Epilogue
June 1528
A gentle breeze played against the pillars of the new abbey church as a silence fell over the gathering of women.
The light of the full moon poured in through the high windows on the side of the altar and blessed the three people and the bairn in a soft, bluish glow.
Feeling the reassuring touch of her husband’s hand on her shoulder, Joanna reached out and placed their sleeping son into the outstretched hands of Mater. The abbess’s gray eyes shone with affection as they looked down in the round face of the slumbering bairn.
This morning Joanna and Gavin had watched their child be christened in the font of the chapel at Ironcross Castle. To their great delight, even Lady MacInnes had made the long trek northward. Though frail with advancing age, Joanna’s grandmother
