“We’re going to be married,” Gilda blurted out.
“Good. Now it’s time for vespers.”
“No, you don’t understand. We need to go to the monastery to find someone to marry us. Bishop Gunthar offered to do it, and I said we were already married. I didn’t feel that I was lying because in my heart I feel married to Justin. Now we have to make sure that’s the truth. I’m hoping your nephew, Brother Arnulf, will help us.”
Freda’s lips had curled into a grin as she listened to an excited Gilda explain herself. “It’s something I’m sure he would enjoy doing. Perhaps we should leave while the others are at vespers.”
Justin gave the elderly nun a quick hug, then said, “I’ll go see if I can find Leonardo to go with us.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Gilda, Justin, and Freda spun around to see Leonardo in the doorway of the bedchamber. He was grinning. “I was trying to rest, but there was too much noise coming from this room.”
The idea of the energetic Leonardo needing a rest baffled Justin. Nodding toward the bedchamber, he asked, “Are you alone?”
Justin’s question had Gilda and Freda staring at Leonardo, who shrugged his shoulders and blushed. Gilda had a hard time keeping a straight face as she remembered Justin trying to move her into the bedchamber. It would have been crowded in there. “Did you hear everything?” she asked.
When Leonardo nodded, she said, “Let’s get going. I want to be married as soon as possible.”
The evening was mild, and it didn’t take long to ride to the monastery. Vespers had just concluded, and the brothers were exiting the chapel. It was easy to pick out Brother Arnulf, as he towered over the others.
“Welcome!” the monk shouted as he came toward them.
When Freda slipped behind Gilda to avoid the embrace that he had treated her to at their last visit, Brother Arnulf grinned at her. “A pleasure to see you again, dear aunt.”
Justin maneuvered Arnulf away from the other brothers. “We need some help,” he said.
“Always happy to help. What can I do?”
Justin glanced at Gilda and she spoke. “We need a priest to marry us.”
Arnulf clapped his hands with delight. “I can help with that. How soon were you thinking? We’ll set a day and I’ll find someone.”
“You don’t understand. Tonight. We need to be married tonight,” Gilda said, suddenly realizing how insane that sounded.
Arnulf scowled. “What have you done?”
Impatient, Freda jumped in to say, “They haven’t done anything, Arnulf. Can you find someone or not?”
Intent on their conversation, the small group didn’t notice that the Abbot had approached them until he spoke. “Sister Gilda and Lord Justin. It is good to see you again. What brings you back to visit us?”
There was a long pause before Lord Justin spoke. “We have come to find someone to marry us, Holy Father. It has to be right away. Tonight.”
The stern expression was back on the Abbot’s face. “What is the hurry?”
“It’s my fault,” Gilda offered, eager to set him straight. “Bishop Gunthar offered to marry us, and I pretended we were already married so as not to offend him. Since we both wished to be married, I didn’t think it was much of a sin, but now I’d like my words to become true.”
“And the bishop believed you?”
“Yes, I think so. I said I would wear my habit until our mission for the king was complete.”
“You do not wish to have the bishop marry you?” the Abbot asked.
“No,” Gilda answered simply.
“Would you like me to hear your vows?”
A sudden smile lit Gilda’s face, and Justin sighed his relief at the Abbot’s words. “Yes,” Gilda and Justin said in unison.
“Come to the porch of the chapel. I will marry you, and then we can go to supper.”
Justin grasped Gilda’s hand as they followed the Abbot for the few steps necessary to reach the porch. There, with Sister Freda, Brother Arnulf, and Leonardo standing beside them, Gilda and Justin said the words that bound them together and received the Abbot’s blessing.
When the Abbot was finished, he said, “Go into the chapel and say prayers to ask God’s blessing on your union, then come to the dining hall.”
Kneeling beside Justin in the chapel, Gilda was overwhelmed by the tenderness she felt for him, and suddenly tears streamed down her face. She seldom cried and tried to hide the evidence of her emotion by wiping away the tears on her sleeve.
As Justin became aware that Gilda was weeping, he was struck by a sudden fear. “Are you having regrets?” he forced himself to ask.
“No! No! Justin, please don’t think that. I have known for some time that I wanted to be your wife. The only reason I hesitated so long was because I also wanted to remain a nun.”
“What about your fear of losing your freedom, Gilda? Your words to Lady Emma about a nun being free of the dictates of a father or husband have haunted me since you spoke them.”
“I admit I wondered if it would work out for us. But I know you are meant to be my partner and husband, Justin. We complement each other in so many ways, and I’ve come to trust you. Besides, I love you more than I thought it was possible to love anyone.”
Still kneeling in the candlelit chapel, Justin kissed his wife, and she clung to him for a long time. Then he heard a rumbling from her stomach. “You’re hungry,” he said with a grin.
“Starving. Never been so hungry.”
In the dining hall there seemed to be a great deal of excited conversation, and all heads turned toward the entering couple, who joined Sister Freda and Leonardo at one of the long tables.
“I thought this marriage was supposed to be a secret,” Justin whispered to Brother Arnulf.
“Don’t worry. Monks know how to keep a secret. But little happens at the monastery that is not observed by someone. The Abbot made a short speech calling for a vow of
