he was limping. “Aunt Agatha, can ye patch our guests up?”
“Oh ho.” Agatha chuckled beside him. “So that is how it is. It’s ’bout time.” She slapped his arm with glee. “I’ll get him all fixed up, dinna ye fash yeself.” Agatha sniggered and held out her hand to Red.
“I’m nae fashed. I—”
“Oh my galaxy! You have purple hair.” Red’s dark auburn brow rose, and a smile curved his lips. At least he no longer looked so shocked. Unfortunately, with his swollen and bruised eye, he now looked demented. Matter of fact, so did Agatha.
She had stars in her eyes as she peered up at Ciaran. She even waggled her eyebrows. “He’s a bonnie one.”
“He’s nae staying.”
“We’ll see about that.”
That did not sound good. It sounded as though his aunt was matchmaking again. “No, we will nae. He’s only here until his people resc….”
She walked past him, not even listening.
Red stepped away from him, right up to Agatha. “Why is your hair purple?”
Louisa joined them, and the three walked off toward the keep. Ian wandered off toward the front gate, probably going up to the tower.
Horace shuffled his hooves and snorted as Ciaran stared after their retreating backs. Was it just him, or had Red seemed eager to get away from him?
He glanced around to ask Angus if he’d noticed it as well, but there was no one about. Ram and Angus had left with their horses and the two horses that Red and Louisa had ridden, leaving Ciaran and Horace in the courtyard all alone.
Turning Horace around, something glimmered on the ground in front of them. Ciaran bent and picked it up. As he opened his hand to look at it, someone clapped a hand around his forearm from behind and started tugging him forward toward the outer bailey.
He nearly dropped his prize and had to make a fist to keep from losing it. “What…?”
“Shh….” Fiona put her finger to her lips and kept dragging him. “Frasier is searching fer ye.”
“And ye just happened tae be here tae save me?” He glanced over his shoulder for the council member, allowing his ward to lead him.
“Nae, I dinna happen tae be here. I’ve been waiting on ye. I was in the stables preparing a surprise fer Ian.” There was a wicked gleam in her eye when she said surprise.
God help him, she and Ian were going to be the death of him. The two were constantly pranking each other. This explained why she wasn’t at the keep to greet him.
She was dressed in a kilt and boots, with her knees clearly on display. What was he going to do with her?
“Where are ye skirts?”
She peered up at him through her lashes with an expression of annoyance and completely ignored his question. “Lachlan and Jane are missing twelve chickens.”
Bluidy hell. First goats, then cattle, and now chickens too. “Twelve? Are ye sure?”
“Aye. ’Tis why Frasier is looking fer ye. All the eggs were gone this morning tae.”
Groaning, Ciaran pondered the news. The day before yesterday, they’d lost six goats, last night it had been an entire herd of cattle, and today chickens and eggs. They could not afford to lose any more food. They were already having a hard time feeding everyone.
The stable door opened as they reached it. “Oh, Ciaran, guid. I’m glad I found ye.” Ram came inside and turned to close the door behind him. “Gavin is looki—Guid God, lass! What are ye wearing?”
Fiona gave him the same look she’d given Ciaran when he’d questioned her clothing.
Ram shook his head and came forward. “Gavin heard that we brought back outsiders, and he’s trying tae call a council meeting.”
Gavin was another one of the council members.
“How did he find out we brought Red and Louisa back with us so soon?” Ciaran asked. He supposed someone at the gate could have told him, but the guardsmen were loyal to him.
“So Red is the name of the pretty little man ye were flirting with?” Fiona asked.
“I was nae flirting with him.”
“That isna what it looked like tae me. Ye kept staring at him, and ye dinna want tae let him go.”
“I was staring because he was injured, and….” Why am I arguing with her? Damn it, he had been staring. Red was pretty, but that didn’t mean he was flirting with him. Ciaran shook his head and ignored her, turning to Ram instead. “How did Gavin find out this fast? Isna it past his bedtime? He must be what, eighty?”
“I think