“The way Dand Blair couldn’t drag himself from her at the wedding feast, there may be reason for high spirits.”
“Well, I hope she’s not too disappointed when she finds out someone else at Town Blair has already set her cap for the wee Brother Blair,” Finley said and stood from the chair, tossing the handful of parsley in the pot and choosing a basket from a hook. “I’ll go see if there’s barley for the stew.”
“See if there’s a better attitude for you while you’re there,” Ina said with a roll of her eyes.
“I like my attitude just fine, Mam,” Finley said with a grin and a lift of her chin and then strolled through the door.
“Sure, and you’re the only one who does!” Ina called after her.
Finley kept her smile as she walked down the narrow path toward the village. She thought she could say with some certainty that Lachlan Blair didn’t mind her attitude at all; he was the only one in all the town to not find her useless. But poor Kirsten was a fool if she thought Dand Blair’s clan would allow him to pay any mind at all to a meek little Carson girl without two sheep to butt heads, now that Dand was in line to be chief. Finley was quite sure the Blairs would hold the opinion that they had lost just about enough of late to the little town on the bay that had caused them so much trouble.
She paused at the rise in the path as she spotted the handful of men entering the town from the direction of the bridge path. There was no way Kirsten had just happened to see them return. She’d had to follow the grazing party all the way to the Blairs’ with hope of catching sight of Dand, and then run all the way back to town ahead of them. It explained why she had been so frightfully breathless.
There was her father, Rory, and Murdoch Carson; the flame-haired Dand and Lachlan. The Blair was taller and wider than his companions, his shawl hanging long and billowing behind him like some Roman conqueror of old.
He was the handsomest man Finley had seen in all her life. Even more handsome than that English knight who’d happened upon her at the bridge. Handsomer by at least half.
She shook herself with a private, outraged frown at her disloyalty. Sure he was handsome and braw; the men of Carson Town would be the same if they’d been raised with such plenty. Finley had no business admiring him for what was clearly none of his doing, and was perhaps a result of Carson misfortune. He was probably only a pretty, pampered dunderhead with delusions of being chief and he hadn’t been here long enough for it to show. He’d fallen right off his own horse not even going at a trot, hadn’t he? Likely his morbid suspicions were bollocks, and he’d reveal himself a lunatic creating delusions of people conspiring against him: his grandfather, his betrothed, his own brother, perhaps. Then where would Finley be when it all fell apart?
“Humiliated,” she answered herself aloud. “And married to an idiot. Just as I feared.”
She must help him succeed, then, and quit thinking of him in terms of “handsome” or “braw.” So what that he didn’t wish to remain married to her? The sooner he was gone, the better for them all.
Finley turned on her heel and strode in the opposite direction, trying to summon to her mind any image at all that wasn’t Lachlan Blair without his shirt.
* * * *
Lachlan and Dand parted from the elders on the path, and Lachlan led his foster brother toward the wide, sandy delta where the Keltie slid into the bay. Dand began stooping almost at once to pick up bright shells and smooth pebbles tumbled into glassy spheres, but Lachlan didn’t waste any time once they were out of earshot of anyone from the town.
“Who sent you?” he demanded of the younger man, standing on the other side of a long, twisted trunk of driftwood, letting there be a physical barrier between them to mimic the one Lachlan felt in his heart.
Dand didn’t hesitate in flinging one of the rocks in his hand at Lachlan’s head; it would have taken his right eye had he not dodged it.
“What are you arsing about?” he demanded. “I come all the way down here to see that the Carson lass hasna parted your big head from your shoulders and you accuse me of spying?”
Lachlan felt a twinge of remorse, but not enough to extinguish the surprising pain his brother’s presence had brought to him.
“Was it Marcas? Harrell?” He raised his eyebrows pointedly. “Searrach?”
Dand’s ears reddened and he turned away to look out over the rippling water, skipping the remaining stones into the breakers, one after the other. Lachlan heard the answer in the crashing waves before Dand could bring himself to reply.
“Nae one knows I’ve come,” he said.
Lachlan, too, turned his gaze to the bay. Somehow, the idea that no one had sent Dand was worse. “I can handle Finley Carson just fine,” he said. “Obviously, nobody at Town Blair would raise a finger to help me even if the Carsons decided to draw and quarter me on the green, thanks to Thomas Annesley.”
“That’s nae true,” Dand scoffed. “The Carsons doona have a green now, do they?” Lachlan didn’t take the jovial bait and so Dand continued. “Da misses you, as I do. You know he couldna go against the chief’s wishes. Had you been in his place, you’d hae done the same.”
Lachlan was shaking his head before Dand had finished speaking. “Nay.” He turned to look at his brother. “I would never have supported stripping my son of his birthright through no fault of his own.”
Dand’s clear eyes held no bitterness when he answered. “I’m his son as well, Lach. Da did the best he could by you. The fine—”
“Marcasisthe fine now.” Lachlan looked back over the water. “He knew I should have taken Archibald’s place the morning he died.”
“If he had let you do that, the other elders would have run you out of the town, and well you know it. You would never have been allowed back. Ever. Maybe Da as well. Maybe me.”
Lachlan sighed. “Damn me. Forget I said anything. None of this is your fault. I was wishing for your company just yesterday, and now here you are and I’m arsing it up, just like you said. Ow!” He flinched at the pebble that bounced off the side of his skull with a distinctcrack. He brought up his hand to rub at his head as he looked at the grinning younger man. “That’ll leave a lump.”
“You’ll nae be able to ken it from the others,” Dand said, and Lachlan knew he was forgiven, although he still felt the idiot.
