'Indulgent, perhaps. But why do you say brave?'

'Because,' she said, her lips curving with sardonic glee, 'now that I have seen how a lowly niece of the emperor is feted on her wedding day, I shall accept nothing less on mine.'

Duncan clucked his tongue, and said, 'If I thought there was even the slightest chance you would deign to marry, I swear this cathedral would witness a ceremony far more grand than that which just took place.'

'Bring on the king and golden bed,' snipped Cait. 'Let us get it done here and now.'

'Is it too much for a father to hope the treasure of his life might find a little happiness in wedlock?'

'And ensure the continuance of the noble line, yes.' She frowned dangerously. 'Look at me, Papa, and tell me the truth: who in their right mind would want to marry me?'

'Any number of men, dear heart, given half a chance.'

'Papa!'

'There are fairer women perhaps,' allowed Duncan delicately. 'But the beauty of the soul far outlasts the charms of the flesh.'

'Show me a man enraptured with the beauty of the soul, and I will show you a eunuch.'

Duncan sighed. His daughter's refusal to consider a suitable marriage had long been a thorn in his flesh. While Cait herself imagined it was her lack of loveliness which kept acceptable men at a distance, her father strongly suspected it was the quick, dagger-like edge of her tongue. Why, oh why, did she have to be so hardheaded and immovable? It was, he realized, the family curse.

'Poor, poor Papa,' she cooed, sliding her arm through his. 'Lumbered with a thankless wench of a daughter who makes his life a dreary cavalcade of suffering from dawn to dusk. Oh, will this unendurable misery never cease?'

Leaving their places at the marble rail, they began following the other nobles from the gallery. Once in the outer corridor, they entered the slow-moving stream of people shuffling towards the wide staircase leading down to the main floor of the cathedral. 'I suppose,' mused Duncan philosophically, 'there are worse things than having a daughter who thinks she is King of Caithness.'