Highland Master (46 page)

Catriona heard astonishment in his voice but wished that the moonlight were not behind him so that she might see his expression. His hands gripped her tight.

The other men and Tadhg had fallen silent. No one moved.

“I meant only to startle Rory, sir, because I could see that you were tired and that your feet hurt,” she said. “I aimed well to the uphill side of you both, but he jumped
that way just as I let fly, so my arrow struck between you.”

“Where did you find the weapon?” he asked.

Although his voice was quiet, its tone increased her tension.

She tried to think how best to answer the question.

“Tadhg,” Fin said. “Did you see where the weapon came from?”

“Nay, but it must ha’ come from the chappie laid out by her feet,” the boy said. “A couple o’ our lads be a-trying to wake him up now. I tellt her that she’d ha’ done better to put that arrow straight through that Comyn’s thick head, but then ye clouted him, so that be fine. Be he dead, Sir Fin?”

“I hope not, because I want to make a present of him to the Mackintosh. But first, madam wife,” he added, “I want to know how you got that bow.”

Knowing that he could see her face better than she could see his, and well aware of their audience, Catriona did not want to discuss the matter there. “We should be getting back,” she said.

“In a few minutes,” he said, the warning note now clear in his voice.

“Aye, very well then. But you won’t like it, because when I saw that man, I—” She stopped when her sharp ears caught a strange sound through the night.

Fin heard it, too, and looked toward the north end of the loch.

The water looked calm, gleaming silver in the moonlight, but she heard a scraping, creaking sound. Then came a chaotic mixture of louder sounds, followed by quieter ones. Moments later, she heard men shouting in
the distance, a second explosion of sound, and the roar of rushing water.

“Look,” Fin said. “The surface of the loch is moving.”

“The dam broke!” she exclaimed, and turned to him, grinning. “We did it!”

He put an arm around her and held her close again. “Aye,” he said, “we did.”

“And not before time neither,” Tadhg said. “Look at them clouds. I’d say they be a-gathering up tae rain again afore morning, and I’m still that wet from before.”

Fin’s mood had lightened with the collapse of the dam, but Catriona knew he had not forgotten the bow and arrow. She was sure that he had deduced most of the truth, because he would not imagine that she had just stumbled across them.

But she wondered if he was grateful for what she had done. Men could be unpredictable in such matters.

“We’ll not be taking Rory Comyn back with us, sir,” a man who had knelt by Comyn told Fin. “His head’s bad split. Likely he cracked it on the rock here when he fell, although ye might ha’ split it yourself when ye clouted him.”

“Saved Himself the trouble o’ hanging him,” another man said. “And I’m guessing the old gentleman will be glad to hear it. Will we be going across now, sir?”

Despite the black gloom of lowering clouds above, moonlight still gleamed between them, and Fin recognized an oarsman among the erstwhile prisoners. “What do you think about that current?” he asked him. “And do we have a boat?”

“Aye, sure, sir,” the man said. “The boat be at the land
ing, because the villains thought they’d want it. And we’d be rowing wi’ the current, which be easy as breathing. Rowing back will be another matter until the water rests easy again.”

“I don’t want us all to go,” Fin said. “The eight who came to take the guard until dawn will stay, and any who got some sleep. Treat Comyn’s body and the two you’ll find near the landing with respect, for we’ll give them back to their kin. Other Comyns will be awake if the torrent didn’t get them, and there were a score of them, so keep your eyes open. The rest will come with us if we can all fit.”

The oarsman chuckled. “Sakes, if Lady Cat could row ye and that Boreas in the coble, I’m thinking we can row the three of ye in our boat with ourselves.”

“And me?” Tadhg said hastily.

“And you,” Fin said, clapping him on the shoulder.

As they turned toward the landing, Fin became aware again of rushing water to the north and decided that the burn was likely making a fine waterfall now.

They made the return trip to the castle as easily as the oarsmen had foreseen. The boat was crowded, but Fin knew that the added weight helped its rowers keep it on course. The current was strongest in the narrows, where the oarsmen used it to their own advantage to make the landing. Thanks to the lingering moonlight and watchers on the ramparts, Aodán and another man-at-arms were there to aid them and help pull the boat from the water.

Noting how quiet Catriona had become, Fin put an arm around her shoulders as they went with the others to the gateway. “Cold, sweetheart?”

“A little,” she admitted, “but not as cold as I probably should be.”

“I’m not going to murder you, Cat,” he murmured close to her ear.

“But you
were
vexed with me.”

“A little, aye,” he agreed. “But not as vexed as I might have been.”

Smiling, she leaned into him. “Must you talk to Granddad straightaway?”

“Aye, and to anyone else who might be awake. We won’t wake Rothesay or Alex, because with a boat here, we can easily get them away early if we must. But you will go straight upstairs and get into bed even if the others are waiting for us.”

“One of them may order me to stay,” she said.

“I won’t allow it,” he said.

Catriona believed him, although she was not sure that Fin could countermand an order from Rothesay or Alex, or her grandfather.

However, her grandfather was the only one in the hall when they entered, and although he gave her a look that seemed to be half-relief and half-annoyance, he spoke only to Fin. So when Fin nodded toward the stairway, she silently handed him his mantle, which she had kept wrapped around herself.

“It will help you maintain your dignity, sir, because your tunic is still damp,” she said. “The mantle will keep you warmer, too.”

“I’ll warm soon enough. And if I don’t, you can see to it when I get to bed.”

Her body responded instantly to those words, and she hurried upstairs to find Ailvie asleep on a pallet by her
bed. The maidservant awoke and jumped up, exclaiming at her mistress’s appearance.

“What are you doing in here?” Catriona asked. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Aye, sure, and what d’ye think I thought when Aodán woke me to say that yon kitten were a-mewing so loud that he went up to slip it into your room only to find the door ajar and ye naewhere to be found?”

“Oh, Ailvie,” Catriona said, understanding her grandfather’s expression now. “I’m sorry if my absence frightened you, but I was with Sir Finlagh, and now I am back.”

“Ye are, aye, so I willna ask why ye be damp from tip to toe and nae doots shivering yourself nigh to fits. I’ll just get ye out of them clothes and into that bed.”

She soon left, and Catriona lay naked in bed with a purring kitten to warm her. Boreas had not followed her upstairs, doubtless preferring the hall fire’s warmth.

Although, listening to the soothing sound of gentle rain outside, she expected to fall quickly asleep, she soon found herself trying instead to imagine what was happening downstairs and what Fin might say to her when he did come to bed.

By the time he did, she was dozing, but the click of the latch brought her wide awake. When she recognized his figure against the cresset’s glow from the landing, she said, “What did Granddad say?”

“Since you’re awake, I’ll light a candle or two,” he said. Taking one from a nearby small table, he lit it from the cresset and then used it to light two more. When he had finished, he stripped off his mantle and tunic, tossed them aside, and got into bed beside her. The kitten fled.

“You feel warm,” she murmured, as he gathered her close. “But I don’t know why you lit candles only to come to bed.”

“Do you not?” He moved a hand to cup her left breast, brushing its nipple with his thumb.

“What did Granddad say?” she asked him again, trying to ignore the sensations he was stirring in her long enough to get an answer to her question.

“Not to worry,” he said.

“Fin, if making me wait to know is another of your ways of punishing—”

“It isn’t, sweetheart. I just want to make love to my wife.”

“And so you may, but what about—?”

“I told you, he said not to worry—not about Albany or Douglas. He said the weather and our men waiting in good number to meet them will drive them back.”

“The rivers
will
be roaring high,” she said, nodding. “Not just from the rain but also because the rain is warm and will melt what’s left of the snow. There must be few fords safe enough to use anywhere hereabouts, or in Glen Garry.”

“So he says, aye, but we’ll hear all about it tomorrow.”

“Did you tell Granddad that I was with you at the dam?”

“I did, aye. He asked for the details, Cat, so I told him everything.”

She sighed. “He’ll have much to say to me, and so will my father and Ivor.”

“I don’t think so, my love.”

“You don’t?” The new endearment warmed her.

“He may expect me to have things to say, or even things that I ought to do, but I am your husband now, so he won’t
interfere. Neither, I think, will your father.” He chuckled then. “I won’t speak for Ivor.”

“Ah, but you can protect me from him. Even he says that you are much better with a sword than he is.”

“I am, but you did not think so tonight, did you?”

She swallowed hard, and an ache filled her throat. When he did not continue, she knew he was waiting for her to speak, to explain about the bow and tell him why she had shot the arrow.

“It was not what you thought,” she said.

“How do you know what I thought?”

“You just told me,” she said. “I was terrified for you, because I could see that your feet were sore. And that horrid man was about to shoot you from the woods.”

“Aye, but I’m curious about that. How is it that he failed?”

Opting for the truth, she said, “He was concentrating on what he was to do, so I crept up and hit him with a stout branch I’d found near a deadfall.”

“And then?” His voice had an odd, tight sound to it, so she decided that she would do better not to look at him until she had told him everything.

“I saw you stumble twice.”

“Comyn also stumbled, several times. That path is rocky. You know that.”

“Aye, but I never
saw
him stumble, and the bow was right there. I thought I could startle him if I shot an arrow near him. I never meant for it to go between you. I might… God-a-mercy, I might have shot you!”

At first, she thought he was trembling, even shivering. But then she realized that he was shaking more, and she looked at him. “You’re laughing!”

“I… I am,” he agreed, nearly chortling. “The thought of you just walking up and clouting that villain…”