The Scottish Lord’s Secret Bride by Raven McAllan

not giving us a chance to even have the option to decide what to do. I was the weakling for not fighting for what I wanted. Ah well, it’s time to move forward. I’m sure if I say it often enough it will work. Luckily, there were no repercussions from our activities.’
    A child.
That had not crossed his mind. He’d taken all the precautions he was able. Stupid not to think it could have been a possibility. Would things have changed if they
had
become parents? Probably not for him; he’d have been well on his journey before Morven found out. For her though… It was a worrying thought. Luckily they were now older and, he hoped, wiser.
    ‘I wish I could say or do something, love, with regards to then, but I can’t. I was an idiot, and I did come to my senses fast. However, I was foiled. It will be interesting to see who was the instigator of withholding those letters.’
    ‘My mama. I was just eighteen, Papa was ill, Brody had left and she was alone with young children,’ Morven said with certainty. ‘She must have decided one child abroad was enough. It is no excuse, but I think probably for her it was reason enough.’
    One of the horses shied at an unseen, and probably imagined danger and Fraser held it in check. ‘All I can do is help to sort out our future.’
    ‘It’s over,’ Morven said in a small voice. ‘I can’t see anything changing, except we have grown up. Time to move on. But not with my sister.’
    Fraser turned off the track onto the main road to Stirling. ‘Definitely not. I told you I made that very clear to my mama. Why she got that bee in her bonnet goodness only knows. Parents apart, what else did you say to your sister?’
    Morven sighed. ‘Not the truth anyway. As I said, I told her we’d been close, but you being sent away had scuppered any chance we might have used to discover if our friendship could go deeper. Which was true. I just chose not to mention how, well you know…’ Her voice trailed off.
    ‘And she accepted that?’ Fraser asked. ‘Good grief she has no nosiness if she took what you said at face value. It seems she has none of the curiosity of her sister.’
    ‘That is debatable. To both of your assumptions. What she did say was that she was happy to run interference, as long as it didn’t end up in her betrothal to you.’
    Fraser laughed out loud. ‘I’m old enough to avoid that trap. Let her do what she can, and we will do the same.’ He pointed ahead of them to where the outline of the castle showed starkly on the horizon. ‘Not too long now. That sight sends shivers down my spine every time I see it. Now they have found the honours of Scotland hidden in Edinburgh castle it makes me wonder what is tucked away in Stirling for our ancestors to find. After all a football said to belong to Mary Queen of Scots was discovered in a wall.’
    ‘In a wall?’ Morven sniggered. ‘Oh my, Roman coins or William Wallace’s spare sword perhaps? Romantic things. I read about the crown, sword and sceptre being found in Edinburgh,’ she added. ‘What else could be hidden in Stirling?’
    Fraser rolled his eyes. ‘Not a lot. It’s now used as a barracks, so probably a drunken soldier or a mouldering pie. I’d hazard a guess anything of value is long gone. However, the thought of it took our mind off the reason for our journey for a while.’
    ‘You…’ Morven spluttered and chuckled as they approached the outskirts of the town and Castle Crag loomed over them. ‘Yes I will agree, it diverted my mind. Now, though, I’m fully concentrated. What do we say or do?’
    That was the tricky part. Fraser braced himself as he formulated his answer and waited for her no doubt volatile response. ‘I’m afraid in this case it is not we but me,’ Fraser said ungrammatically. ‘No don’t fly up into the boughs; hear me out. The cleric in charge of the presbytery—the overlord of the kirk in this area if you like—is one of the old school. Sadly it would diminish me as a