Highland Master

chapter 10



Fin took one look at James and stepped away from Catriona. As he did, he said quietly, “There is nowt occurring here to trouble you, sir.”

“Faith, but you have drawn a conclusion that insults us both, James,” Catriona said. “Did you come seeking us for any other purpose?”

Seeing fury leap to James’s face, Fin set himself to intervene if necessary. But Catriona remained calm, clearly awaiting an answer to her question.

At last, after a measuring look at each of them, James visibly relaxed. “The lad at the gate said that you had come this way. I just wondered… that is, I thought you might have walked out with Morag, Cat. It surprised me to see you with him.”

“The guard at the gate did not tell you that I was with Morag.”

“Nay, nay,” James protested. “I didn’t say that. I never asked him about Morag. Sithee, I awoke and she was gone, but I did not want the lad thinking that summat was amiss with her, so—”

“Amiss betwixt the two of you is what you mean, I think,” she said gently.

Fin nearly uttered a protest. That subject was not one that she should initiate in his presence.

James shot her a dour look, then turned to Fin and said frankly, “I do owe you an apology. I ought to have thought a bit before speaking so sharply.”

Extending his hand, Fin said, “ ’Tis generous of you to apologize, sir. Had I come upon my sister in such a pose, I’d likely have reacted as you did. You have my word, though, that nowt was amiss.”

Gripping his hand, James said, “I’ll willingly accept it. My grandfather told me who you are, so I expect that you do understand my reaction.”

Catriona said, “You say that as if you did not know his identity before, James. But I told you and Ivor about him soon after you arrived here yesterday.”

“Ye did, aye,” James said, his gaze locked now with Fin’s. “But you told us his name was Sir Finlagh MacGill, lass. So clearly, you did not know everything.”

Fin’s glance flicked to Catriona, but she was still watching James.

She said, “I know all I need to know. He schooled with Ivor at St. Andrews and he fought on the Cameron side at Perth. He has not kept secrets from me, sir. I did used to think that being a Cameron must be a dreadful thing, but only until I came to know him. The truce between our two confederations still holds, does it not?”

“For the most part, aye,” James agreed, meeting Fin’s gaze again. “Did he tell you that his father was the Camerons’ war leader at Perth?”

“Aye, of course, he did,” Catriona lied stoutly. “Now, prithee, let be, sir. Come to that, if Morag is missing, you must find her.”

“She makes it plain that she does not want to be found,” James said bluntly.

“Nonsense, sir. No woman hides without wanting to be found, and Morag has missed you sorely. I fear she still feels like a stranger here, so she does not confide in us. Still, you must have done something to vex her. Do you know what it was?”

“Sakes, Cat, what man ever understands why a woman does such a thing?”

“Has she told you how much she has missed you?”

“Aye, sure, any number of times.”

“How did you reply to her?”

James flushed and looked helplessly at Fin, but Fin knew better than to enter such a conversation without a stronger invitation than that.

The older man turned back to his sister. “Cat, we should not—”

“I do have reason for asking, sir. So, unless you said something dreadful…”

Shrugging, he said, “I told her I was doing my duty, of course. I explained that I’d had no say in how long I’d be away and would likely go again before long.”

“I knew it!” Shaking her head at him, she added, “Dafty, you should have told her that you love her and missed her even more than you’d feared you would.”

“But—”

“Nay, don’t explain it to me. Go and find Morag. Talk to her.”

“And say such mawkish things to her? Sakes, what would my men think?”

“Morag is not going to repeat to your men what you say to her. But if you do not take more heed of your wife, sir, you may soon find yourself without one.”

“Aye, well, you’d best come inside with me then, the pair of you,” James said. “You’ll want to break your fast, after all.”

“I am getting hungry, aye,” Catriona admitted.

Fin said, “We’ll be along directly, sir. You won’t want us at your heels if you should meet your lady wife, seeking you.”

Catriona looked at him, and Fin knew that she had detected his annoyance.



The hard note in Fin’s voice had startled Catriona, but recalling his strong sense of honor, she suspected why he had spoken so. She waited until James had vanished into the woods before she said, “I think I know why you are—”

“Don’t lie for me again,” he said curtly. “I did not tell you that my father was our war leader that dreadful day.”

“Nay, but he had naught to do with your dive into the river, and I knew by your own words that you must be a Cameron, so I do not see that it matters.”

“Even so, you must not lie to your brother, lass, and never to protect me.”

“But I did not do it for you. I did it because I was sure when he apologized to you that he was going to start telling me that I should know better than to have come here with you. When he starts telling me how I should behave—” A thought struck her, making her grin ruefully. “Sakes, I expect that’s just what I did to him!”

“Aye, it was,” he agreed.

“Then I will apologize to you for making you a witness to what I said to him. But I assure you that had I admitted that you had not told me about your father, James would still be explaining at ponderous length why you should have done so.”

“Mayhap he would,” Fin said. “I would like to know, however, if you would have spoken as impertinently to Ivor as you did to him.”

Feeling a sudden urge to laugh but aware that it might still be unwise, she said frankly, “I think you know very well that I would dare to scold Ivor so only if I were far enough away to escape to safety, and never this close to the water.”

His eyes twinkled then, but he said, “I should perhaps warn you that I do not react well to such impertinence, either.”

“Do you not? But then you have no right to treat me as Ivor would, do you?”

Meeting her gaze, he said, “I suspect that the men in your family would sympathize more with me than with you if you made me angry enough to toss you into that loch. Or do you think I’m wrong about that?”

Since he clearly knew that he was right, she said, “I’m thinking that if we do not go inside soon, someone will look for us.”

When he chuckled, she stuck out her tongue at him.



Entering the hall with Catriona, Fin saw at once that the lady Morag sat at the high table with the ladies Ealga and Annis.

Catriona had also seen her good-sister and was frowning. He nearly asked why before he realized that James was nowhere in sight.

“He will think to look here eventually,” he murmured to her.

“Do you think so? I can tell you, sir, men are rarely wise enough to look in the most likely places. Moreover, I’d wager that he looked here before he went outside, just as she knew he would.”

“Is she so calculating then?”

“Faith, I scarcely know her. She and James have been married for nearly two years, but Morag does not talk much about herself. When she does, she talks most often about her home in the Great Glen, and her family.”

“Have you tried to draw her out?” he asked.

“Aye, sure. That is, at first I did, and I do try to be kind. But she barely talks to me, or to anyone else, come to that. Surely, you have seen as much for yourself.”

“Sakes, lass, I’ve taken no particular interest in the lady Morag. Only think how James would react if I did.”

She shrugged. “In troth, sir, I don’t know how he would react. But he would not react as Ivor would—or you, perhaps, if you were married.”

“Most men react fiercely to those who show unseemly interest in their women,” he said. “I doubt that James would behave differently.”

“Do you?” She looked speculatively at Morag. “I think I should have a talk with her.” Turning back to him, she added, “Thank you for telling me about Perth. Ivor would never have told me so much.”

“I know that, aye. I also know,” he added quietly, “that you might be wiser to let James and the lady Morag resolve their private differences privately.”

“Wise or not, I do think she should know that James cares about her.”

He shook his head at her, but even had he wanted to debate the point, Rothesay was on the dais beside their host, gesturing for him to join them.

Parting from Catriona when they stepped onto the dais, Fin went around the men’s end of the table, past Ivor and Shaw, to the duke.

“Where the devil have you been?” Rothesay demanded. “Your wound looks to be nearly healed, but you vanished so early last night that I wondered if it was still troubling you. Your squire did say, though, that you had gone out this morning.”

“I have recovered, sir, and I did walk about outside the wall,” Fin said.

“Och, aye, I do recall now that you like to swim,” Rothesay said.

“Did you seek me for a particular purpose, my lord?”

“Nay, I have these others to attend my needs, so your duties at present will be light. When Donald and Alex arrive—doubtless, later today—I want you to sit in on our talks if they keep their men with them. I trust both of them but not those who toady to them. So I’ll want to know where to find you when I want you, Fin. Don’t wander off again without letting me know where you’ll be.”

“Aye, sir,” Fin said. Accepting a nod as dismissal, he took the seat that Ivor indicated beside him. Smiling, Fin said to him, “I trust that you slept all night.”

“I did,” Ivor said, giving him a shrewd look. “I begin to think that you and my irrepressible sister have grown to be fast friends. Is that so?”

“Do you wonder because we just now came into the hall together?”

“Nay, I wonder because you walked into the woods together.”

“I see. You do know that she very likely saved my life, do you not?”

“I know that she found you bleeding all over the scenery in the upper glen and brought you home with her,” Ivor said. “Art sure that she saved your life?”

“I am sure that it was a Comyn who shot me. I doubt that his arrow was a message of friendship.”

“Rory Comyn?”

“Aye. Sithee, we met him on the loch shore the next day, and he’s a smirker. So, if he did not shoot me, I’d wager that he ordered it done. What I do not know is if he did it out of a jealous belief that your sister was coming to meet me or because he knows why I came to the Highlands.”

“He’s a mischief maker,” Ivor said. “He would need little reason.”

Nodding, Fin changed the topic, saying, “Catriona and I met James outside, and he said that your grandfather had told him about me. Did he tell you as well?”

“We talked this morning,” Ivor said. “He suspected that you’d studied with Traill when you told my grandame that you’d lived in eastern Fife. There is not much there, after all, other than St. Andrews—the town, the kirk, and the castle. So he did think that we might know each other. But I’d told him years ago that none of us knew which clans our fellow students hailed from, let alone their real names.”

“I wonder if he will tell Rothesay. Sakes, mayhap Traill told him from the start. In any event, I expect he’ll know one way or another soon enough.”

“More to the point, my lad, since you’ve been serving Davy these past years, does this all mean that your family may not even know that you survived at Perth?”

Fin said, “I could say I’ve been too busy to travel so far before now. ’Tis close enough to the truth, but it is also true that I did not want to tell Ewan how I’d survived. I do mean to go home from here, though. So I’ll have to tell Rothesay.”

“If you’ll take some advice…” Ivor paused.

“From you, always,” Fin said.

“You will know how to tell your brother, but you should assume that Traill has told Rothesay everything. His reverence did not become Bishop of St. Andrews by keeping secrets from his royal patrons. He served as confessor for both the King and Queen, and doubtless for Rothesay and even Albany. I’d wager that Traill told Rothesay to make good use of you but otherwise to let you go your own road.”

“You may be right,” Fin acknowledged. “I own, I just assumed that Rothesay did not know, because he has always made a point of calling me Fin of the Battles and introduces me as such whenever he presents me to anyone.”

“Aye, well, the one thing I do know about Davy Stewart is that he delights in secrets and can be gey good at keeping them. The only time he does not like them is when others act in secret against him.”

“As Albany is doubtless doing now,” Fin said.



Catriona took her place beside Morag, trying to decide if the older girl had been crying. Morag’s expressions were so slight that it was always hard to read them.

Aware that Ealga was talking with Lady Annis, Catriona leaned close to Morag and murmured, “James is looking for you.”

“Is he?” Morag said without looking at her. “He must know gey well that I come here to break my fast.”

“Of course, he does,” Catriona said, striving to conceal sudden impatience. “I’d wager that he looked here before he went out to the woods.”

“Did he go outside the wall?” Morag signed to a gillie to pour ale into her goblet. “How do you know that he did?”

“I saw him, of course, and he asked if I had seen you. Look here, Morag, I know that you don’t like me—”

“When did you come to think that?”

“Good sakes, you scarcely ever speak to me unless I speak first. And then you talk as if you are annoyed that I have disturbed you. What else should I think?”

Morag gave a shrug. “I expect you are right then.”

“Are you angry with James?”

“Should I be?”

Catriona’s temper stirred sharply. But courtesy and the present royal company required that she keep it in check. Forcing calm into her voice, she said, “He thinks that you are angry with him and do not want him to find you.”

“I am a dutiful wife,” Morag said. “A dutiful wife does not hide from her husband. Moreover, I should find it gey hard to do, since I cannot get off this island without permission from your grandfather, your father, or from James himself.”

“God-a-mercy, you are furious. What did he do to deserve such anger?”

“Why nothing at all,” Morag said. “How could he have done aught to displease me when he stayed with the Mackintosh yestereve until long after I had fallen asleep? One assumes that they were drinking whisky with the other men.”

“I see,” Catriona said.

“I warrant you do. But James does not.”

“Nay, for he told me what he said to you when you told him you had missed him,” Catriona said with a sympathetic sigh.

“So he told you that, did he? Well, if he is going to share our private converse with you, there can be no need for me to tell you anything more.”

“Morag, James is an ass, and so I told him. But he does love you.”

Morag looked at her then, her pale blue eyes widening.

Catriona saw tears welling in them before Morag looked away again.



After they had broken their fast, Ivor said to Fin, “I mean to reacquaint myself with Strathspey today, and I’ll take my bow. Do you want to come?”

Knowing that Rothesay would hold no meeting until Donald of the Isles and Alex of the North arrived, Fin accepted with alacrity.

As soon as he had spoken with Rothesay, the two friends took bows and quivers and rowed to the west shore. From there, they hiked to the river Spey and along its bank to a field where Ivor said they could get some good practice.

Returning to Rothiemurchus late that afternoon after exploring much of the countryside, they discovered that during their absence, Donald and Alex had both arrived. To Fin’s astonishment, it appeared that the burly, bearded, forty-year-old Donald and his companions had traveled on garrons through the west Highlands with a mendicant friar, all six of them dressed in robes similar to the holy man’s.

“A good disguise, especially at this season,” Ivor observed. “One hopes that Donald will not try to sneak in an army under the same guise.”

Laughing, Fin pointed out that an army of monks might stir some curiosity. His leisure time had ended, though, because Rothesay had left word that he wanted to see him straightway. Fin found him alone in the inner chamber.

“You are to be another pair of eyes and ears for me,” Rothesay said. “Donald did support my taking the Governorship when I did, and Alex has nae love for Albany. Still, I’ve learned that I can trust any man only whilst his future depends on my success. Donald did come here, but he is ever surly, and I need his ships to curb Albany in the west. As to Alex…” He shrugged.

“He did raise an army of his own from throughout the North to support yours in the Borders,” Fin reminded him. “Forbye, sir, both men are your close cousins.”

“Aye, sure, so they’re bound to support me,” Rothesay said confidently.

However, when the household gathered soon afterward for supper in the great hall, Fin noted few signs of good cheer between the cousins. Rothesay was amiable enough, but burly, dark-haired Donald of the Isles seemed dour, even irritable.

Alex looked enough like his fair, blue-eyed cousin to be Davy’s brother but was quieter by nature. He remained reticent and watchful, albeit courteous.

Doubtless to cheer them all, the Mackintosh suggested that Catriona or Morag might sing for them after supper. But Donald declared when he had finished eating that he had endured a long, tiresome day and would seek his bed.

Rothesay was wide awake. But since he chose to entertain himself by flirting with Catriona, Fin would have preferred him to follow Donald’s example.

He was grateful when the lady Ealga engaged him in desultory conversation but noted that James disappeared with Morag and Ivor moved to talk with Alex.

Looking toward the latter two a few minutes later, he saw that Ivor was grimly eyeing Rothesay and Catriona. Alex, also watching the pair, looked amused.

Fin was not. In the short time that he had been a guest at the castle, he had come to think of Catriona as more than just a good friend, and he did not want Rothesay to offend her. When her father joined them and spoke to her, Fin was relieved and felt more so when the lass made her adieux shortly afterward.

The next morning after breakfast, the three powerful lords met with the Mackintosh in his inner chamber. Alex and Donald insisted that their companions accompany them, and Rothesay kept his two and Fin with him. Shaw, Ivor, and James also attended, so the chamber was crowded.

After an hour of discussing past events—such discussion at times growing testy—Rothesay said, “Our uncle Albany, as you all ken fine, resents having lost the Governorship and its attendant powers. He wants them back.”

“And your provisional term as Governor o’ the Realm expires in January, lad,” Donald said. “We all ken that fine. But what has that to do wi’ me?”

Fin knew that Donald considered himself as equal, if not superior, to the King of Scots. The Lord of the Isles descended from a much older dynasty, owned many more castles and hundreds more boats, not to mention the great administrative complex at Finlaggan on the Isle of Islay, which boasted a palatial residence larger than any noble or royal equivalent on the Scottish mainland.

Rothesay eyed him measuringly. “You and Alex know as well as I do how Albany ruled when he was Governor before, by amassing power wherever and however he could. He holds the treasury, uses it as his own, and is greedy withal, which affects everyone in Scotland. I want to curb him wherever I can.”

“As ye should, Davy,” Alex said, nodding. “But ye ken fine how long I ha’ been away wi’ ye. I canna leave the North to look after itself again so soon, lest our uncle Albany swoop in with an army. Or someone else does,” he added dulcetly.

Fin glanced at the Lord of the Isles, as did a few others, but Donald’s thick beard concealed his mouth and thus much of his expression. The talking went on, but both cousins remained elusive, willing to talk but unwilling to speak plainly.

Some of their adherents seemed to Fin to be trying to stir dissension.

His thoughts drifted to Catriona, and he wondered what she might be doing.



Catriona was busy. The great lords had brought companions with them, but they had not brought the host of servants one usually expected with visiting royalty.

Each nobleman had a manservant. But they looked after only their masters and expected castle servants or womenfolk to attend to anything akin to menial labor. Thus it was that she and Morag were in the kitchen, aiding the cook’s minions with preparations for the midday meal.

The two barely had enough time when they finished to run upstairs and change their gowns, but Ailvie was waiting for Catriona, so the change took little time. After a final look at herself in the glass, she hurried back downstairs, slowing only as she approached the landing between her parents’ room and Fin’s.

She told herself that she was just protecting her dignity and did not want to risk running full tilt into one parent or another on the landing. If her gaze lingered on the closed door of Fin’s room instead of on the one opposite, no voice, including the self-critical one in her head, spoke up to chide her.

Entering the hall to see that people were still gathering at the lower tables and on the dais, she paused now and again to speak to those who greeted her. When she stepped onto the dais, her gaze collided with Fin’s, and something in the way he looked at her warmed her through.

Movement to his right drew her notice to Rothesay, Shaw, and her grandfather as they emerged from the inner chamber with Alex Stewart and Donald of the Isles.

Rothesay caught her eye then, and if Fin’s expression had been warm, his was searing. Aware that she was blushing and that her grandfather or Shaw would notice if she lingered where she stood, she moved hastily to the women’s end of the table and took the place that a smiling Morag had left for her beside Ealga.

As soon as Donald’s real mendicant monk had muttered the grace and everyone had sat down, Catriona said to her mother, “Do you ken aught of what happened this morning, Mam?”

“I do not,” Ealga said. “You know that your father rarely confides his business to me. And you know, too, that when he does, I do not talk about it after.”

From Catriona’s right, Morag said, “James did tell me that he thinks they will talk long before they find consensus. There are issues, he said, which seem to stir much disagreement and men amidst them who seem to encourage it.”

“God-a-mercy, James told you all that?” Glancing at her mother to see that Ealga had turned to talk with Lady Annis, Catriona said, “What else did he say?”

Morag looked self-conscious. “I should not tell you. But I did want you to know that… that he will not be revealing our confidences to you anymore. And I must warn you that I told him what you said about him being an ass. I expect that was as bad as his telling you what I had said and what he had said to me, but—”

A gurgle of laughter welled in Catriona’s throat, and some of it escaped as she said, “You may repeat whatever I say if it will help bring James to his senses.”

Morag looked relieved, but she said, “Sithee, I think he was irritated, so he may scold you. And when James scolds one, it is most unpleasant, believe me.”

Catriona stared at her. “Good sakes, do you mean to say that he is brutal to you? ’Tis hard for me to believe that.”

“James is not brutal, but I do not like him to be angry with me.”

Catriona bit her lower lip and then decided to say what she was thinking. “Look here, Morag, have you ever seen Ivor in a temper?”

“Nay, I am thankful to say that I have not. I have heard others say that he does naught to restrain himself but flies into a fury.”

“I can be much the same way,” Catriona admitted. “But, by my troth, Morag, compared to either of us in a temper, James is… is most temperate.”

Morag did not look convinced. But for once, she did not fall silent. Instead, she continued to talk affably with Catriona.

When everyone had finished eating, Mackintosh asked Morag to take up her lute, and Catriona excused herself, saying that she had promised to look in on the kitchen. But as she stepped off the dais, Rothesay approached her, moving with near feline grace, his long strides covering ground with deceptive haste.

When he could speak without raising his voice, he said, “Prithee, lass, say that you are not abandoning us already. I would speak with you again, for I vow, you are the most beautiful creature I have laid eyes on in a twelvemonth.”

Although she smiled with ready delight at the unexpected compliment, she saw her brother Ivor and Fin not far behind him. Both of them were frowning.

Recalling what her grandmother had said about Rothesay, she said, “I fear that you flatter me, my lord, but ’tis most kind.”

“I am never kind, lassie, and I do know beauty when I see it,” he said with what in any man, including a prince of the realm, was an impudent grin. “Prithee, do not be so cruel as to say that you will not walk with me.”

He was, nevertheless, not only a prince of the realm but also one of vast power and known to use it recklessly.

Evenly, she said, “I am never cruel, sir.”

“Then you will be generous, my lady,” he said, grinning confidently.

Glancing beyond him again, she saw that although Rothesay might call her generous, both Ivor and Fin had other words in mind.