Highland Master (22 page)

“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 explaining 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 frown
ing. 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.