that you will explain this to me, or by heaven, I will tell my father about it just as soon as he comes near me.”
“I will explain as much to you later as I can. But curtsy now, lass, and right swiftly, for the Duke of Rothesay approaches.”
“Davy Stewart? The Governor of the Realm and heir to Scotland’s throne? He is the man you serve?”
“Aye,” Fin said, making his bow to Rothesay, who bore him away at once.
The younger man had the fair, blue-eyed Nordic good looks of nearly every Stewart, the prime exception being his uncle Albany, who was as dark, some said, as the devil’s own. Men had often suggested that since Albany looked so unlike his kinsmen, mayhap he was no Stewart at all but a changeling, or worse.
No one said such things of Rothesay, although he was certainly the subject of much gossip. He looked much as his grandfather, Robert II, had in his prime, and Rothesay seemed determined to outdo his grandfather in bed. The late King had sired more than twenty illegitimate offspring and nearly as many legitimate ones.
So far, though, Rothesay had sired no legitimate children.
“A beauteous lass, that one,” he said to Fin in Scot when Catriona excused herself and walked off. “Prithee, tell me she has a fondness for flirtation and that you’ve cultivated her acquaintance for me. I’ve had a devilish few days till now.”
“Have you, my lord?” Fin replied. “I thought today was a fine day.”
“Have you seen those damned Cairngorms?” Rothesay demanded without bothering to lower his voice. “I tell you it was cruel to put horses to them. But it was gey worse to make me walk here from the turning-off to Lochindorb.”
“They must have offered you a Highland pony to ride,” Fin said.
“Aye, sure, a garron they called it and assured me it was gey sure-footed. But my feet nearly dragged on the ground, Fin. I preferred to walk.”
“How did you meet the Laird of Rothiemurchus?” Fin asked.
“Shaw and his men were with my cousin Alex, Lord of the North, when I met them in Perth. They had traveled north together from the Borders. My lads and I joined their party, so that I could enter the Highlands without making a noise.”
“Where is Alex now?” Fin asked.
“He rode on to Lochindorb, taking our horses with him, rot the man. He said we’d do better here without them. But he should arrive tomorrow.”
“That explains why rumors of an army coming here did not disturb the Mackintosh,” Fin said. “He must have known that you had joined Alex. See you, he’d made himself clear about you and the others’ bringing only a few men to this meeting. So I feared that he might be wroth if you were bringing an army.”
“Shaw said the same thing. In troth, he sent half of his own men or more home to their families, saying he would not need them for a time. Alex is doing the same and will bring few with him. But if my uncle Albany should get wind of this meeting, we’ll need every man they’ve sent home, and right quickly.”
“Aye, perhaps, but the custom here is much as it is in the Borders. If need be, Highlanders light signal fires or send running gillies to summon the clans. And the Mackintosh men have been away from their families for months, have they not?”
“Aye, sure, but so what?” Rothesay looked toward Catriona, talking with her mother and grandmother a short way away. Her good-sister, the lady Morag, spoke to her husband, James, beyond them with more liveliness than Fin had yet seen in her.
He said quietly, “The lass who attracts you is the lady Catriona Mackintosh, my lord. She is the Mackintosh’s granddaughter and Shaw’s daughter.”
Rothesay’s blue eyes gleamed as he said, “Is she now, in troth?”
“Aye, sir, and a maiden. The two ladies with her are her grandmother, Lady Annis of Mackintosh, and the lady Catriona’s mother, Lady Ealga.”
“I don’t care about the others, Fin. But since you will present the lass to me, I expect you had better present all three.”
Fin had begun to feel the uneasiness that he frequently felt in the younger man’s presence. Moreover, he realized as he scanned the other men in the hall, although Rothesay had brought two noble sycophants with him, he had brought no one who had the knack, if anyone did, for keeping him out of trouble.
“I don’t see your usual keepers,” he said with a smile.