Highland Master (37 page)

Shouting to James, she suggested that they stop at the one they knew and eat the midday meal they had brought with them. That plan being heartily approved by everyone, they ate so near the tall, spectacular torrent that they felt its mist on their faces. Watching Fin, she saw him relax, grinning, and knew she had chosen well.

When they had finished, everyone remounted and they returned to the trail.

James and Morag seemed happier, too. When James suggested that they all ride together, neither Catriona nor Fin objected.

They reached Loch Moigh well before sundown, and the guards on the castle ramparts were watching for them, because a boat with two oarsmen set out at once. The castle occupied a sizeable island, and the loch was larger than Loch an Eilein.

When the boat neared the landing, James shook Fin’s hand and said, “We’ll be off now straightaway, because we want to reach Daviot by suppertime. But I do wish you the best of luck in taming our wildcat, and all happiness for you both.”

Catriona hugged her brother and Morag, then stepped into the boat when it arrived at the landing. Fin followed
her, leaving Ailvie, Ian, and Toby to supervise the unloading of the sumpter ponies and tend to the garrons.

“ ’Tis a beautiful place, is it not?” Catriona said as the boat left the landing.

“Aye, but frankly, lass, I’m thinking about my wife and our bed,” he said.

Grinning, and aware of heat swiftly rising within her, she saw a man in a tunic and a blue-green plaid emerge from the castle and stride toward the landing, evidently to meet them. Feeling Fin stiffen beside her, she said, “Do you know him?”

“I do, aye. That is my brother, Ewan MacGillony Cameron.”

S
till stunned, Fin stared at Ewan in disbelief.

“Why is he here?” Catriona asked.

“I don’t know,” Fin said. “But I discern the fine hand of your grandsire in this. He knew I’d not seen my family since Perth and that I want to present you to them. But, for Ewan to be here now, he must have sent for him a sennight ago, long before knowing we would marry. I just hope Ewan did not bring the whole family.”

“God-a-mercy!”

Seeing her face pale, he said, “Don’t fret, sweetheart. If he did and they expect to upset
my
plans whilst we’re here, they will soon learn their error.”

She looked uncertain, and he hoped he was right. Ewan could be fierce, and despite the friendly wave, Fin had no idea how his brother would receive him.

When they reached the landing, he stepped out of the boat and extended a hand to Catriona as he said, “This is a fine surprise, Ewan, and a welcome one. How many of our kinsmen did you bring in your tail?”

“Nae kinsmen, just a half-dozen of my own lads,” Ewan said, grasping Fin’s hand warmly. “Ye’ve brought even fewer men with ye, I see.”

“My liege lord was reluctant to extend my leave beyond a few days, although I did mean to go on to Loch Arkaig to ask your forgiveness. Now, though…”

When he paused, Ewan said heartily, “I’m glad to see ye hale and well, lad. Sithee, we all thought ye must be dead. So ye could have knocked me down with a broom straw when I got the Mackintosh’s message that, if I were willing to accept his hospitality, I might meet ye here. D’ye mean to present this bonnie lady to me?”

“If the wily old man told you nowt of her, then I have a surprise to match yours,” Fin said as Catriona curtsied. “She is the lady Catriona Mackintosh, my wife. And if you are wroth with me for marrying without your consent, Ewan, you may roar at me later. For now, we are both tired from our journey and—”

“Be damned to your weariness, lad! How long have ye been married?”

Fin relaxed then, recognizing Ewan’s hearty mood as a friendly one. “Since sunrise,” he admitted with a rueful smile.

“Sunrise! Bless us, why did ye no invite your own family to the wedding?”

“That tale will take some time to tell,” Fin said. “And I’d liefer tell it over a good supper, because we ate only bread with some beef and cheese at midday. But what I want now is for us to settle in, tidy ourselves, and eat. After that, I’ll thank you to remember that this is my wedding night.”

“Aye, sure, I’ll remember. But ye’ll tell me your tale straightaway. I’ve nae doot that your lady will want a bath after her long ride. But unless ye’ve forgotten how to swim since ye left home, ye’ll make do with a dip in the loch. If
I’m wroth with ye, Fin, ’tis not for marrying. But ye do deserve my anger, do ye not?”

Fin could not deny that, and Ewan’s tone had changed enough to tell him that he’d better tread lightly for a time and remember that Ewan was not just his brother but also a chieftain of their clan with rights of punishment. Accordingly, Fin said, “A swim is just what I’d like if you will let me see my lady wife settled first.”

“Aye, sure,” Ewan said, smiling at Catriona. “Did I understand him to say that ye be a Mackintosh, my lady?”

“You did, sir, aye. My grandfather is the Mackintosh.”

“Himself, eh? Well, ’tis grand to make your acquaintance. I wish ye happy in your marriage and bid ye welcome to our family.”

With a smile, she thanked him and turned to Fin. “We are to use the inner chamber, sir. Shall we go in?”

Glancing back across the loch to see Ian and Toby helping Ailvie into another boat that was doubtless already carrying their baggage, he agreed.

“Don’t be long, Fin,” Ewan said. “I ken a good place for swimming a few steps from this landing. I’ll await ye here.”

Agreeing, Fin escorted Catriona inside, where she introduced him to her grandfather’s steward and issued orders for a bath. She also asked that he delay serving supper until they had had time to get settled.

That done, she took Fin to the inner chamber. The bed there, he saw with approval, was much larger than Catriona’s was.

“Is your brother angry with you?” she asked when he had shut the door.

“He is glad to see me,” Fin said, looking around and
noting the cheerful fire that leaped in the fireplace and the basket of extra wood. “But he does have cause to be wroth with me for not telling him where I’ve been and what I have been doing.”

“Will you tell him everything? Even the bits you have not yet told me?”

“I will answer his questions honestly,” he said. “As to what more I’ll say, I must first see how our talk progresses. For now, though, I ken fine that you and Ailvie can see to stowing what we brought with us and to your bath as well. But one day soon, I’d like to assist you with that latter task myself.”

“We’ll just have to see about that, too, won’t we?” she said, dimpling.

“Don’t tempt me, lass. I must talk with Ewan, but I will try not to fratch with him. Our supper will be more pleasant so, as will its aftermath.”

Hearing footsteps approach the door and pause there, he kissed her quickly and turned away as Ailvie entered, carrying a sumpter basket.

Informing Ailvie that the steward was ordering water and a tub, Catriona watched Fin walk away across the great hall and wished that she might be a fly on a nearby rock to hear his conversation with his brother.

Not to have told his family that he had survived the great clan battle at Perth must, she feared, be a choice that such a brother would not easily forgive.

She did not have to strain her mind to imagine how she would feel had Ivor or James done such a thing. She would want to see the offender smarting, at least.

Fin and Ewan seemed more alike than her brothers did. Ewan looked seven or eight years older than Fin and a stone or so heavier. Both had powerful bodies, dark hair with auburn highlights in the sun, and gray eyes. But Fin’s eyes were lighter, his body lither, and his movements more graceful.

She had detected signs of a temperament similar to his in Ewan, however.

“Your grandame did say that I should root through her things to find aught that ye’d need,” Ailvie said as she shut the door, recalling Catriona’s attention.

The maidservant bustled about then, finding places for the sumpter baskets and seeking French soap and towels for Catriona’s bath.

“I want to wash my hair,” she said. “We can brush it dry here by the fire.”

“Ye’ll be glad to put up your feet after this long day,” Ailvie said. “I’m still wondering about them Comyns, though. Did ye no think they submitted too quick?”

“Quick or not, they had to submit,” Catriona said, dismissing her own earlier concerns. “Our boatmen were nearby, and the men on our wall could see us.”

“Even so, I dinna trust any Comyn. And Rory ha’ been talking these six months past o’ taking ye to wife. I ha’ never heard o’ him walking away from nowt.”

Although she recognized truth in Ailvie’s words, Catriona had little concern. Against Fin of the Battles, Rory Comyn must always lose.

Eyeing his brother’s posture as Ewan looked out over the loch with his back to him, Fin recognized familiar signs
that Ewan had been suppressing his stronger emotions for Catriona’s sake. With that in mind, before he got too near, he shouted, “Where is this swimming place of yours?”

Ewan turned, nodded silently, and led the way along the shore to an inlet boasting a smooth granite slab that sloped into the water.

“Shall we swim first or talk?” Fin asked, still trying to gauge Ewan’s mood.

“We can do both if you like. I found another such inlet some hundred yards north of here, round yonder point. Nae one will be there, whilst someone from the castle might disturb us here.”

“Just promise that you won’t try to drown me on the way,” Fin said.

Ewan looked at him, eyebrows raised, then smiled. “Nay, laddie. I won’t pretend that I’d not like to give ye a fierce drubbing, but I’ll hear ye out first.”

Fin nodded, relieved, and bent to untie his boots. When they had shed their clothing, Ewan led the way into the water, saying, “I’d wager this rock be gey slippery by midsummer. But for now it does give a man’s foot good traction.”

He dove in and Fin followed. They soon found the inlet, sun drenched and warm, and sprawled on the granite to dry.

Ewan remained silent. So, although Fin would have preferred to bask in the warmth, he gathered his thoughts and said, “What did you hear about the battle?”

“Only that we’d lost and that all of our men died on the field or afterward of their wounds,” Ewan replied, raising his arms to fold them beneath his head. Staring up at the azure sky, he added, “Plainly, though, you did not die.”

“I was the only Cameron who did not,” Fin said quietly. Without waiting for the obvious question, he turned on his side to watch Ewan as he added, “The fighting had well nigh stopped. But there were four men still hale on their side when I… I dove into the river Tay and let it carry me toward the sea.”

“Sakes, I ken fine that ye swim well, but that firth widens quick beyond Perth and grows gey rough, too,” Ewan said, scowling. “Ye might have drowned!”

“I swam to the Fife shore and made my way to St. Andrews.”

“Where, nae doots, that old scoundrel Traill hid ye.”

“He did not hide me, nor did he offer much solace,” Fin said. “In his opinion, I had merely chosen the most practical course under the circumstances.”

“But not the honorable one? Is that what the man did say?”

“Not in those words, but I felt that way myself,” Fin said. “Sakes, there were eleven Clan Chattan men still alive, the others sorely hurt. But nevertheless…”