I’ve taken no particular interest in the lady Morag. Only think how James would react if I did.”
She shrugged. “In troth, sir, I don’t know how he would react. But he would not react as Ivor would—or you, perhaps, if you were married.”
“Most men react fiercely to those who show unseemly interest in their women,” he said. “I doubt that James would behave differently.”
“Do you?” She looked speculatively at Morag. “I think I should have a talk with her.” Turning back to him, she added, “Thank you for telling me about Perth. Ivor would never have told me so much.”
“I know that, aye. I also know,” he added quietly, “that you might be wiser to let James and the lady Morag resolve their private differences privately.”
“Wise or not, I do think she should know that James cares about her.”
He shook his head at her, but even had he wanted to debate the point, Rothesay was on the dais beside their host, gesturing for him to join them.
Parting from Catriona when they stepped onto the dais, Fin went around the men’s end of the table, past Ivor and Shaw, to the duke.
“Where the devil have you been?” Rothesay demanded. “Your wound looks to be nearly healed, but you vanished so early last night that I wondered if it was still troubling you. Your squire did say, though, that you had gone out this morning.”
“I have recovered, sir, and I did walk about outside the wall,” Fin said.
“Och, aye, I do recall now that you like to swim,” Rothesay said.
“Did you seek me for a particular purpose, my lord?”
“Nay, I have these others to attend my needs, so your duties at present will be light. When Donald and Alex arrive—doubtless, later today—I want you to sit in on our talks if they keep their men with them. I trust both of them but not those who toady to them. So I’ll want to know where to find you when I want you, Fin. Don’t wander off again without letting me know where you’ll be.”
“Aye, sir,” Fin said. Accepting a nod as dismissal, he took the seat that Ivor indicated beside him. Smiling, Fin said to him, “I trust that you slept all night.”
“I did,” Ivor said, giving him a shrewd look. “I begin to think that you and my irrepressible sister have grown to be fast friends. Is that so?”
“Do you wonder because we just now came into the hall together?”
“Nay, I wonder because you walked into the woods together.”
“I see. You do know that she very likely saved my life, do you not?”
“I know that she found you bleeding all over the scenery in the upper glen and brought you home with her,” Ivor said. “Art sure that she saved your life?”
“I am sure that it was a Comyn who shot me. I doubt that his arrow was a message of friendship.”
“Rory Comyn?”
“Aye. Sithee, we met him on the loch shore the next day, and he’s a smirker. So, if he did not shoot me, I’d wager that he ordered it done. What I do not know is if he did it out of a jealous belief that your sister was coming to meet me or because he knows why I came to the Highlands.”
“He’s a mischief maker,” Ivor said. “He would need little reason.”
Nodding, Fin changed the topic, saying, “Catriona and I met James outside, and he said that your grandfather had told him about me. Did he tell you as well?”
“We talked this morning,” Ivor said. “He suspected that you’d studied with Traill when you told my grandame that you’d lived in eastern Fife. There is not much there, after all, other than St. Andrews—the town, the kirk, and the castle. So he did think that we might know each other. But I’d told him years ago that none of us knew which clans our fellow students hailed from, let alone their real names.”
“I wonder if he will tell Rothesay. Sakes, mayhap Traill told him from the start. In any event, I expect he’ll know one way or another soon enough.”
“More to the point, my lad, since you’ve been serving Davy these past years, does this all mean that your family may not even know that you survived at Perth?”
Fin said, “I could say I’ve been too busy to travel so far before now. ’Tis close enough to the truth, but it is also true that I did not want to tell Ewan how I’d survived. I do mean