royal gallows. Forbye, though, I reckon Albany would save my hide and reward me for the bloodletting.”
“Perhaps,” Fin said, unamused.
“You don’t approve of such talk, I know. But royal or not, Davy Stewart is two years younger than we are, and his behavior would try the patience of Job.”
“I don’t approve of his behavior,” Fin said. “But he is not stupid. He will do nowt to offend the Mackintosh whilst he has need of him.”
“Perhaps, but I shan’t have to endure what goes on in that meeting this afternoon. Father asked me to supervise the peat cutting instead.”
Fin raised his eyebrows. “Punishment?”
“Nay.” Ivor chuckled. “The bogs are dry enough now to resist swallowing the men who cut the peat and stack it. Cart ponies can finally find good footing, too. And James wants to arrange for his journey to Inverness and his packing. Sithee, my father always likes one of us to be at hand because trouble may occur.”
“The Comyns?”
“They do help themselves to peat that someone else cuts, aye, whenever they can. But they are not alone in that habit,” Ivor added. “We’ll set a guard on our stacks when men on the road can see them. As the peat dries, we’ll cart it up here.”
“Where are these bogs?”
“Near the river,” Ivor said. “Why, do you want to come with me?”
“Just curious, and wishful. Rothesay wants me to sit in the meetings. But so far, he has not asked what I think of it all, which is just as well.”
“Aye, but that may change,” Ivor said. “My da told me that Donald is irked with the lack of progress. That he has contributed to it does not faze him, of course. In any event, I’d rather be playing in the mud with our peat cutters.”
Fin smiled. Ivor’s afternoon did sound more interesting than his would be.
Catriona had feared that she would spend the afternoon listening to Morag exchange commonplaces with the ladies Ealga and Annis. But her mood changed when Tadhg brought Lady Ealga word that Sir Ivor would be out all afternoon.
“Master James will be about though, m’lady, should ye ha’ need o’ him, and me, too. I’m tae run up and down to fetch and carry for him whilst he’s packing.”
“Where is Sir Ivor going, Tadhg?” Catriona asked.
“Only tae see tae the peat cutting, m’lady.”
“Prithee, may I go with him, Mam?” she asked Ealga.
“If you can catch him before he leaves the island and if he will allow it, aye.”
Praying that Ivor’s annoyance with her had abated and taking no time to fetch her cloak, Catriona caught up her skirts and ran down to the yard.
Ivor stood near the gateway, talking with Aodán.
Hurrying toward them, she smiled at her brother, saying, “Mam said that I might go with you, sir.”
Dismissing Aodán with a gesture, Ivor waited until the man-at-arms had walked some distance away before he spoke, thus warning her before he said, “I don’t think so, Cat. Not today.”
“I would like to go. I have not been off the island for days.”
“Then consider it a penance for your behavior earlier. Now, I must go.”
About to argue, she stopped herself, knowing that it would be useless and just as useless to try to explain that she had not purposely been flirting with Rothesay but could not just tell him to go away. Ivor might agree with the last part but would insist, as her father had, that she ought not to have stepped into Rothesay’s path in the first place. She had not thought that she had done so, but that argument would fare no better with Ivor.
Going back inside, she found the stairway empty until she passed the hall. Then, rounding a curve, she nearly bumped into Fin, coming down.
“You should clomp more on these stairs,” she said in a tone that sounded surly to her own ears. More politely, she added, “I vow, you move on cat’s paws.”
“And, for all the heed you were paying, I might have been anyone, my lady,” he said, giving her a look of such intensity that she could feel it to her core.
That look, plus the formality with which he had addressed her, made her lift her chin higher as she said, “Are you vexed with me, too, sir?”
“Who else is vexed with you?”
She straightened, collecting herself before she said, “Ivor, of course. You were with him. You must know that Rothesay’s flirting vexed him sorely.”
“ ‘Vexed’ is not the word I’d have chosen,” he said. “But I did