or one of her brothers should more angrily protest the liberties you take with her.”
“The devil fly away with you,” Rothesay snapped. “You’re a damnable nuisance, Fin. The lady is going to walk with me, and no father or brother would be such a dafty as to protest my attentions to her, whatever they may be. I find her beauty soothing to nerves overwrought by our discussions today. But you can say nowt about it in any event after so ruthlessly abandoning me earlier to my fate.”
When Fin’s lips tightened much as Ivor’s did when that gentleman was about to explode, Catriona felt a thrill of anticipation at the base of her spine.
However, he said only, “If I abandoned you, my liege, I did so at your command and that of the Mackintosh, as well you know.”
“God’s blood, man, such talk! Would you defy me then? Do you dare?”
Catriona was watching Fin, but at these words, the thrill of anticipation turned to a frisson of fear. She frowned at him.
If Fin noticed, he gave no hint of it. In fact, he displayed more temerity by looking with disapproval from one of Rothesay’s hands to the other.
Again, she tried to step away from Rothesay. Again, he prevented it. She glanced up at his face, then at Fin’s.
“Prithee, sir,” she said to the latter. “There can be no good cause to—”
“Hush, lass,” Fin said quietly but nonetheless firmly.
She swallowed a burst of anger but wished she could smack them both. It was as if two dogs circled a tasty bone.
Fin said, “By my troth, my lord, I do not want to fratch with you, only to preserve the benefits of your welcome here and the Mackintosh’s goodwill toward your cause. We may forfeit that goodwill if he takes offense at such royal interest in his maiden granddaughter.”
Rothesay looked long and searchingly at him, while Catriona fairly quaked with increasing unease. Then Rothesay’s eyes began to twinkle.
Seeing it, she began to relax until he said, “By heaven, Fin, I see what it is. You’ve taken an interest in the lass yourself!”
Fin stared at Rothesay, stunned, while his imagination sought urgently for something sensible to say that would not be an outright lie.
Catriona was silent, but he had not missed her warning frown earlier. And he doubted that she would welcome a declaration from him even if he had the right to make one. However, if he said that he had no interest in her, he would be lying and Rothesay would try to walk off with her.
Just then Ivor appeared beside them as if a magician had conjured him there and said grimly, “Speak up, Fin. What are your intentions toward her? If you mean to offer for her, I’d have expected you to ask our father’s leave to court her first.”
“Aye, that is true,” James said from Fin’s other side. “I must say, I had no notion of this. Nor did my lady Morag ken aught of it, for she would have told me.”
Fin, having looked from one to the other, now saw that Shaw had noted their gathering and was eyeing them sternly. Certain that he would be upon him next, he turned back to Rothesay, who returned his gaze with a mischievous one of his own.
“Sakes, Fin,” he said. “Have you been keeping this attachment of yours a secret? Because, if you have, I’m thinking that the devil must be in it now.”
Catriona, having kept silent throughout, suddenly sighed, looked right at Rothesay, and smiled ruefully, saying, “You are quite right about that, my lord. As you can plainly see, you have created an unfortunate situation by revealing our secret. But ’tis true, I’m afraid, that Sir Finlagh and I are in love.”
Lowering her lashes next in a way that made Fin want to shake her until they fluttered off her to the ground, she added, “How could I have had enough strength to resist your so-flattering advances, sir, had I not fallen deeply in love with him?”
“How, indeed?” Rothesay said with a merry laugh. “But this is extraordinary! Here, Shaw,” he added when Catriona’s father strode up to them, “I have uncovered a secret for you. Your beautiful daughter and my man Sir Fin of the Battles here want to marry. I think it is a grand idea. Now, what do you say to it?”
Fin held his breath as Shaw looked from one person to another, letting his gaze settle at last on Catriona.