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He didn’t like the look on his brother’s face.

“Our priest . . . cannot marry you.”

Had he heard his brother correctly?

“If he were here, I should say, he could do so in three days’ time. But just yesterday he left for the Holy Island near Clave Castle. A pilgrimage of sorts.”

“And who, prithee, will serve the good people of Kenshire while he’s away?”

Geoffrey frowned.

“No. I will not have that man say the vows that bind Kathryn and I together for life.”

That man was the village priest. Geoffrey tolerated him and his rather extreme views about the church and its people only because Sara insisted. He’d been here at Kenshire since she was a girl, and so their compromise had been to find a new priest for the castle. One who had apparently taken an untimely leave of absence.

“I will take her with me.”

“And marry among strangers?”

“We will find another priest.”

Geoffrey cocked his head to the side. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

Neill cleared his throat.

A smirk spread across Geoffrey’s face. “Ahhh. Well, little brother, it seems you have no other choice.”

“We always have a choice.”

He thought for a moment.

“Father Simon.”

“Brockburg’s priest?”

“He’s practically family to Clan Kerr. We will invite everyone, provided they can be here in less than a fortnight. Emma, I know, can make it here quickly.”

Geoffrey chuckled. “’Tis a long time to wait. Perhaps you are more patient than you realize.”

“Perhaps so,” he fairly growled at the thought of the delay. Could Kathryn be persuaded to forget the foolish idea of waiting? What he’d been thinking, Neill was not sure.

“But since this will be the last Waryn wedding—” Geoffrey slapped him on the back, “—we ought to make it a memorable one.”

Following his brother back the way they came, he thought again of the long days he would have to wait to see Kathryn, to touch her, to make her his in truth.

Could he do it?

Perhaps you are more patient than you realize.

Aye, he could. And would.

But Neill certainly did not have to like it.

* * *

“They are so beautiful!”

Guests had been arriving for days, and Kathryn had to admit she was becoming a slight bit overwhelmed. For so long, her family had comprised of two people: she and her father. Now she was part of something bigger. Part of the Waryn family and the clan with which they were so deeply intertwined.