“Come, let’s go to the tavern in the village where we can talk,” Alexander said.
They left Curan grazing outside the priory wall and walked along the river to the tiny village that consisted of a handful of cottages and the tavern. Several small boats rested upside down along the bank.
The tavern had a dank, musky smell from the river and nearby firth. They sat in a dim corner, where they were served ale by the surly tavern keeper in cups that Sybil doubted were clean.
“Any more troubles with the bishop over your wife?” Rory asked once they were settled.
Sybil thought she must have heard wrong.
“No trouble at all, thanks to you,” Alexander said, raising his cup.
“Ye have a wife?” Sybil blurted out.
“Aye, and two pretty babes,” he said. “My wife is near her time with our third.”
Rory smiled when he saw the shock on her face. “We’ve too few priests in the Highlands to cast a good one aside for a wee infraction.”
A wee infraction?And they wondered why Lowlanders called them heathens? Sybil quit worrying about the cleanliness of the cup and took a big gulp of her ale.
“God wouldn’t be so unreasonable as to expect a Highlander to be celibate,” Alex said, and jabbed his elbow into his brother’s side. “Especially a MacKenzie, aye?”
One of Sybil’s uncles was a bishop and another an abbot, and they both had mistresses. She supposed having a wife was no worse and certainly more honest.
“Ach, the new bishop is a sour man,” Alex said. “He fails to see that women are God’s gift to men.”
“He says lasses are the devil’s tool,” Rory said, giving Sybil a wink.
“He threatened to have me defrocked if I didn’t put my wife and our two wee babes out.” Alex put his hand on Rory’s shoulder. “Until my brother here persuaded him to turn a blind eye to my marriage.”
“I did nothing,” Rory said. “I simply accompanied ye when ye went to discuss the matter with him.”
“My big brother has quite a reputation as a warrior,” Alex said. “If ye don’t know it, he can look rather fierce when he puts his mind to it.”
“I’ve seen that look,” Sybil said.
“I tell ye, he frightened the piss out of my bishop,” Alex said.
“I believe the sword showing beneath your robes caught the bishop’s notice as well,” Rory said.
Sybil downed the rest of her ale while the two men had a laugh reliving how they had terrorized the bishop.
“We must speak of serious matters now.” Rory spoke in a low voice and motioned for Alex to lean closer. “Even here, Hector may have spies.”
Sybil realized now that the backslapping and laughs had been for the benefit of the few other men in the tavern, who by now had drifted back to their own conversations. Alex listened intently while Rory told him what happened at Eilean Donan and what Malcolm had shared about Brian.
“The news of our brother’s death reached me through church channels just two days ago,” Alex said. “I’m told that the men carrying his body were injured and had to stop at a monastery to recuperate.”
“Malcolm said Brian was headed to Killin before he left for Edinburgh,” Rory said. “He was looking for me.”
“He didn’t stop to see me,” Alex said, shaking his head. “And I haven’t spoken with Catriona in a few weeks.”
“We’re on our way to Killin now,” Rory said. “Hopefully Catriona knows what he was so desperate to tell me.”
“I expect Brian just wanted to make peace with ye,” Alex said. “He always hated to have ye cross with him.”
“I regret how often that was.” Rory pressed his lips together. “There had to be more to it than that for him to ride the length and breadth of MacKenzie lands looking for me.”
“His reason for traveling to Edinburgh is equally mysterious,” Alex said.
