Highland Master

by Amanda Scott

  Still speaking softly, because she knew how important the subject was to him, she said, “Men often say that women don’t understand them. But I do understand about men and cowardice, and even about their sometimes strange notions of honor. You should think instead about what the outcome would have been had you not done as Ivor told you to do.”

  “I would have died, but I would have died honorably.”

  “Don’t be stupid; dying is dying,” she said, wishing she could hug him. “Had you died, you would not be here. Had you died, Rory Comyn would have found me alone on the trail that day.” She nearly added that Boreas would have killed Rory, but that would not aid her argument. Standing, she moved closer to Fin. “Did I not say that life is always the right choice? Had you stayed, Ivor would have felt obliged to kill you. How honorable would it have been to put your good friend in that position?”

  His mouth twitched as if he would protest, but he did not.

  “What?” she demanded, confronting him toe-to-toe. “Are you now afraid to tell me what you are thinking?”

  “Nay, but you won’t like it. Honor would have demanded that I kill Ivor.”

  “You could not. He is a very fine swordsman. Moreover,” she added as a clincher, “if you had killed him, the others would have killed you. Aye, and it has just occurred to me that this battle of which you speak is likely the clan battle at Perth, and Clan Chattan ended that battle with eleven men still living, did we not?”

  “Eleven living, aye, but not—” He broke off when she put a finger to his lips.

  “Hush now, for you will not persuade me,” she said. “You could not have killed so many, nor must you forget that had you died that day, Rothesay would not be having his so-important meeting here now, and I would never have met you. To think that for years I believed I hated all Camerons. But I find now that I do not.”

  He caught hold of her hand, but he did not speak. He just gazed down into her eyes as if he might read more of her thoughts there.

  “Just what the devil do you two think you are doing?”

  Catriona whirled to see her brother James standing on the trail that they had followed from the castle. He stood with arms akimbo, looking very angry.

  Chapter 10

  Fin took one look at James and stepped away from Catriona. As he did, he said quietly, “There is nowt occurring here to trouble you, sir.”

  “Faith, but you have drawn a conclusion that insults us both, James,” Catriona said. “Did you come seeking us for any other purpose?”

  Seeing fury leap to James’s face, Fin set himself to intervene if necessary. But Catriona remained calm, clearly awaiting an answer to her question.

  At last, after a measuring look at each of them, James visibly relaxed. “The lad at the gate said that you had come this way. I just wondered… that is, I thought you might have walked out with Morag, Cat. It surprised me to see you with him.”

  “The guard at the gate did not tell you that I was with Morag.”

  “Nay, nay,” James protested. “I didn’t say that. I never asked him about Morag. Sithee, I awoke and she was gone, but I did not want the lad thinking that summat was amiss with her, so—”

  “Amiss betwixt the two of you is what you mean, I think,” she said gently.

  Fin nearly uttered a protest. That subject was not one that she should initiate in his presence.

  James shot her a dour look, then turned to Fin and said frankly, “I do owe you an apology. I ought to have thought a bit before speaking so sharply.”

  Extending his hand, Fin said, “ ’Tis generous of you to apologize, sir. Had I come upon my sister in such a pose, I’d likely have reacted as you did. You have my word, though, that nowt was amiss.”

  Gripping his hand, James said, “I’ll willingly accept it. My grandfather told me who you are, so I expect that you do understand my reaction.”

  Catriona said, “You say that as if you did not know his identity before, James. But I told you and Ivor about him soon after you arrived here yesterday.”

  “Ye did, aye,” James said, his gaze locked now with Fin’s. “But you told us his name was Sir Finlagh MacGill, lass. So clearly, you did not know everything.”

  Fin’s glance flicked to Catriona, but she was still watching James.

  She said, “I know all I need to know. He schooled with Ivor at St. Andrews and he fought on the Cameron side at Perth. He has not kept secrets from me, sir. I did used to think that being a Cameron must be a dreadful thing, but only until I came to know him. The truce between our two confederations still holds, does it not?”

  “For the most part, aye,” James agreed, meeting Fin’s gaze again. “Did he tell you that his father was the Camerons’ war leader at Perth?”

  “Aye, of course, he did,” Catriona lied stoutly. “Now, prithee, let be, sir. Come to that, if Morag is missing, you must find her.”

  “She makes it plain that she does not want to be found,” James said bluntly.

  “Nonsense, sir. No woman hides without wanting to be found, and Morag has missed you sorely. I fear she still feels like a stranger here, so she does not confide in us. Still, you must have done something to vex her. Do you know what it was?”

  “Sakes, Cat, what man ever understands why a woman does such a thing?”

  “Has she told you how much she has missed you?”

  “Aye, sure, any number of times.”

  “How did you reply to her?”

  James flushed and looked helplessly at Fin, but Fin knew better than to enter such a conversation without a stronger invitation than that.

  The older man turned back to his sister. “Cat, we should not—”

  “I do have reason for asking, sir. So, unless you said something dreadful…”

  Shrugging, he said, “I told her I was doing my duty, of course. I explained that I’d had no say in how long I’d be away and would likely go again before long.”

  “I knew it!” Shaking her head at him, she added, “Dafty, you should have told her that you love her and missed her even more than you’d feared you would.”

  “But—”

  “Nay, don’t explain it to me. Go and find Morag. Talk to her.”

  “And say such mawkish things to her? Sakes, what would my men think?”

  “Morag is not going to repeat to your men what you say to her. But if you do not take more heed of your wife, sir, you may soon find yourself without one.”

  “Aye, well, you’d best come inside with me then, the pair of you,” James said. “You’ll want to break your fast, after all.”

  “I am getting hungry, aye,” Catriona admitted.

  Fin said, “We’ll be along directly, sir. You won’t want us at your heels if you should meet your lady wife, seeking you.”

  Catriona looked at him, and Fin knew that she had detected his annoyance.

  The hard note in Fin’s voice had startled Catriona, but recalling his strong sense of honor, she suspected why he had spoken so. She waited until James had vanished into the woods before she said, “I think I know why you are—”

  “Don’t lie for me again,” he said curtly. “I did not tell you that my father was our war leader that dreadful day.”

  “Nay, but he had naught to do with your dive into the river, and I knew by your own words that you must be a Cameron, so I do not see that it matters.”

  “Even so, you must not lie to your brother, lass, and never to protect me.”

  “But I did not do it for you. I did it because I was sure when he apologized to you that he was going to start telling me that I should know better than to have come here with you. When he starts telling me how I should behave—” A thought struck her, making her grin ruefully. “Sakes, I expect that’s just what I did to him!”

  “Aye, it was,” he agreed.

  “Then I will apologize to you for making you a witness to what I said to him. But I assure you that had I admitted that you had not told me about your father, James would still be explainin
g at ponderous length why you should have done so.”

  “Mayhap he would,” Fin said. “I would like to know, however, if you would have spoken as impertinently to Ivor as you did to him.”

  Feeling a sudden urge to laugh but aware that it might still be unwise, she said frankly, “I think you know very well that I would dare to scold Ivor so only if I were far enough away to escape to safety, and never this close to the water.”

  His eyes twinkled then, but he said, “I should perhaps warn you that I do not react well to such impertinence, either.”

  “Do you not? But then you have no right to treat me as Ivor would, do you?”

  Meeting her gaze, he said, “I suspect that the men in your family would sympathize more with me than with you if you made me angry enough to toss you into that loch. Or do you think I’m wrong about that?”

  Since he clearly knew that he was right, she said, “I’m thinking that if we do not go inside soon, someone will look for us.”

  When he chuckled, she stuck out her tongue at him.

  Entering the hall with Catriona, Fin saw at once that the lady Morag sat at the high table with the ladies Ealga and Annis.

  Catriona had also seen her good-sister and was frowning. He nearly asked why before he realized that James was nowhere in sight.

  “He will think to look here eventually,” he murmured to her.

  “Do you think so? I can tell you, sir, men are rarely wise enough to look in the most likely places. Moreover, I’d wager that he looked here before he went outside, just as she knew he would.”

  “Is she so calculating then?”

  “Faith, I scarcely know her. She and James have been married for nearly two years, but Morag does not talk much about herself. When she does, she talks most often about her home in the Great Glen, and her family.”

  “Have you tried to draw her out?” he asked.

  “Aye, sure. That is, at first I did, and I do try to be kind. But she barely talks to me, or to anyone else, come to that. Surely, you have seen as much for yourself.”

  “Sakes, lass, I’ve taken no particular interest in the lady Morag. Only think how James would react if I did.”

  She shrugged. “In troth, sir, I don’t know how he would react. But he would not react as Ivor would—or you, perhaps, if you were married.”

  “Most men react fiercely to those who show unseemly interest in their women,” he said. “I doubt that James would behave differently.”

  “Do you?” She looked speculatively at Morag. “I think I should have a talk with her.” Turning back to him, she added, “Thank you for telling me about Perth. Ivor would never have told me so much.”

  “I know that, aye. I also know,” he added quietly, “that you might be wiser to let James and the lady Morag resolve their private differences privately.”

  “Wise or not, I do think she should know that James cares about her.”

  He shook his head at her, but even had he wanted to debate the point, Rothesay was on the dais beside their host, gesturing for him to join them.

  Parting from Catriona when they stepped onto the dais, Fin went around the men’s end of the table, past Ivor and Shaw, to the duke.

  “Where the devil have you been?” Rothesay demanded. “Your wound looks to be nearly healed, but you vanished so early last night that I wondered if it was still troubling you. Your squire did say, though, that you had gone out this morning.”

  “I have recovered, sir, and I did walk about outside the wall,” Fin said.

  “Och, aye, I do recall now that you like to swim,” Rothesay said.

  “Did you seek me for a particular purpose, my lord?”

  “Nay, I have these others to attend my needs, so your duties at present will be light. When Donald and Alex arrive—doubtless, later today—I want you to sit in on our talks if they keep their men with them. I trust both of them but not those who toady to them. So I’ll want to know where to find you when I want you, Fin. Don’t wander off again without letting me know where you’ll be.”

  “Aye, sir,” Fin said. Accepting a nod as dismissal, he took the seat that Ivor indicated beside him. Smiling, Fin said to him, “I trust that you slept all night.”

  “I did,” Ivor said, giving him a shrewd look. “I begin to think that you and my irrepressible sister have grown to be fast friends. Is that so?”

  “Do you wonder because we just now came into the hall together?”

  “Nay, I wonder because you walked into the woods together.”

  “I see. You do know that she very likely saved my life, do you not?”

  “I know that she found you bleeding all over the scenery in the upper glen and brought you home with her,” Ivor said. “Art sure that she saved your life?”

  “I am sure that it was a Comyn who shot me. I doubt that his arrow was a message of friendship.”

  “Rory Comyn?”

  “Aye. Sithee, we met him on the loch shore the next day, and he’s a smirker. So, if he did not shoot me, I’d wager that he ordered it done. What I do not know is if he did it out of a jealous belief that your sister was coming to meet me or because he knows why I came to the Highlands.”

  “He’s a mischief maker,” Ivor said. “He would need little reason.”

  Nodding, Fin changed the topic, saying, “Catriona and I met James outside, and he said that your grandfather had told him about me. Did he tell you as well?”

  “We talked this morning,” Ivor said. “He suspected that you’d studied with Traill when you told my grandame that you’d lived in eastern Fife. There is not much there, after all, other than St. Andrews—the town, the kirk, and the castle. So he did think that we might know each other. But I’d told him years ago that none of us knew which clans our fellow students hailed from, let alone their real names.”

  “I wonder if he will tell Rothesay. Sakes, mayhap Traill told him from the start. In any event, I expect he’ll know one way or another soon enough.”

  “More to the point, my lad, since you’ve been serving Davy these past years, does this all mean that your family may not even know that you survived at Perth?”

  Fin said, “I could say I’ve been too busy to travel so far before now. ’Tis close enough to the truth, but it is also true that I did not want to tell Ewan how I’d survived. I do mean to go home from here, though. So I’ll have to tell Rothesay.”

  “If you’ll take some advice…” Ivor paused.

  “From you, always,” Fin said.

  “You will know how to tell your brother, but you should assume that Traill has told Rothesay everything. His reverence did not become Bishop of St. Andrews by keeping secrets from his royal patrons. He served as confessor for both the King and Queen, and doubtless for Rothesay and even Albany. I’d wager that Traill told Rothesay to make good use of you but otherwise to let you go your own road.”

  “You may be right,” Fin acknowledged. “I own, I just assumed that Rothesay did not know, because he has always made a point of calling me Fin of the Battles and introduces me as such whenever he presents me to anyone.”

  “Aye, well, the one thing I do know about Davy Stewart is that he delights in secrets and can be gey good at keeping them. The only time he does not like them is when others act in secret against him.”

  “As Albany is doubtless doing now,” Fin said.

  Catriona took her place beside Morag, trying to decide if the older girl had been crying. Morag’s expressions were so slight that it was always hard to read them.

  Aware that Ealga was talking with Lady Annis, Catriona leaned close to Morag and murmured, “James is looking for you.”

  “Is he?” Morag said without looking at her. “He must know gey well that I come here to break my fast.”

  “Of course, he does,” Catriona said, striving to conceal sudden impatience. “I’d wager that he looked here before he went out to the woods.”

  “Did he go outside the wall?” Morag signed to a gillie to pour ale into her goblet. “Ho
w do you know that he did?”

  “I saw him, of course, and he asked if I had seen you. Look here, Morag, I know that you don’t like me—”

  “When did you come to think that?”

  “Good sakes, you scarcely ever speak to me unless I speak first. And then you talk as if you are annoyed that I have disturbed you. What else should I think?”

  Morag gave a shrug. “I expect you are right then.”

  “Are you angry with James?”

  “Should I be?”

  Catriona’s temper stirred sharply. But courtesy and the present royal company required that she keep it in check. Forcing calm into her voice, she said, “He thinks that you are angry with him and do not want him to find you.”

  “I am a dutiful wife,” Morag said. “A dutiful wife does not hide from her husband. Moreover, I should find it gey hard to do, since I cannot get off this island without permission from your grandfather, your father, or from James himself.”

  “God-a-mercy, you are furious. What did he do to deserve such anger?”

  “Why nothing at all,” Morag said. “How could he have done aught to displease me when he stayed with the Mackintosh yestereve until long after I had fallen asleep? One assumes that they were drinking whisky with the other men.”

  “I see,” Catriona said.

  “I warrant you do. But James does not.”

  “Nay, for he told me what he said to you when you told him you had missed him,” Catriona said with a sympathetic sigh.

  “So he told you that, did he? Well, if he is going to share our private converse with you, there can be no need for me to tell you anything more.”

  “Morag, James is an ass, and so I told him. But he does love you.”

  Morag looked at her then, her pale blue eyes widening.

  Catriona saw tears welling in them before Morag looked away again.

  After they had broken their fast, Ivor said to Fin, “I mean to reacquaint myself with Strathspey today, and I’ll take my bow. Do you want to come?”

  Knowing that Rothesay would hold no meeting until Donald of the Isles and Alex of the North arrived, Fin accepted with alacrity.