Page 22 of Moon Awakening

"Cait…"

"Yes, Emily?"

"What does it mean to keep someone in clan law?"

Cait grimaced. "You mean like Drustan has threatened to keep me?"

It had sounded more like a promise to Emily's ears, but she nodded.

"Between a man and a woman, it means he intends to take her for his mate."

"Drustan is going to marry you?" It was as she feared, but something still did not make sense to her. "But is not Church law the same in Scotland as it is in England? Your king accepted Rome's authority, did he not?"

"The clans are not much bothered by the dictates of Scotland's king."

Talorc certainly had not been. "So you do not have to agree to the marriage for it to be valid?"

"Well, yes, but when a man keeps a woman, he will settle for a clandestine marriage."

"You mean he will take you to his bed without the benefit of the Church's blessing?" Emily demanded, appalled. It was even worse than she had thought.

"Yes."

"That is barbaric."

Cait shrugged, but her eyes belied the relaxed pose.

"Lachlan told me that the Balmorals did not harm women or children." And she had believed him. "But he lied."

"Yes, he lied."

"I did not lie," Lachlan said in Latin, his voice hard.

He'd understood the entire exchange.

Cait flinched and then net shoulders sagged. "I should have guessed. My brother told me the Balmoral laird was more learned than other Highlanders. He considered it a weakness."

"You have learned differently, have you not?" Cait refused to answer Lachlan's taunt and Emily was too furious to say anything at all.

The man was a monster!

Drustan asked for a translation of the conversation and Lachlan gave it to him. Word for word. Despite her anger, Emily blushed to be caught discussing such private things in mixed company. The embarrassment did not last long as fury that Cait could be treated so horribly overtook every consideration, even her fear of the water.

It was not right.

She surged to her feet and spun to face Lachlan. He stood at the front of the boat, his stance arrogant and commanding, while the other soldiers manned the oars. His rugged masculine appeal mocked her, for it masked a black heart she would never have guessed at.

The pain of having believed him to be something he wasn't mixed with her fear for her friend and exploded in a deluge of angry words. "You are nothing but a lying savage. Do you hear me?"

"I believe they hear you in England, lass," one of the soldiers said. He was the only blond one among them and up to now he hadn't spoken.

She glared at him before turning her frown on Lachlan once again. He looked unaffected by her outburst. She didn't care if her words impacted him, or not. She was going to have her say and that was that.

"And Drustan is a thief. No… he is worse than a thief," she said with relish. "For he intends not only to steal that which does not belong to him, but to hurt an innocent woman in the process. And most likely her unborn child. You're all a bunch of cowards, too, taking your revenge on a woman rather than facing your opponents in honest combat."

Several grunts of annoyance met that statement, but she ignored them. She had one last thing to say to the man watching her so impassively.

"You may be more learned than the other Highland lairds, Lachlan, but to my way of thinking, you are the most ignorant, not to mention heartless man I have ever met here or in England."