not brought the host of servants one usually expected with visiting royalty.
Each nobleman had a manservant. But they looked after only their masters and expected castle servants or womenfolk to attend to anything akin to menial labor. Thus it was that she and Morag were in the kitchen, aiding the cook’s minions with preparations for the midday meal.
The two barely had enough time when they finished to run upstairs and change their gowns, but Ailvie was waiting for Catriona, so the change took little time. After a final look at herself in the glass, she hurried back downstairs, slowing only as she approached the landing between her parents’ room and Fin’s.
She told herself that she was just protecting her dignity and did not want to risk running full tilt into one parent or another on the landing. If her gaze lingered on the closed door of Fin’s room instead of on the one opposite, no voice, including the self-critical one in her head, spoke up to chide her.
Entering the hall to see that people were still gathering at the lower tables and on the dais, she paused now and again to speak to those who greeted her. When she stepped onto the dais, her gaze collided with Fin’s, and something in the way he looked at her warmed her through.
Movement to his right drew her notice to Rothesay, Shaw, and her grandfather as they emerged from the inner chamber with Alex Stewart and Donald of the Isles.
Rothesay caught her eye then, and if Fin’s expression had been warm, his was searing. Aware that she was blushing and that her grandfather or Shaw would notice if she lingered where she stood, she moved hastily to the women’s end of the table and took the place that a smiling Morag had left for her beside Ealga.
As soon as Donald’s real mendicant monk had muttered the grace and everyone had sat down, Catriona said to her mother, “Do you ken aught of what happened this morning, Mam?”
“I do not,” Ealga said. “You know that your father rarely confides his business to me. And you know, too, that when he does, I do not talk about it after.”
From Catriona’s right, Morag said, “James did tell me that he thinks they will talk long before they find consensus. There are issues, he said, which seem to stir much disagreement and men amidst them who seem to encourage it.”
“God-a-mercy, James told you all that?” Glancing at her mother to see that Ealga had turned to talk with Lady Annis, Catriona said, “What else did he say?”
Morag looked self-conscious. “I should not tell you. But I did want you to know that… that he will not be revealing our confidences to you anymore. And I must warn you that I told him what you said about him being an ass. I expect that was as bad as his telling you what I had said and what he had said to me, but—”
A gurgle of laughter welled in Catriona’s throat, and some of it escaped as she said, “You may repeat whatever I say if it will help bring James to his senses.”
Morag looked relieved, but she said, “Sithee, I think he was irritated, so he may scold you. And when James scolds one, it is most unpleasant, believe me.”
Catriona stared at her. “Good sakes, do you mean to say that he is brutal to you? ’Tis hard for me to believe that.”
“James is not brutal, but I do not like him to be angry with me.”
Catriona bit her lower lip and then decided to say what she was thinking. “Look here, Morag, have you ever seen Ivor in a temper?”
“Nay, I am thankful to say that I have not. I have heard others say that he does naught to restrain himself but flies into a fury.”
“I can be much the same way,” Catriona admitted. “But, by my troth, Morag, compared to either of us in a temper, James is… is most temperate.”
Morag did not look convinced. But for once, she did not fall silent. Instead, she continued to talk affably with Catriona.
When everyone had finished eating, Mackintosh asked Morag to take up her lute, and Catriona excused herself, saying that she had promised to look in on the kitchen. But as she stepped off the dais, Rothesay approached her, moving with near feline grace, his long strides covering ground with deceptive haste.
When he could speak without raising his voice, he said, “Prithee, lass, say that you are