The bags of feed could be in one area and stacked neatly, perhaps according to the date purchased. The tack could use some polishing—Eachann wasn’t good with those kinds of details—and Calum could hang proper-sized hooks for bridles and halters that were in easy reach, aligned and placed in the order of frequency of use.
“If you touch my stable I’ll blacken your eye. I know you, Calum.” Eachann faced him. “The first thing you’d do is board the horses in their stalls by name. Alphabetically. Then you’d plan a feeding, training, and breeding schedule. Next you’d probably make one of those blasted charts for the organized placement of all the tackle and gear.”
Eachann was right. Calum had just been plotting his chart. But he would be damned if he would admit it. Organizing Eachann’s stable was a frequent fantasy of Calum’s, mostly out of a notion of self-defense. The last time he was there, he had walked around a corner and tripped over the handle of a muck shovel.
Eachann eyed him for a moment. “Wipe that scowl off your face, brother. You’ve lost your sense of humor. You never used to be so blasted bedeviled about everything.”
“I like my life calm and organized.”
“Aye. Boring.”
“I like my boring life. And you’d be getting piss-tired if those women were turned loose on you. Every time I turn around someone is sticking some woman under my nose.”
Eachann began walking again, but not before Calum heard him mutter just how he’d like to have that black-haired she-devil under more than just his nose.
He’d like to plant his fist under Eachann’s nose. He took a few more steps. The only place Calum wanted those women was off of his island. Now.
After a few minutes of walking in and out of the perimeter of the cove, Eachann said, “You do have to admit the lass I brought you is better-looking than any woman Fergus ever found. She’s a pretty little thing, even if she does cry too much.”
“She didn’t cry,” Calum said. His tone was defensive. Where did that come from? He ground to a stop, frowning and suddenly uncomfortable.
But try as he might, he couldn’t make himself angry at her. When he thought of her image, he remembered what he’d seen in her eyes, a look that struck him where he was most vulnerable. She needed saving.
Calum glanced up. He’d lost Eachann to the mist again. “Slow down, dammit! I can’t find you in this fog.”
“I’m over here,” Eachann called out.
Calum strode toward his brother’s voice and grumbled, “I still can’t believe you resorted to kidnapping.”
“It’s in the blood. You know as well as I do that many a MacLachlan has helped himself to a bride.”
“That was two hundred years ago. In Scotland.”
Eachann shrugged. “I did it for your own good.”
“My good?” Even Calum had to laugh at that lie. “Oh, I see. Right now there are two women wandering this island because you were only thinking of me?”
Eachann didn’t respond, which meant Calum was right and his brother was too stubborn to agree.
Calum bent down and held the lantern close to the sand. He scanned the ground but still saw no footprints, just the skinny three-pronged impressions of seagulls and sandpipers and the smooth polished rocks tossed up by the sea. He was beginning to think their search here was futile. He straightened and faced Eachann. “I think we should split up.”
“Fine. You go in the opposite direction I am.”
Calum turned to walk the other way and ground to a halt. The opposite direction was the sea.
He spun back and caught up with Eachann who was smirking. “You can go straight to hell. You think this is all a joke. Their families are probably ready to storm the island and hang us by our necks... or something worse.”
“Aye, and the gravestone could read: ‘Here lie the brothers MacLachlan. They were well-hung.’ “
“Is nothing serious to you?”
“They have no families, Calum.”
“How do you know?”
“George volunteered the information.” There was a note of amusement in Eachann’s voice, as if he was the only one who knew the joke. He glanced at Calum and added, “Don’t worry. I asked a friendly little red-haired maid about your lass.”
Calum thought about that. “If you took the time to ask about their families then that means you had this planned.”
