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HAPPY THE BRIDE

THE MOON SHINES ON

WE WERE LUCKY The rain held off, and shredding clouds revealed a silverlopsided but luminous over the slope of Black Mountain; suitable illu

I had h I hadn’t recalled it until I saw hientle in the open for a week Jamie knew hihtness of expression as the ht, his worn prayer book clasped in his hands, but I nudged Jaly, and he at once altered his expression to one of inscrutability

I saw Roger glance once in our direction, then turn back to Bree There ht smile at the corner of his mouth, or it could have been only the effect of the shadows Jaain

"You had your way over the baptislanced in our direction, looking slightly anxious

"I havena said a word, have I?"

"It’s a perfectly respectable Christian e"

"Did I say it was not?"

"Then look happy, damn you!" I hissed He exhaled once ree short of outright ienial smile I saw Duncan Innes turn casually toward us, start, and turn hastily away,to Jocasta, who stood near the fire, white hair shining, and a blindfold over her da behind her, had in fact put on his wig in honor of the cere apparently disembodied in the air above her shoulder As I watched, it turned sideways, toward us, and I caught the faint shine of eyes beneath it

"Who that, Grand-rave;re?"

Germain, escaped as usual fro curiously at the Reverend Caldwell

"That’s amarried"

"Ou qu’on va minster?"

I drew a deep breath, but Jamie beat me to it

"It’s a sort of priest, but not a proper priest"

"Bad priest?" Germain viewed the Reverend Caldith substantially more interest

"No, no," I said "He’s not a bad priest at all It’s only thatwell, you see, we’re Catholics, and Catholics have priests, but Uncle Roger is a Presbyterian--"

"That’s a heretic," Ja, Grand-père is being funny--or thinks he is Presbyterians are"

Ger no attention toJa faces?"

"We’re verra happy," Jamie explained, expression still fixed in a rictus of amiability

"Oh" Germain at once stretched his own extraordinarily mobile face into a crude facsirin, teeth clenched and eyes popping "Like this?"

"Yes, darling," I said, in a marked tone "Just like that"

Marsali looked at us, blinked, and tugged at Fergus’s sleeve He turned, squinting at us

"Look happy, Papa!" Gerus’sto Jamie His face went blank for a moment, then adjusted itself into an enormous smile of white-toothed insincerity Marsali kicked him in the ankle He winced, but the s a last-minute conference with Reverend Caldwell, on the other side of the fire Brianna turned frorinning faces, and stared, her ed helplessly

Her lips pressed tight together, but curved upward irrepressibly Her shoulders shook with suppressed laughter I felt Jamie quiver next to er in his book at the proper place, put his spectacles on his nose, and shtly when he encountered the row of leering countenances