Highland Master (41 page)

Peeking into the great hall from the landing to be sure Fin was not there, she went on down to the scullery and the postern door. There, she set aside the bar, opened the door, and moved quickly to scan the yard. The lights above revealed that it was empty, and she saw only two men on the ramparts, both looking outward.

She hurried to the gate and found it a couple of inches open.

Wondering how far Fin might have gone, she eased the gate open more to let herself out and then pulled it nearly shut again.

When she saw no torch and heard naught to indicate where Fin might be, it dawned on her that he might just have gone to the garderobe. But Boreas would not have followed him there, and the kitten had got wet somewhere. Instinct and logic told her that the open gate meant all three had gone outside the wall.

As she turned toward the landing, she heard footsteps approaching. Although she hoped it was Fin, she stepped silently into the shadows until she could be sure.

Instead, she recognized Aodán’s shape against the watery flatness behind him as he strode to the gate, eased through the opening, and shut it with a click.

She realized then that if Fin was
not
outside the wall, she would have some uncomfortable explaining to do. A shiver shot up her spine, and she amended that thought. He
would be furious and would say she ought to have spoken to Aodán and gone back inside with him. She could still rap on the gate, but she told herself that she did not dare make such noise. Besides, she was curious.

The woods were black. No moon shone yet, and clouds had moved in to hide the stars. Had it not been for the faint gleam of water to guide them through the thickly growing trees, he and Aodán would have blundered into things.

After Aodán had wakened him, he had dressed and come outside with him to see how far the water had risen, bringing Boreas along to keep the dog from waking Catriona. When the kitten darted through the doorway and down the stairs, he had left the door ajar so that it would not scratch to get back in.

The two men had not talked until they began sloshing through water. Even then, the woods gave them cover, so Fin doubted that anyone saw them.

The night was still, though, quieter than usual.

“Ye can usually hear the roar o’ the water running out on such a still night,” Aodán had said then. “How fast will it rise, sir?”

“Depends on the weather,” Fin said, looking up to see that clouds hid most of the stars. “No one here will drown for some time, though.” He hoped that no one at all would drown. But the plain fact was that the steep bowl formed by the hills, plus its single outflowing burn, and many tributaries, meant that the water would rise to whatever height the Comyns had built the dam. And Aodán had said it was high.

Also, they had no boat. When the men being relieved ashore had not returned in it, Aodán had worried enough
to swim over and look for them. Avoiding the landing area, he had scouted the west shoreline to see what he could see before swimming back to wake Fin. The Comyns had struck and struck hard.

But Fin meant to have the last word.

“Sir? There be summat I should ha’ told ye afore,” Aodán muttered.

“What?”

“The lad, Tadhg. He were wakeful, sir, and I let him go wi’ the boat.”

“We’ll find them all,” Fin said. “When you go in, wake what men you have in the castle and secure it. I’m going to swim across and see what I can see.”

“Do I wake the grand lairds, too?”

Knowing that Rothesay and Alex would each then insist on taking charge, Fin said, “Let them sleep. If you need anyone, wake the Mackintosh first.”

“Aye, well, wi’ the gate closed, the place should be impregnable to all but the rising water. But I do wish we had a boat. If they’ve destroyed it…”

Not wanting to think about that, Fin had sent Aodán back and devised his own plan. His night vision was excellent, and he knew that when he was in the water he would see enough to know where he was. In any light, one could tell the difference between water and land, but finding a place from which to swim was less certain.

Not only was the water higher, but he had always swum the longer way to the loch’s east shore. So he did not know the west shoreline well enough to be sure of the best route to reach it from the island. He would have to feel his way in without splashing about, and the water, he knew, would be icy cold.

His intent was to see exactly what the Comyns had done and to judge how hard it might be to undo it. He and Aodán had collected a few things that he could carry with him and that might or might not be of help.

A cold nose touched his hand, and he saw that Boreas had not returned with Aodán. Patting the dog’s head, he murmured, “You’ll have to stay here, lad.”

He would swim quietly, and most of the enemy would be asleep. But they would have guards at the dam and with the prisoners. Doubtless, they had others to watch the castle and loch, too, as well as they could in the increasing blackness.

Even so, all of their watchers would get sleepy.

“I thought you must be out here.”

Catriona’s quiet voice preceded her as she came up behind him. She was all but invisible when he turned, and he had not heard her approach. The truth was that even now, he could feel her presence more easily than he could discern her shape.

“What the devil are
you
doing out here?” he demanded, realizing that Boreas might have tried to warn him that she was coming.

“The kitten woke me. It was all wet. Why is the water so high?”

“The Comyns have dammed the outflow. They also captured both sets of guards at the change of watch, and they kept the only remaining boat, too.”

“Then you will need help,” she murmured. “Whatever you mean to do, you should have someone with you. And since you did not keep Aodán…”

She left the sentence hanging in the air.

“I am going alone because one person can keep silent
more easily than two,” he said. “Moreover, much of this trouble springs from my having come here.”

“Piffle,” she said. “Rory Comyn was making mischief long before you came. Granddad did try to make peace with the Comyns. But peace requires that both sides want it, and although many Comyns may agree that they do, Rory is not one of them. But this is foolish talk,” she added. “What else have they done?”

He told her all that Aodán had discovered. “And Tadhg was with the lads.”

Exclaiming her shock about the Comyns’ perfidy, she added, “God-a-mercy, at first I thought it had just rained hard whilst we slept! Do they want to drown us all?”

“They may hope,” he said. “But to do that, the water will have to rise high enough to submerge most of the castle. Their dam cannot be so high, be—”

“Not yet,” she said grimly. “But we must get rid of it before the water rises higher. How can we do it without a host of men or even a boat?”

“Until I see the dam, I won’t know whether anyone can dismantle it without getting himself killed,” he admitted. “Once I know just what we face, we—”

“You have no intention of trying to dismantle it alone, do you?”

He did not reply.

After waiting impatiently for an answer that did not come, Catriona said tersely, “Just how do you think you
could
dismantle such a dam by yourself?”

“Lass, go back inside before I lose my patience with you.”

“What will you do then, sir? You can scarcely shout at me or beat me without making enough noise to spoil any chance that we have tonight.”

“I’ll have plenty of time to attend to you later, however.”

“Well, if you have failed to learn that I do not respond well to arbitrary orders, you should have paid more heed. Did Aodán describe this dam to you?”

Fin sighed audibly. “He said it looks as if they used two rows of posts with planks stacked on their sides between them to hold back the water whilst they piled logs, branches, and dirt behind them, like a beaver dam behind a board wall.”

“Then I suspect you mean somehow to bore holes in those planks, because you cannot safely remove them
and
all that debris alone. But if you don’t bore large enough holes in them, or
enough
holes, you’ll just make waterspouts to spit through to the other side. And if you bore too many
large
holes, the force of water pouring through will destroy the dam before you can get away, and the torrent that results will carry you all the way down to the Spey. So, how
do
you intend to proceed?”

“Lower your voice, sweetheart. Recall how easily it echoes here.”

Obediently, she murmured, “But I am right, am I not? You did listen to me.”

“I did, aye.”

When he did not go on, she knew that despite the endearment, he was still vexed with her. He wanted her to go inside, and he did not want more argument.

“Don’t tell me again to go back to bed,” she said. “I mean to stay here or go with you, and I
won’t
promise not to follow you. I swim as well as you do.”

“Do you, lass? Mayhap that is true, but you have not pitted your skills against mine yet, so I doubt that it is. You are not as strong as I am.”

She could not deny that, but the knowledge did not dissuade her. “I don’t need to be as strong as you are,” she said. “I can take the raft.”

Fin had forgotten about the raft but considered and dismissed it. “Too noisy,” he said. “Trying to paddle that raft from here to the dam would be tiresome as well. It is small, aye, but with you standing on it, they might see it from shore.”

“Sakes, it is too dark out there to see anything. I can barely see your shape right in front of me. I could hear you breathing as I approached, and I knew that Boreas was out here, too,” she added hastily, not wanting him to think that she would have spoken to just anyone she had met out there.

“Cat, think,” he said. “Even on the darkest night, can you not see the water well enough from your window to tell that it is not the shore?”

“I can, aye,” she admitted. “But any watcher seeing the raft would more likely think that it had just floated away from here when the water rose.”

“You stand whilst you paddle the thing, do you not?”

“Aye, sure, but if I keep low, I can easily follow you. Sithee, I ken fine how to paddle without making noise. I have often—”

“Often what?” he demanded sternly.

Clearly unabashed, she chuckled low in her throat. “Stop trying to come the ogre over me, sir. I’m just thinking that
you are more likely to get back safely if we do take the raft. We can swim beside it if you think that would serve us better.”