“We dinnae need an army,” said Callum with a laugh. “Just a few MacFingals. Let us hope Sir Adam demands to begin his fight ere his archers can replace those lost fletchers. Now, I have a confession to make.” He grinned when everyone looked at him. “’Tis nay that exciting.
“I am still looking for ways to go in and out of Glencullaich unseen. I was doing it all by myself, inspecting every inch of the wall, every space between buildings, and walls, every floor, wall, and roof. But then I was telling Peg about how Roban keeps appearing in places where we cannae see how it could get in and the lovely Peg said, when she could stop laughing, ‘Why dinnae ye just follow the cat for a while?’” He looked at the stunned expressions on his friends’ faces and nodded. “So, ere I bared my moment of humiliation to the world, I tried it. Yesterday. And I found three places.”
“Three? When did this place become riddled with holes?” demanded Harcourt and he dragged his fingers through his hair. “I looked this place over from top to bottom when we first arrived and do so regularly now.”
“Only one of the three is big enough to have been used for a person to crawl through and might be able to be quickly widened to let in some men. My guess? The dogs and cats roaming around here dig the holes, especially the dogs as ’tis what they do, and Biddy occasionally widened and lengthened one for her own use or because it was one of the things Clyde was telling her to do. Then the other two lassies creeping in and out as they please started to do the same. So what ye get is a mess and one that doesnae go away because the ones doing it keep making new ones.”
“Wheesht, what are ye lads doing round here that is making those lassies dig their way out?” said Ned, laughing heartily as he put his arms over his head to protect himself from the empty tankards hurled at his head.
“Am I interrupting something?” asked Annys as she stepped into the great hall, fighting against the urge to laugh along with the men so thoroughly enjoying themselves.
“Nay, ’tis just Ned being a lackwit,” said Harcourt as he held out his hand in a silent invitation for her to join them.
“Actually, I found it quite witty,” said Nathan and he grinned.
“Did ye want something?” asked Harcourt when she sat down next to him.
“Sir Adam’s father has finally sent a letter with his long pondering decision in it,” she replied and placed the letter on the table in front of her.
“What has he said?”
“That I am a liar and a whore, my son is a bastard and no true get of David’s, and that Glencullaich belongs in MacQueen hands.”
Annys could feel the heat of their collective anger despite how some of them had actually gone into what many would call a cold rage. Harcourt was most certainly in the grip of one. She could see it in his eyes. The other was Callum, which surprised her a little. He was usually the most pleasant and calm of the men.
“He is a dead mon,” Harcourt said.
“Weel, that would be a verra nice gift to give me, but I fear I must refuse,” Annys said. “Ye cannae go about killing a laird simply because he is an uncouth, foul-mouthed piece of midden heap slime.”
Those odd words slipped through Harcourt’s mind and reined in his temper enough for him to think more clearly and he looked at Annys. “Midden heap slime?” She shrugged while the others chuckled. “This goes far beyond insult, Annys. Half of what he wrote are words no weel-bred mon would e’er say before a lady. Ye cannae say this didnae upset you.”