Patrick. All these years I sensed some great loss within them, something dark. I ken they’d suffered loss, but I dinna ken what it was. Now I do. Ye have tae tell them. They deserve tae ken.”
“I know and I will. I just have to find the right time. Maybe I’ll tell them tonight when I ask Marcus about making a signal for the shuttle.”
Ciaran held his hand out.
Bannon took it, staring at their hands. They were so different. Ciaran’s were callused, Bannon’s were not, yet they were both filthy from hard work today.
“I’ll stand with whatever ye decide as long as ye tell them.”
“You will?” His voice climbed in pitch on the word will, but Bannon couldn’t help the surprise. Had anyone ever agreed to let him do things how he thought best?
“Aye.” Ciaran’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “What is a flare?” Ciaran had no doubt about the plan, no telling Bannon he was a baconbrain—just a simple question.
The complete trust made Bannon want to kiss him again, and he was just about to do that when a feminine gasp interrupted him.
He stepped back to make an excuse and tell Louie to get over herself with the whole chaperone thing, but it wasn’t Louie.
Maggie stood outside the gate with a look of awe on her face, but she wasn’t looking at them. She was glancing around the garden. “Ye both did this?”
“Aye,” Ciaran answered.
Bannon nodded. He had to admit, the garden did look good. It had taken most of the morning, but they’d put it back to rights, repairing what they could, harvesting what they couldn’t fix, and keeping the seeds and cuttings that were salvageable.
She touched the base of her throat and shook her head, coming closer. She stopped just on the other side of the fence from them and rested her aging hands on top of it. “I canna believe this.” She turned to Ciaran. “And ye did it yeself. Dinna ye ken it’s below a laird tae mess in the garden? ’Tis woman’s work.”
“I’m nae like other lairds. Besides, this was my fault.”
“Nae, ye are nae like other lairds.” A slight grin appeared, then just as quickly disappeared. “As tae it being ye fault….” She shrugged. “Ye aunt says differently.”
“Did she now?”
“Aye.” Maggie gave a brief nod. “Matter of fact, she had a lot tae say tae me.”
Bannon could imagine. Agatha was very protective of Ciaran. “It isn’t woman’s work.”
Maggie and Ciaran looked at him.
“On my planet men and women work the fields.”
For the first time, she met Bannon’s gaze, and she stared at him for several seconds as if assessing him. Then she asked, “Why did ye help?”
He shrugged. “Because it needed to be done, and….” He glanced at Ciaran. A brilliant idea came to him. He should probably ask beforehand, but the woman wasn’t yelling, and she was one of the council that was after Ciaran about food, so he decided to take the chance. “We were wondering if you could help make a bigger garden in the castle courtyard. It might not help with the food shortage immediately, but it would help.”
Maggie’s head swiveled around to Ciaran.
Wincing, Bannon watched and waited for Ciaran to tell him he was overstepping himself, but Ciaran smiled at him and nodded. To Maggie, he said, “I dinna ken anyone who kens as much about gardening as ye. If I’m going tae replenish our food and take care of our clan, I’m gonna need help. I can protect all of ye, and I can hunt, but I dinna ken about gardens and keeping livestock.”
Blinking at him, Maggie put her hands on her hips. “Well now, I think it might work. It will be a first, far as I ken, but it might work. With the loss of so many men, the tenants arenae giving us as many goods. They can barely harvest their own gardens and tend their own flocks. Three goats were stolen last night.”
“Zooks. First the cattle, then the chickens and eggs, and now goats?” Bannon looked at Ciaran, who nodded. They really needed to do something about guarding their livestock. “With the fraggers, you can train the women, and they can help guard livestock too,” Bannon offered.
Ciaran thought about it for a moment and nodded. “It’s a guid idea.” To Maggie, he said, “I’ll get our meat, and I’ll get some women trained tae help watch over that meat.”
One side of her lips turned up just a smidgen. It wasn’t really a smile by normal