“Kirsten,” Finley gasped and laughed at the same time. “You know we aren’t to go past the bridge. I would never have thought you so bold as to go all that way alone.Again,” she added.
“No one thinks me so bold,” Kirsten said, wiping at her eyes and sniffing. “That’s how I can go and not be missed. Besides, since the treaty, we doona have to keep to this side of the bridge now, do we?” She paused, glancing at Finley. “That was the third time I’ve gone the whole way to the town.”
“You sly lass,” Finley said, hearing the admiration in her voice.
“Oh, doona say it like that,” Kirsten wailed. “I didna do it to be sly, or just to see what mischief I could get away with, like you would, Finley.”
“Och!”
“I love him,” Kirsten went on plaintively. “Ilovehim and I…I think he might love me, too, given the chance. So it’s nae fair!” She lay her head back down in her arms and sobbed.
“There, there,” Finley said, patting Kirsten’s back awkwardly. “Oh, would you stop? Squalling won’t solve anything, and you’re making my head ache.”
“You’re a terrible friend.” The lament was muffled by her arms.
“Just finding that out, are you?” Finley kept patting. “I’ll tell Lachlan what you saw. Maybe he’ll know what’s at the bottom of it; he’s a knack for finding out things that were meant to be hidden.”
Kirsten raised her head. “Really? What things?”
“I’d be here all day if I told you,” Finley said, and then stood up from the chair. She set the pretty, pink shell on the tabletop, and Kirsten stared at it with a pout. “Dand wanted you to have this. If you love him so, I think you’d wish to keep it.”
Kirsten reached out and took the shell in one hand, then ran the fingers of her other along its ruffled edge. “Perhaps if I do wish upon it every night, he’ll be mine.”
Finley rolled her eyes but didn’t disabuse her friend of her fanciful notions. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything.” She turned to go but stopped abruptly. “And Kirsten, stay away from Town Blair unless someone is with you, whether the old boundary applies or nay.”
Kirsten might think herself brave enough to traipse through the woods, but coming face-to-face with real danger would be an entirely different matter. Finley suspected anyplace housing a man such as Harrell Blair was decidedly dangerous.
“I’ll nae promise you anything, Finley Carson. Although I doona truly think you a terrible friend, you know,” Kirsten said in an airy voice, worshipping the pink shell in her palm with her eyes. “Just in case you thought you could be rid of me. We’re friends for life, you and I.”
Finley sighed as she opened the door. “Sure, until I murder you.”
Kirsten gave her an indulgent smile. “I love you, too.”
* * * *
“Murdoch,” Lachlan called out as the older man plodded up the path, his head down, his breeches darkened with water to his knees. “I’d speak to you a moment, if you have the time. I’ve sought you the past several days, but you were nowhere to be found.”
He didn’t look up as he neared. “I was hunting, if it’s aught for you to know. Building another storehouse, are ye?”
Lachlan ignored the taunt and fell in step alongside the Carson chief as Murdoch continued on through the town. “I have questions about the great battle.”
Murdoch gave a dark chuckle. “The great battle, eh? Everyone has questions about the great battle. Yer nae special.”
“Have I offended you?” Lachlan frowned and stopped in the street. “For as much as you argued to gain me for the clan, you seem to resent me being here.”
Murdoch halted and stood a moment facing away from Lachlan. Then he turned and began walking back toward him.
“Aye,some of usdo resent you being here,” he said. “You wedding Rory’s lass has brought us food and grazing and things we can hold in our hand, but it can never bring back what this town lost all those years ago. Seeing you every day is only a reminder.” He stopped nose to nose with Lachlan. “For some of us.”
“That’s what I want to ask y—”
“Who the hell do you think you are, up in the old house, shaming Finley like that? Still fancy yourself chief, do ye, Blair? Living in town nae good enough for you?”
Lachlan huffed a laugh and shook his head. This was not going the way he’d imagined, and he was trying to keep hold of his temper. “I’m shaming Finley? Who thought it was a good idea to have a newlywed couple sharing a bedchamber with the old folks?” Lachlan held up a hand. “Never mind. I’ve no desire to quarrel with you, Mur—”
“Well, beg yer pardon for nae building you a manor to suit, Blair,” Murdoch sneered. “In case you hadn’t noticed, there are a score of empty cottages you could have taken for your use.” He leaned even closer. “Empty for years, because so many of our clan were killed, and most of the ones that survived chose to leave rather than starve to death.”
“You didn’t leave,” Lachlan shot back.
