that life is preferable to death in any event.”
Deciding that she simply did not understand about a man’s honor, Fin was tempted to try to explain it more clearly. She did have a point about thinking first, though. Moreover, a chilly breeze had come up.
“Shall we walk to that point yonder and back again?” he asked her.
She agreed, and they strolled to the tip of the island. On the way, she showed him a log raft tilted on end against a tree and tied to it with a long rope.
“Ivor and James made that when they were young,” she said. “We paddled often from here to the west shore and back, especially in summer, when we even took it out on calm nights. Calm produces a fine echo here, so we’d hoot to wake it up.”
“Sakes, did that thing hold all three of you?”
She chuckled. “Usually, one or two of us would end up swimming one way or the other, because if anyone fell in, those on the raft would refuse to let him or her climb back on, lest all fall in. That is one reason we all learned to swim well.”
They talked and laughed together as they walked. When it was time to go in again, Fin tried to recall the last time he had spent most of a day just walking and talking with a lass in such a casual way. He was not sure that he ever had.
Catriona watched Fin as they walked back into the castle to change for supper. He seemed to be deep in thought, and she was loath to disturb him. She had a notion that his friend was apocryphal. Ivor had often mentioned “friends” who had particular problems when the problem in question was his own.
She suspected that Fin had done the same thing, but she did not know him well enough yet to be sure. In any event, she did wonder what his “friend” had done in the end. Doubtless, she decided, he would tell her in his own good time.
Parting from him on the landing outside his door, she went up to find Ailvie ready to help her change her dress for supper.
“I were beginning to think that I ought to send someone to see if ye fell in,” the maidservant said.
“I was with Sir Finlagh,” Catriona said.
“Aye, sure, and who doesna ken that?” Ailvie said as she urged Catriona toward the stool so she could brush her hair. “I’ll plait it and twist it up under your veil, shall I? What did ye talk about for so long?”
“Everything,” Catriona said. “We seemed just to move from one topic to another as if we had known each other all our lives. He is an interesting man.”
“Hoots, ye ought to ken all there is about him by now,” Ailvie said.
“I’m sure I still know little at all. He likes to discuss things. That I do know, and he likes to debate things, even one’s thoughts. He often contradicts me.”
“Ay-de-mi, that sounds most discourteous, m’lady.”
“I suppose, but it did not seem so at the time. It is as if he cannot hear an idea without hearing contradictions in his head. If I say the grass is green, he will say, ‘Yonder, it seems yellow, but mayhap that is just new barley, turning early.’ ”
“He sounds a wee bit peculiar like,” Ailvie said with a frown.
Catriona laughed. “I suppose he does, at that. I don’t want that gray gown, Ailvie. Prithee, fetch out the pink one with the red braid on its sleeves instead.”
Fin enjoyed a peaceful sennight while he waited to hear from Rothesay. He swam nearly every morning, often with Tadhg, who had flung himself in on the third morning and demanded to know if Fin could teach him to swim as well as he did.
Fin also walked several times with Catriona, albeit only on the island. They talked of many things, and comfortably, because to his surprise, she forbore to quiz him when he felt reluctance to explore a particular subject. He knew that she was curious, but she seemed to sense his reluctance and to respect it.
Oddly, her ability to do so increased his feeling that he ought to tell her everything. Believing she would no longer respect him if he did kept him silent but also created a new dilemma. His need for her to think well of him increased daily.
Word arrived on the ninth day of his visit, a Tuesday, that a large force from Perth