since nowt more came of it, and he can trust—”
“Before you kissed me, you had been saying that men sometimes obey blindly… such as when they obey a superior officer giving an order or agree to something simply because they respect and trust the one asking them to agree.”
“Especially when they lack time enough to think the matter through, aye,” he said, remembering. “I… I do know a chap who got himself into just such a position amidst a battle. Sithee, he found his… his kinsman amongst the fallen, dying.”
“How dreadful!”
“Aye, so when the kinsmen demanded that my friend swear vengeance against his killers, my friend was sorely grieving, as you might imagine.”
“Aye, sure, and he was exhausted, too, I’d warrant.”
“He was, aye,” Fin said. Her sympathy made telling the tale harder than he had expected it to be. His intent had been to relate just the barest details. Not only was he reluctant to admit yet that the battle had been the one at Perth between her clan and the “wretched Camerons,” but he also wanted her objective opinion rather than one colored by their growing friendship or their clans’ longstanding feud.
“What manner of vengeance did your kinsman demand?”
“The usual sort,” he said. “But everyone had sworn an oath at the outset to seek no vengeance afterward against any opponent. In his grief… aye, and in his exhaustion, as you suggest… my friend forgot about that first oath and swore to the second just before his kinsman died.”
“But he could not have kept either oath without breaking the other, could he?”
“Nay, so what do you think he should have done?”
“For a woman, that question is easy to answer, sir. However, from knowing my father, my grandfather, and my two brothers as I do, I am well aware that men do not think as women do. Their daft sense of honor too often gets in the way.”
“Honor is not daft,” he said, more sternly than he had intended. “Honor is everything, lass, because without it, men could never trust each another. If a man sacrifices his honor, he loses his self-respect and everything else worth having.”
“I know that men think that way,” she said, nodding. “But I still think that your friend’s dilemma is easily resolved. Life must always be more important than death, sir. And surely, a man of honor kills only in self-defense or defense of others, never out of spite or anger. An honorable man cannot kill just to protect his honor.”
“All Highlanders do hold any such bequeathed duty of vengeance sacred, Catriona. Surely, you know that.”
“I do, aye. But God-a-mercy, sir, in a civilized world, surely killing another human has naught of honor in it, whatever the reason.”
“Suppose that Rory Comyn had killed the two of us this morning,” he said. “What do you suppose the Mackintosh, your father, and your brothers would do?”
She shuddered. “They would kill him, of course, and likely kill off whatever is left of his clan as well. But that does not make it right.”
“Does it not? Would not his clan do the same if you or I had killed him? You know that they would. And, before you say that you would look down from heaven and condemn your men for avenging you, tell me how you’d feel if they did not.”
“Sakes, I’d be dead, would I not? How would I know what they did?”
“We don’t know what happens on the other side. I like to think that my father watches over me. At times, I vow, I have felt his hand on my sword hand in the pitch of battle, guiding it.”
“Have you?” Her eyes widened, and then she smiled and looked into his eyes. “How comforting that must be.”
He had not thought of it as comforting, just welcome. It had happened at least twice since Teàrlach MacGillony had died, each time at just the moment that Fin had feared he would collapse from exhaustion. Each time, the sense of his father’s hand aiding his had kept him fighting on to victory.
“You have not answered my question, lass. How would you feel? I’d wager that you’d expect someone to want to avenge you.”
“Good sakes, I’m as quick as any to defend my family. We all are, so in my first feelings of rage at the person who killed me, I might well expect my father and brothers to avenge me. But if I had time to think on the matter, I hope I would be wiser. I do believe