Slaine could hear from the way Angus spoke that his stories must have kept his children very entertained around the fires every night before bedtime.
“He sounds like a monster,” was all Blair could say.
Angus agreed. “‘Tis no overstatement to say the fellow is as unappetizing a husband as any woman could imagine. He doesnae bathe or wash and stinks as bad as a bridge troll. Why d’ye think I tried to help the poor woman so much?”
Blair had heard enough. “I’m off back upstairs. Follow me when ye’ve finished.” She pushed her plate away and left.
“She’s keen to start packin’, I would imagine,” Angus said, taking another sip of ale. “She must be so happy she can go back to the farm.”
17
Run and Rescue
Slaine entered the parlor and found Blair there, pacing from one side of the room to the other, her fists clenched and lips pressed into an unhappy line.
“We have to go and help that woman. We have to go and rescue her.”
She did not even look at him when she said this, too caught up in her rage to think he would dare disagree with her.
Slaine sat down in the same armchair Angus had used the previous night and stretched his long legs out in front of him with the ankles comfortably crossed.
“Did ye hear what yer faither said, Blair? It’s a well-organized gang with a chief the size of an ogre and with a camp hidden away in the forest outside Cromachy. Why dinnae I stop off at the local laird’s keep on the way out and ask him to look into the business for ye?”
Blair wrung her hands in frustration. “If ye lived around here full time, ye would ken the local lairds in charge of Cromachy and Flichity have undone each other after years and years of clan fighting. Only a few chieftains remain, and they have their hands full trying to hold on to what they have left. Why d’ye think the towns ’round here have descended into lawlessness?”
“I have indeed noticed, lass, but I can promise ye it wilnae be long before a strong leader arises—one who will unite the clans and claim lairdship over all these broken lands. It will happen within the next few years, Blair, I can feel it in me bones.”
As he said this, Slaine was not even aware of how he had gripped the sheathed dagger he always kept by his side. Blair did notice, however, and pounced.
“Y’see! It irks ye to have to bear this lawlessness just as much as it does me. Let’s leave now—together—and go find the woman.”
Slaine shook his head. “Ye must do as yer faither says, and ride home with him in the gig. It would be wrong of me to support ye in doing anything else.”
Blair was desperate and tried every trick she knew to get Slaine to do what she asked.
“Am I to call ye a coward?” she taunted him.
Slaine shrugged. “Ye can call me anything ye like, lass, but it wilnae budge me. Do ye think yer faither would permit me to come wooing ye after I had taken ye off to find a robbers’ lair?”
Blair stopped pacing, “Oh, Slaine, when ye say that, it makes me so happy ye plan on following me back to the farm and asking me faither for me hand in marriage, but—”
Slaine waited for the “but.” With a girl like Blair, there wasalwaysa “but.”
“But I cannae in good conscience go home when that woman is still a captive. What would ye do if it wasmein that camp?”
Slaine clutched his head in his hands in frustration, his fingers grasping his shoulder-length hair. “It’s nae ye in the blasted camp, Blair! It’s some woman ye and I have never met, who has most likely accepted her fate and is facing it with as good grace as possible!”
Angus chose this moment to enter the room. “Ye’ll be pleased to hear I’ve secured a gig and horse to take us back to the farm. We should be there in time for dinner...although if yer mither’s cooking it, we maybe should stop off at the alehouse on the way and grab a bite to eat!”
He turned to Slaine, who was sitting in the armchair with an exasperated expression on his face. “As for ye, young man, I thank ye for the service ye provided for me daughter and yer gallantry for nae taking her up on her offer to share a bedchamber. No harm done. Ye will be most welcome at the farm if yer way ever passes there. Come anytime.”
Angus looked at Blair. “Where’s yer saddlebags? Oh, and hand over the gold ye promised to this man, Daughter. He’s been of great service to us both.”
No one in the room moved.
Father, daughter, and warrior stayed still, as though an icy Highland gale had just frozen them to the spot.
“Blair?” Angus looked from his daughter to Slaine, unsure of what more there was to be said.
