men,” Fin said. “He was displeased to find me with her ladyship and foolish enough to draw his sword.”
“I did tell ye that the lackwit expects to wed with her.”
“She says she won’t have him.”
“She says that, aye,” Mackintosh said. “But a lass does not always get her say-so, even an she declares it as frankly as our Catriona does.”
“So I told her,” Fin said, watching him carefully.
“ ’Twould be a foul thing to wed that saucy lass with a lackwit, though.”
“It would,” Fin agreed, satisfied that he had read him correctly earlier.
“Ye did not kill him,” Mackintosh said. “I warrant he’d have liked to put that sword of his through ye, though.”
“He might have liked to do that. But I knocked it into the loch. Then my equerry, Toby Muir, and Ian Lennox arrived with Comyn’s men in tow. Toby said they were gey careless and easily caught. There is one other thing, too.”
“Ye suspect that Rory Comyn had summat to do with your injury yesterday.”
“I do.”
“Aye, well, I suspected as much. He has shown himself on our land afore without invitation. But although he does delight in making trouble—”
“With respect, sir,” Fin interjected, “if he has been troublesome before, why have you not kept her ladyship on this island rather than letting her wander the hills alone? If Comyn wants her, what is to stop him from taking her?”
“Knowing that Clan Chattan would wipe out every last Comyn if he dared such a thing,” Mackintosh said grimly. “Their clan is weak, unprotected by any other. I’ve bided my time to see if our young Lord of the North would protect them, but Alex Stewart trusts them less than I do. Forbye, but ye need not worry about our Catriona. As long as she keeps Boreas close by, she’s safe enough.”
“The arrow that struck me could as easily have killed the dog,” Fin said.
“I expect that it could have. But that just puts us back to the Comyns’ weakness. They hope to gain power by allying wi’ us. Sakes, if I thought they’d change their ways, I would welcome them, because a confederation that grows is stronger than one that does not. Ye do ken that fact for yourself, I warrant.”
“Do I?” Fin asked, tensing.
“Ye do, aye. I have spent nearly every Christmas of my life at Tor Castle, lad. D’ye think I don’t recognize the son of Teàrlach MacGillony when I see him? MacGill!” He snorted. “Your da would clout ye good, did he hear ye call him MacGill. What were ye about to be saying such a thing of him to my lady wife?”
“In troth, sir, I thought it unwise to reveal my full identity whilst I was here for Rothesay. It might have stirred up our old enmity and complicated his dealings with you. My presence is solely as his envoy and has nowt to do with Clan Cameron.”
“But so ye would say, nae matter why ye had come here. Did Rothesay not consider the likelihood that your presence alone might complicate matters?”
That was getting to the core with a vengeance, Fin thought with reluctant admiration. But the facts would do. “Rothesay and I met when we were two of the winning knights at her grace the Queen’s Edinburgh tourney two years ago, sir, not long after he’d gained his dukedom. He knows me only as Fin of the Battles.”
“That be nobbut rubbish, that. Ye’ll not make me believe that that canny young scoundrel did not demand every detail of your past afore he took ye into his service. He’d do it just to be sure his wicked uncle hadn’t sent ye to spy on him.”
“You underestimate Rothesay, sir,” Fin said. “He knows some whom he does trust, and I was able to provide him with three such excellent references.”
“If he did not question ye, they must have been good. Who recommended ye to him, then, whose word he did heed? I might like to question them myself.”
“His grace the King, her grace the Queen, and his reverence the Bishop of St. Andrews were all kind enough to recommend me to his service.”
Mackintosh raised his eyebrows. “Bishop Traill himself? And their graces?”
“All three, aye, by my troth, sir.”
Mackintosh’s eyes narrowed. “Which of them recommended ye first, then?”
“Bishop Traill.”
“I see.”
Meeting that intelligent gaze, Fin had the feeling that it saw too much. But he did not know how the canny old man could know more than Fin had told him.