doot that your lady will want a bath after her long ride. But unless ye’ve forgotten how to swim since ye left home, ye’ll make do with a dip in the loch. If I’m wroth with ye, Fin, ’tis not for marrying. But ye do deserve my anger, do ye not?”
Fin could not deny that, and Ewan’s tone had changed enough to tell him that he’d better tread lightly for a time and remember that Ewan was not just his brother but also a chieftain of their clan with rights of punishment. Accordingly, Fin said, “A swim is just what I’d like if you will let me see my lady wife settled first.”
“Aye, sure,” Ewan said, smiling at Catriona. “Did I understand him to say that ye be a Mackintosh, my lady?”
“You did, sir, aye. My grandfather is the Mackintosh.”
“Himself, eh? Well, ’tis grand to make your acquaintance. I wish ye happy in your marriage and bid ye welcome to our family.”
With a smile, she thanked him and turned to Fin. “We are to use the inner chamber, sir. Shall we go in?”
Glancing back across the loch to see Ian and Toby helping Ailvie into another boat that was doubtless already carrying their baggage, he agreed.
“Don’t be long, Fin,” Ewan said. “I ken a good place for swimming a few steps from this landing. I’ll await ye here.”
Agreeing, Fin escorted Catriona inside, where she introduced him to her grandfather’s steward and issued orders for a bath. She also asked that he delay serving supper until they had had time to get settled.
That done, she took Fin to the inner chamber. The bed there, he saw with approval, was much larger than Catriona’s was.
“Is your brother angry with you?” she asked when he had shut the door.
“He is glad to see me,” Fin said, looking around and noting the cheerful fire that leaped in the fireplace and the basket of extra wood. “But he does have cause to be wroth with me for not telling him where I’ve been and what I have been doing.”
“Will you tell him everything? Even the bits you have not yet told me?”
“I will answer his questions honestly,” he said. “As to what more I’ll say, I must first see how our talk progresses. For now, though, I ken fine that you and Ailvie can see to stowing what we brought with us and to your bath as well. But one day soon, I’d like to assist you with that latter task myself.”
“We’ll just have to see about that, too, won’t we?” she said, dimpling.
“Don’t tempt me, lass. I must talk with Ewan, but I will try not to fratch with him. Our supper will be more pleasant so, as will its aftermath.”
Hearing footsteps approach the door and pause there, he kissed her quickly and turned away as Ailvie entered, carrying a sumpter basket.
Informing Ailvie that the steward was ordering water and a tub, Catriona watched Fin walk away across the great hall and wished that she might be a fly on a nearby rock to hear his conversation with his brother.
Not to have told his family that he had survived the great clan battle at Perth must, she feared, be a choice that such a brother would not easily forgive.
She did not have to strain her mind to imagine how she would feel had Ivor or James done such a thing. She would want to see the offender smarting, at least.
Fin and Ewan seemed more alike than her brothers did. Ewan looked seven or eight years older than Fin and a stone or so heavier. Both had powerful bodies, dark hair with auburn highlights in the sun, and gray eyes. But Fin’s eyes were lighter, his body lither, and his movements more graceful.
She had detected signs of a temperament similar to his in Ewan, however.
“Your grandame did say that I should root through her things to find aught that ye’d need,” Ailvie said as she shut the door, recalling Catriona’s attention.
The maidservant bustled about then, finding places for the sumpter baskets and seeking French soap and towels for Catriona’s bath.
“I want to wash my hair,” she said. “We can brush it dry here by the fire.”
“Ye’ll be glad to put up your feet after this long day,” Ailvie said. “I’m still wondering about them Comyns, though. Did ye no think they submitted too quick?”
“Quick or not, they had to submit,” Catriona said, dismissing her own earlier concerns. “Our boatmen were nearby, and the men on