I dared not wait to bore the last plank, especially you standing atop me, lass, so I don’t even know for sure that this will work. I’m tempted to stay just to be sure that it does.”
“Do you mean that if it doesn’t, you would go back in and bore more holes?” she demanded, feeling an icy chill of fear at the thought of the dam breaking with him still standing in the torrent’s path.
He was silent for much too long.
“Don’t be daft!” she snapped, forgetting to keep her voice low. “Sakes, sir, we still have to do what we can to save Tadhg and the other prisoners.”
He put a finger to her lips. “Shhh,” he said. “We’re not out of this yet.”
“But you can’t stay here. I won’t let you!”
“Won’t you?” His voice was soft, even gentle.
She put a hand to his cheek and her face close to his. “Nay, Fin Cameron, I won’t. This is one battle that you will not fight alone, sir. Rothiemurchus is my family’s home. If you must stay, then Boreas and I will stay, too.”
“Nay, we’ll go,” he said. “Rain or no rain, that dam will break before the water gets high enough to drown anyone.”
He hugged her then, the strong warmth of his body warming hers.
“You’re shivering,” he said. “But we’ll walk fast, and you’ll wear my mantle until you feel warmer. The thing smells of wet wool, but you won’t mind that.”
“You’ll freeze,” she muttered as he wrapped the damp mantle around her.
“Nay, then, I did not freeze in the river Tay at the ice end of a September. I’ll not freeze here when it’s nearly summertime.”
“It is barely the first of July, sir, and still snowy above, come to that.”
“Strap your dirk on over your skirt, sweetheart, not under it. We’ll let Boreas lead the way,” he added, grasping her hand warmly when she had signed to the dog.
“I keep expecting to hear the dam go,” she said as they hurried along the path.
“The trick will be for us to get back to the castle when it does go.”
“The current on the surface may be too strong then, aye,” she said. “But we do still have one boat unless the Comyns destroyed it, too. If we can get back, our men will be able to row Rothesay and Alex ashore so they can leave.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said. “If they follow the Spey, they will likely run into Douglas’s forces, coming here. Good routes from here are few.”
“Mercy, sir, you contradict yourself as well as me,” she said.
He chuckled, and the sound warmed her more. “I don’t contradict you,” he said. “I just raise fresh points to discuss.” Before she could counter that daft statement, he added, “I suspect that Alex will know how to get them both away safely.”
“He will. Not that they need go at all. The men of Clan Chattan and the North will prevail. We must tell Granddad what you heard those two guards say, though.”
“Not we, sweetheart. I will tell him.”
She did not argue, knowing that she would willingly escape that discussion. In her absence, Fin would not make a point of telling the Mackintosh or Shaw that she had been with him. However, if she were there, facing them with him…
She sighed. The likelihood was that the Mackintosh, her father, and Ivor would somehow learn all there was to know and would have much to say to her. But Fin was her husband. They would leave any punishment to him. And although he had been vexed with her, he no longer seemed to be.
“Keep Boreas close,” he said. “I don’t want him running into an errant Comyn.”
“You said there were only the three left, all guarding the prisoners.”
“I don’t trust any Comyn to be where I expect him to be, not tonight.”
Just then, Rory Comyn stepped onto the path ahead, his sword in hand.
Chapter 20
Fin knew that he was tired, because until he’d recognized Rory Comyn, he had scarcely noticed the moon beginning to peek over hills to the east. Stepping swiftly in front of Catriona and pulling his sword from its sling, he said brusquely, “Get well away from us, lass, and keep Boreas with you. Do not let him interfere.”
She did not respond, but he heard her moving off the path. And he knew enough about the dog to be sure that it would stay near her.
Eyeing Comyn, he said, “I expected you to be sound asleep.”