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W hen Emma finally tore her eyes away from Aidan, who was accepting help from clansmen to remove the chain mail, she grinned widely at Brianagh.

“I can’t believe he won!” she cried, excited. “I can’t believe I just saw a real tournament!”

Brianagh’s smile was tentative. She wrung her hands nervously. “Um, Emma, there’s something you should know.”

“He has to do swords next?” Emma guessed, craning her neck toward the swordplay area.

Brianagh exchanged a glance with Nioclas. “No, that’s not it.”

Laird Monaghan was jostling his way through the MacWilliam crowd, headed toward them.

Bri was saying something, but Emma was again distracted by the sheer amount of food stuck in the laird’s beard.

She wondered if she’d missed a food hawker during the event.

She would have loved to try the medieval equivalent of popcorn, or a snow cone, or even a hot dog.

She wrinkled her nose. On second thought…maybe not the hot dog .

“Emma, listen to me! You need to know—” Brianagh stopped short as Monaghan reached their box.

Laird Monaghan said, in very broken English, to Emma, “Well, that settles that, I suppose. In case you were wondering, I thought you’d make a lovely Monaghan. But the Muskerry lass will do nicely, too. However, my son still has thoughts about…” He lapsed into Gaelic, leaving Emma confused.

“Um, thank you?” Emma replied uncertainly.

Brianagh’s countenance remained serene, but her hand on Emma’s arm tightened fractionally with each passing second. After a few moments, the laird took his leave of them, and Brianagh spun around, her back to the crowd.

“His son is still determined to marry you, if you’ll have him.

And he’s willing to do anything to get you.

He only warns us because the Muskerry clan outnumbers his clan, and he doesn’t want them to come after him.

And we don’t want any battles here, either.

These tournaments have yet to break out in war, but there’s always the possibility… ”

“Perhaps you ought to take Lady Emma to her room for immediate preparations, and explain to her what’s happened,” Nioclas said grimly. “I’ll find that arse and tell him he needs to be in my solar to sign papers.”

Brianagh groaned loudly. “This is a disaster.”

“Wh-what?” Emma said, looking back and forth between them. “I’m not getting the warm fuzzies here.”

Brianagh signaled to Kane, who immediately brought forth her personal guard, before saying, “I’ll explain it once we get to your chamber. Kane—send for Sinead immediately. She’s to meet me in my solar posthaste.”

“Who’s Sinead?” Emma asked, allowing Brianagh to steer her out of the box.

“My best dressmaker.”

Emma licked her dry lips nervously. “Why would you need your best dressmaker? ”

Brianagh set her jaw. “Because Aidan never breaks a vow. Let’s leave it at that until we reach your chamber.”

Silently, Emma hurried toward the castle, her stomach sinking. Would she have to go through with a wedding to Monaghan? Surely the MacWilliams wouldn’t force her to do that.

Brianagh called out instructions to various people as they made their way to her chamber. Emma didn’t know what she was saying, but she understood the urgent tone.

Brianagh flung open the door, and an older woman was standing in the center of the chamber, surrounded by bolts of fabric, a small stool, and six teenage girls. Right behind them, four men lugged a large tub into the room and placed it off to the side.

“Right,” Brianagh said briskly, rubbing her hands together. To Emma, she said, “We have four hours.” To Sinead, she said something in Gaelic, and the woman blinked, then began barking orders like a general.

Two of the girls came forward and grabbed Emma’s arms, hauling her to the stool, where they encouraged her to step up onto it. Sinead placed her arms in a T, and Emma looked at Brianagh in concern.

“Okay. First things first. Don’t pass out,” Brianagh warned. “Sinead will poke you with a needle to revive you. I’m not kidding.”

As if to demonstrate the point, Sinead stuck a long, thick needle into her mouth, then began to measure Emma.

“Next. Last night, Aidan announced that you were handfasted. Shane took that as a challenge. When Aidan charged out today, he cut Shane off to reach the MacWilliam side, and, in going back and forth in front of the clan, didn’t allow him the opportunity to come anywhere near you.

Shane was not happy, but thankfully, he went with his second choice. ”

“Brigit,” Emma supplied .

“Yes. And when Aidan unseated Shane, he was telling him, in stupid man-code, that you were his, and to back off.” Bri chewed her lip. “Laird Monaghan was, in no uncertain terms, demanding that you become unavailable to his son immediately.”

“I’m not available to him, though,” Emma pointed out. “Aidan already announced we’re handfasted.”

“Which, if you remember, is a perfect excuse to snatch you away,” Brianagh reminded her.

“Why would he do that? He seems completely logical and level-headed. Ow!”

Sinead barked something at her.

“She said to stop fidgeting,” Bri translated.

“I barely moved!” Emma complained.

“Breathing constitutes fidgeting,” Bri replied apologetically. “So, there’s more. No—don’t respond. Just try to be completely still. Last night, at dinner, Aidan made you a vow, did he not?”

“He didn’t say the word vow…”

Bri snorted. “I like how you’re trying to twist this one, Em, really. But you know, and I know, he made a vow that when he bested Reilly, he was going to marry you. Here.” She glanced at Emma nervously. “Now.”

“Now,” Emma echoed, realization dawning. “Wait, now, as in, now , now?”

“Yes. Now , now.”

“No!”

“Yes.”

“I’m being measured for a wedding dress?” Emma asked incredulously as the girls each held up a bolt of fabric for her.

“Pick a color?” Bri responded hesitantly.

“I have to sit down,” Emma said, stepping down from the stool.

“Not until you pick a color,” Brianagh said, again apologetically, as Sinead chased Emma back onto the stool with the needle. “She’s all business, all the time. For what it’s worth, I think the gold would look stunning with your hair and eyes. Wedding dresses need not be clan colors.”

Exasperated, Emma frowned. “This is ridiculous. I can’t marry him. I can’t!” She paled. “Does this mean I’m stuck here, in the past?”

Bri said something in Gaelic to Sinead, who immediately began barking orders to the girls.

“I don’t know,” Bri admitted, then added softly, “but if you are, believe me, there are worse fates than being Aidan’s wife.”

Emma put her head in her hands. “My choices aren’t that great,” she said, her voice muffled. “Marry a man who doesn’t love me, be kidnapped by one who can’t understand me, or face one who wants to kill me.”

Sinead patted her shoulder. Emma smiled at her gratefully, then realized the woman was trying to get her off the stool.

All business. Right.

She got down, and a thought occurred to her. “Bri, if I marry Aidan here, but then can go back, am I still married to him?”

“That’s dicey,” Bri replied slowly. “If you are sent back without him…well, who would know, right? And the vows do say ‘until death do you part.’ And, technically, he’d be long dead.”

Emma’s heart constricted at that reality. “Oh, God.”

“But if you were to both stay, then you’d be married for life.

If you both leave, well…I suppose that’s up to you, how to handle it.

You’d have no proof that anything happened here.

” Brianagh clasped Emma’s hands. “I’m so sorry this is being thrust upon you.

But, if I were in your shoes—and trust me, I’ve been almost exactly where you are now—I would be lieve in Aidan.

He wouldn’t play with your heart. He knows what I just told you, and my guess is that he’s protecting you in all possible ways. ”

“Him and his damn protection,” she grumbled. “And how can you be sure? Because I’ve been pretty confused since the moment I met him. One side seems so confident, and trustworthy. But there’s this other side. A darker side, one that I can feel.”

“The jealousy?”

“No, not that, though I do hope he’s serious in stopping that nonsense. The uncivilized side.”

Bri squeezed her hands. “I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that’s his medieval warrior self sparring with his modern self—I would think they’d tend to be at odds more often than not.”

Sinead inserted herself between the two women, placed a tape around Emma’s chest, then grunted and gave a nod.

Emma raised an eyebrow. “This has to be the most insane day of my life.” She looked at the girls, who were furiously cutting long swaths of gold fabric, and Sinead, who was using a knife to outline a pattern in a large sheet of parchment.

Bri laughed. “I bet it is.”

“Do I have a choice?” Emma asked in a small voice.

“You’ll always have a choice. But there are consequences to each choice, and the one that’s most likely to ensure your safety is to marry Aidan.”

“Damn it.”

“I’ll take that as consent. Let’s get you ready for a wedding.”

Aidan stood next to the desk in Nioclas’s solar, his arms folded as he stared down Reilly. “When you leave, will you have the ability to take Emma back with you? ”

“Are you giving up on her?” Reilly asked in surprise. He tossed a dirk into the air and caught it, then repeated the action. “That’s unlike you.”

“She needs to understand her options.”

Reilly caught the dirk again and scratched his cheek with it thoughtfully. “I wonder why you care so much. You didn’t give her many to choose from.”

Aidan wanted to smack Reilly’s forehead into the nearest hard surface. “I care because she will be my wife. But if she’s not willing to stay here, I need her to understand that she can return.”

Reilly shook his head in pity. “You poor sap. Of course she can come back with me. In fact, I believe she has to return with me.”

“What?” Nioclas broke in.

Aidan felt his chest constrict. “I thought you said you weren’t sure?”