Highland Master (27 page)

“Mayhap it would,” Shaw agreed. “Nevertheless, he is going to talk with me alone. If ye do insist, ye may join us afterward to hear then what I will say to ye.”

That was not what she had wanted, as Fin could plainly see from her look of frustration. But when Shaw nodded to Ivor and Ivor put a hand on her arm, she turned obediently if reluctantly away with him.

“Don’t take her to the ladies’ solar, Ivor, but to the wee room opposite the muniments chamber above it,” Shaw said. “I will talk with her before she need tell your mam or grandame about this, so leave the gist to me. Ye’re to go with them, James,” he added. “Take your time, though. I’d liefer that nae one think aught of it or follow any of us upstairs. Do not speak to Morag, either, until I give ye leave.”

“As you wish, sir,” James said with a nod as he turned away.

Fin waited to hear his own orders while keeping an eye on Rothesay, who was still enjoying himself and clearly expected to hear what Shaw would say to Fin.

However, Shaw spoke to Rothesay first, saying, “One of your lads told my good-father that you can doubtless beat him at chess, my lord. He would welcome a match, if you would so honor him, and awaits you now in the inner chamber.”

Rothesay grinned, saying, “I will, aye, and gladly, because I must tell you that I have been seeking a way to amuse myself tonight. But sithee, Shaw, I think that this secretive pair should marry at once. Forbye, it would amuse me more than a good game of chess and may lighten the mood betwixt my cousins and make them easier to bend to my will.”

“As to that, my lord, we shall see.”

“I could make this marriage a royal command,” Rothesay said provocatively. “Mayhap I have not made it clear that the match has my blessing.”

“An honor, to be sure,” Shaw said in the same stern tone. “We can speak more of this if you wish, after I talk with Sir Finlagh and my daughter.”

Seeing Rothesay’s quick frown, Fin wanted to warn him to recall his need for Clan Chattan support. But Rothesay, glancing at him, clearly did remember, because his brow cleared, and he said, “I would like that, aye, Shaw.”

“Good then,” Shaw said. Turning to Fin, he added, “You come with me.”

Hearing those words and Shaw’s ominous tone, Fin’s mind played him an unexpected trick with the sudden thought that had he known a month before that he would find himself alone in a room with the war leader of Clan Chattan, he would never have guessed that it would be for
such a purpose or that he would be hoping only to soothe the man’s rightful fury.

Appalled at what she had wrought and angry with herself for putting Fin in such a fix, Catriona kept her emotions in check until Ivor ushered her into the tiny room across from the much larger one where the clan’s important documents were stored. The larger chamber was also where her father closeted himself when he had private business to attend or a daughter to scold.

But when Ivor turned to shut the smaller room’s door, she said evenly to his back, “I don’t want to talk to you about any of this, or to James either. Not yet.”

Ivor turned then to face her, and in place of the anger she had expected to see, she saw compassion and a glint of humor. “Do you not, Wildcat?” he asked. “I can well understand that. But what devil possessed you to declare such a thing?”

“I cannot tell you,” she muttered.

“Cannot or will not?”

She did not know how to reply to that.

“I see,” he said, “or mayhap I do not. But I suspect that Fin will ask the same question, so you had better think of an answer before he does. Have you any idea how much trouble you have created for him?”

“I know,” she said miserably. “I did not mean to do that. When Rothesay urged me to walk with him, everyone else had moved away, and even Father had said I could not be rude to him. But when I said that Father disapproved of my showing favor in such a way, Rothesay said I
was
being rude. I think he must be ape-drunk.”

“Very likely. He often does drink too much.”

“I did think that I could take care of myself here in our own hall, but—”

“Nay, lassie, and never with Rothesay.”

She drew a long breath and let it go, knowing that he was right. “How much did you hear of what we said?”

“Not much until Rothesay said what he did about Fin’s taking an interest in you himself. Sithee, I was still on the dais talking to James when you left it, so—”

He broke off when the door opened and James entered as if the mention of his name had brought him. He stood there, looking at them, clearly deciding what to say.

Ivor said, “Shut the door, James. It won’t do for Cat to see Father leading Fin into that room as he used to lead us when we were in for a raging or worse. I was just telling her what you and I saw and heard.”

James gave Catriona a searching look as he reached back and shut the door. Then he said, “You should never have let Rothesay walk off with you like that, lass, but, by my troth, I do not know how you could have stopped him. The man believes that his position and the blood royal running through his veins grant him the right always to get his own way. We have all seen that.”

Catriona looked from one man to the other and fixed her gaze on Ivor. “I expected you, especially, to be furious about what happened down there,” she said. “Instead, you looked almost amused… and… and something else. Art worried, sir?”

Ivor looked at James, who shrugged. “Your emotions hardly count as the gist of the matter, I’d think,” he said.

“Sithee, Cat,” Ivor said, “by the time anyone but Fin noticed that you had left the dais with Rothesay, you were
too far away and too much mixed in with our people in the lower hall for us to do aught save shout. We could only depend on Fin’s ability to intervene diplomatically.”

“He doubtless
would
have succeeded in diverting Rothesay,” James said solemnly, “had you not interfered with him.”

Catriona disagreed, since Rothesay had been in no mood for anyone to divert him, but she knew better than to say so.

However, Ivor said, “By the time you and I were near enough to hear what the three of them were saying, James, I warrant the matter had already gone too far.”

“I did try to stop Rothesay,” she said, hating the defensive note in her voice but unwilling for them to think that she had simply complied with his wishes. “He reminded me then of his great power as Governor. He… he made threats.”

“Aye,” James said, nodding. “The man does wield much power, lass, and often threatens to use it. But it did look at first as if you went willingly with him.”

“You said yourself that you don’t know how I might have stopped him, James. So how could
I
have known how? Just tell me what—”

“Enough, Cat,” Ivor interjected, clearly impatient with James’s need to explore details ponderously and at length or with her own reaction, or both. Ivor added, “Although Rothesay is but three-and-twenty, he does stand in the place of our King, so it is true that you cannot slap his face or order him to take his hands off you as you would with any other lad. Even so, many who saw you will believe that you found his attentions flattering and that you responded to them.”

She nodded. “Morag said as much the first time I walked with him.”

“Then we’ll say no more about that,” Ivor said. “We did soon see that you were unwilling and tried to get to you quickly but without stirring undue curiosity.”

“Aye,” James agreed, adding earnestly, “I did not mean to make ye think otherwise, Cat. Rothesay would be a difficult man for any lass to manage.”

“I heard nothing clearly until Rothesay raised his voice to ask if Fin intended to defy him,” Ivor said. “I saw you frown, and the next thing I heard was Rothesay declaring that Fin had an interest in you himself. And Fin did not deny that, Cat.”

“Nay, he did not,” she agreed, remembering. “He did not say anything, Ivor. That was when you demanded to know what his intentions were toward me.”

“I did, lass, aye,” he said. “Sithee, you or, more accurately, Rothesay had put Fin in an untenable position. He could not honestly say that he had no interest if he does. But I’ll admit I just said the first thing that came into my head, hoping to give Fin more time to think. It was, however, not the wisest thing I might have said.”

“That,” James said, “is perfectly true. It may even be what put the notion into Catriona’s head to say what
she
did.”

Giving him a quelling look, Ivor went on, “When I said that Fin should have sought permission from Father, I expected Fin to reply that he
would
discuss any such intent with him. But before he could, you blurted your declaration of love and did it within earshot of God knows how many people, each of whom has doubtless told others. Sithee, lass, you tossed Fin into the devil’s own fire with those words.”

“But how?”

“Do you imagine that Fin is across the way now, declaring to our father that you are a liar, Catriona?”

“Mercy, sir, Fin makes such a thing of his honor that I
assumed
he would tell Father the truth. He must know that I spoke up when I did to
stop
Rothesay and get away from him without causing more of a disturbance than we had already caused.”

“Whatever he tells Father, you’ve put Fin in a damnable position.”

She had known when Shaw had forbidden her to be present while he and Fin talked that she had put Fin in an unfair position, but she had hoped that by declaring as much to her father, she had at least done something to help. Clearly, she had not.

“Sakes,” she said, “I’ll tell Father the whole truth, myself.”

“Much good that will do either of you now,” James said, shaking his head.

“I don’t understand you, James. Prithee, say what you mean.”

“He must not, Cat, for we’ve come to the gist of it,” Ivor said gently. “In troth, Father would think that we had already said more than we should.”

Looking from one to the other, she wondered what on earth she had done.

Following Shaw into a comfortable-looking chamber of a size that nearly matched the ladies’ solar below them, Fin shut the door without waiting to be asked. The chamber’s warmth was welcome, even soothing, because in the long
minutes that it had taken to cross the great hall and follow Shaw up the main stairway to the muniments room, his thoughts had whirled like waterspouts on a windy loch.

Inhaling deeply and letting it out, just as he would before taking on an opponent in a tiltyard, he watched Shaw kneel to stir embers to life on the hearth.

Then Shaw stood and looked at him for a long moment before he said, “Ye should know, lad, afore we start this conversation, that my good-father thinks ye’d make a good husband for our Catriona. I’m not so sure I agree with him. Not yet.”

Everything that Fin had considered saying vanished from his mind. With nothing else to say, he kept silent.

“Sithee, ye ken fine that he told us who ye be. Likewise, Ivor told us about your part in the battle at Perth, including that he urged ye into the river so that someone from your side would live to tell the tale. Have ye told it yet?”

“Only to Catriona, sir. I’ve not been home since then to see the others of my clan.” That fact alone had not seemed distasteful to him when compared with his flight and his father’s bequest. But it did now when he admitted it to Shaw.

“So although ye’ve not told your own folk, ye did tell our Catriona, did ye?”