nooning meal, Emily was unsure if she was expected to return to her tower, or not. Lachlan left before she had a chance to ask, which might have been for the best. Since he had not expressly ordered her to do so, she could tell him later—if the matter came up—that she had assumed his silence meant it was all right for her to stay in the great hall. She didn't plan to wreak any mayhem anyway, just find something to keep her occupied.

And really, couldn't she assume he meant to allow her the freedom since he had not expressly denied it to her? He was, after all, a man who did not mince his words.

"Emily, Drustan has said it would be all right for you and me to explore the castle grounds." Cait spoke from behind her and Emily spun to face her friend.

"Oh, that would be lovely. I've seen some of it, walking to the loch and all, but honestly my mind was too busy with other things to take it in."

And her courage had not quite extended to making such an exploration on her own without express permission. She didn't want to end up locked in the tower again.

They started by touring the upper and lower bailey. There was a tanner's cottage, a blacksmith and an area where the women of the keep laundered, including a grove of lilac and heather bushes on which to dry the clothes so they would smell sweet. The stable was large, with over a dozen horses all as big as the ones they had ridden the day before.

The priest's cottage was behind the chapel and the two women stopped to chat briefly with him when they saw him sitting outside his door enjoying a little sun.

"Are you worried about the validity of your marriage, lass?" Father Paul asked Cait.

Cait smiled and shook her head.