He chewed his lip.
“Ye hae noticed it, haena ye? Ye ken that we are doin’ it over — it daena bother ye?”
I turned tae Alexandria. “Hae ye noticed anything, Princess?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I have. This dress fits really well, and I… it’s hard to explain, I think I recognize Uncle Aenghus, I think he was the one who brought me to North Carolina when I was three.”
Max’s gaze went sharp. “What are ye saying?” He looked over at the uncles and back at Alexandria. “Ye are mistaken.”
“I’m not, it’s come to me clearly?—”
“Ye were verra young, how could ye? Twas a long time ago.”
“I recognize him, Max, I can’t explain it. He stole me away and took me to North Carolina.”
He shifted and straightened his coat. “This is a lot tae consider and we hae a battle tae fight. We will need tae discuss this when we return.”
“Ye hae told me this more than once, yet we never make it tae the discussion, m’laird.”
Alexandria said, “You’re still going to go to the battle even though you might have already lost?”
“Every battle is fought with a chance of losin’, sister, and as Uncle Ryan said, many men hae died tae bring us tae this moment. We canna waver, we must meet the fight that awaits us.”
Alexandria said, “I don’t want anyone to die.”
Max said, “Nae one will die, Alexandria, we will win this. If the uncles hae done it over, then they are smarter, they hae learned how tae win.”
He nodded at me, “I will let ye finish saying goodbye, then we meet the men and go.”
I said, “Aye,” and he stalked away.
She said,“You’re still going to go?”
“I must, tis m’duty. Tis his duty, tis yer uncles’ duty. Everyone is doin’ what must be done tae win.”
She raised her brow. “I don’t know, maybe it’s time to do something new.”
“Such as... what?”
“I don’t know, it seems like this battle isn’t winnable if we’ve tried more than once… There’s an old saying, ‘If you only have a hammer, you’ll see every problem as a nail’. The uncles have a good army, willing men, they’re thinking battles — I don’tknow… maybe we just need to kill him with poison or a sword fight.”
“Like a duel?”
“Maybe…”
I smiled. “Ye see me as yer hammer?”
“I guess in a way I do.”
I chuckled. “Twould be risky, ye ken, Princess, tae do things differently. Yer Uncle Ryan has carefully laid out plans.”
She kept her voice low, her lips barely moving. “You think his carefully laid out plans are winning?”
I glanced over at the table. Ryan looked nervous. “He inna winning, he’s losing, I think someone might die.”
“Do you think you should go on this mission again? I have a feeling of foreboding, I don’t want you to go.”
I looked across at the uncles standing with Max. The more I looked, the more I saw. The conspirin’. They werna bein’ truthful about the odds or the plans. “Princess, dost I hae yer permission tae argue with them about the plan?”
