“Or ye’ll slaughter and eat him.”
“I told you, I’ll protect him.”
“Ye swear?”
“On my honor.”
“But for how long?”
He didn’t know how to answer that.“It grows late.Let’s chat on the way,” he said, nodding down the trail.
“He’ll need food,” she said, coiling her hand in the coo’s fur to guide him along the path while Hew followed.“The grass at the monastery is nigh gone.So ye’ll have to purchase hay.”
Hew frowned.Purchase hay?Already this was sounding like far more responsibility than he’d anticipated.Not to mention that what went in came out.The abbot certainly wouldn’t put up with a cloister covered in coo shairn.
“I’ll send ye coin for the hay, o’ course,” she assured him.“I can’t imagine ye brought much if ye’re staying at the monastery.”
He grunted.
“Whyareye staying at a monastery?”she asked.
He wasn’t at liberty to say.He’d promised to keep the monastery thefts secret.Instead he told her the first thing that popped into his head.“I’m thinking of…of taking my vows.”
She coughed.Or choked.Or laughed.He wasn’t sure which.
After a long and uncomfortable silence, she finally replied, “Ye should probably tell my father about your vows then.He’s invited ye for Samhain supper, and I fear he has hopes ye will offer to court me.”
Hew suddenly regretted his pathetic lie.On the other hand, he supposed the lie would help him keep his vow of chastity.Besides, it was too late to repair the damage.
They traveled in silence after that, focusing on the dimly lit path.
By the time they descended and emerged upon the field again, the Boyle brothers could be seen snoring away on the hillside, surrounded by the cattle.
By the time they reached the woods at the entrance of Dunlop, Hew figured the visitor had already departed and returned to the monastery.
He nodded toward the castle, whispering, “How will you get back in?”
“I can steal past the guard.”
“He must not be a very good guard.”
“I may have spilled aqua vitae into his beer earlier,” she confessed.
He raised a brow.The lass’s lovely and innocent face clearly concealed a devious mind.
But she instantly turned back into a supplicant angel with guileless eyes, beseeching him, “Pray take good care o’ Hamish.”
He could no more refuse her than he could turn down a challenge to battle.“I will.”
She gave the beast a final squeeze of farewell.Then she glanced at Hew.He wondered if she meant to give him a hug goodbye as well.
But she only nodded.“On the morrow, I’ll send someone to the monastery with coin for his hay.”
Then she whirled away.
“Come along then, Hamish,” Hew said, threading his fingers through the coo’s shaggy hair to guide him down the road.
Each step away from Dunlop was fraught with more misgiving.
