Jamie’s curiosity got the better of him as they walked. “Do ye ken what message ye carry?”
“Aye,” Will answered, stepping through the doorway into the Aerie’s Great Hall. “’Tis about his daughter, Caitrin.”
Jamie exchanged a glance with Toran while they led their guest toward the hearth.Caitrin!A memory flashed before his eyes. Caitrin, coltish and beautiful, not long before she was sent away, while she laughed at something Toran said. But Jamie recalled her gaze moved quickly to him, and he’d never forgotten the flash ofneedhe’d experienced. The need he’d never been able to satisfy.
He held onto his composure and nodded to their guest. “The dinner hour has passed, but I’ll send to the kitchen and see something is brought out to ye,” he offered, taking a step back to allow the Fletcher ghillie to deliver his message to the Lathan. His wave got the attention of a serving girl.
“I’ll no’ refuse yer kindness,” Will said with a sigh as he finished warming his hands at the hearth. He pulled a rolled-up vellum from his shirt and handed it to Toran. “I’m to say to ye that the Fletcher would be most pleased to receive a swift reply or action, since he is bound away from his keep within a hand of days.”
Toran nodded. “Ye’ll stay the night and return on the morrow with my answer, if one is required.”
The man dipped his head in thanks and took the seat Toran pointed to. In a moment, a serving girl brought a platter piled high with sliced meat, cheese, and bread.
After Toran gave the girl orders to see a bed prepared for their guest, he took his leave, gesturing for Jamie to accompany him. On the way upstairs, Toran ordered one of his men to stay with the Fletcher ghillie and see to his comfort and security.
“I’m all for providing guest-right,” Toran told Jamie, as they made their way down the hall, “but I willna have a stranger moving about the Aerie unescorted.”
In the solar, they settled by the hearth with a dram of the best MacKyrie whisky, a gift from Donal McNabb’s new bride. Toran broke the seal on the velum.
Jamie sipped and stared at the fire, watching out of the corner of his eye as Toran read the Fletcher’s request and frowned.
Finally, Toran dropped the letter into his lap and leaned his head against the high back of his chair.
“Well?” Jamie kept his tone even, despite the chill that had washed over him as the mention of Caitrin Fletcher’s name brought back memories he’d thought long suppressed. A chill even the whisky had yet to warm away. Those had been terrible days. What had happened to her now that the Fletcher would need to involve the Lathan?
Toran didn’t leave him guessing for long. “Our friend and ally requests I lend the prestige of the Lathan name and presence to secure the betrothal of his only and cherished daughter, Caitrin Olivia Fletcher, to the MacGregor.”
Jamie’s heart sank at the news even as he blew out a relieved breath that she must be well. He’d been right not to seek her out in the years since the tragedy that took her from him. But the news that she was about to marry saddened him, though he had no claim on her. He’d never had a chance, and thought he’d accepted her loss. Now this. Would he steal her from her intended if he had the chance?
“The MacGregor?” He’d known a MacGregor at St. Andrews. “The Lathan nameandpresence?” He set his drink aside, a crease deepening between his eyebrows. “Why would he think he needs ye there to convince the MacGregor to marry Caitrin? Wait. Olivia?” The name ‘Olivia’ didn’t fit the tomboy lass Jamie remembered.
Toran cleared his throat. “In a nutshell, aye. There’s more, of course.”
Jamie’s lips quirked. “Of course.”
“He’s leaving early to begin the negotiation with the MacGregor in person. He doesna want to bring Caitrin with him and put her at risk, unless he kens she’ll be honored and safe in the MacGregor’s keep.” Toran huffed out a sigh and tapped his knee with his free hand.
Jamie straightened, trying to recall his days at university. “The auld MacGregor died at Flodden, aye? Who is laird now?”
“Alasdair MacGregor.”
Jamie thought for a moment, then the face came to him. “I kent him in school. That’s no’ a good worry to have. But it doesna sound like the lad I met at St. Andrews. Is it justified?”
“I havena dealt with MacGregor. No’ yet.”
Jamie frowned, not liking the implication of Toran’s half-answer. What did he know?
“Fletcher isna much to regard. His holding is small, so he canna call on many men to fight for him, though he lost very few at Flodden. But we must avoid making an enemy of him,” Toran warned. “Caitrin’s to be the final enticement to Fletcher’s ambitions, it seems, along with the prestige and presence of the Lathan laird, and MacGregor’s approval of the lass.” He read from the document on his knee. “Fletcher recalls our fondness for her as a child and promises she has bloomed most handsomely into her maturity, a woman any man would be proud to call wife.”
“What the hell does he mean?” Jamie shook his head. “She’s three years younger than we are. That’s no’ too old to wed.”
“He makes it sound as though she fell from a horse onto her face.” Toran gave a quick grin and then shrugged. “Which, recalling our Caitrin, is quite possible. We spent five years trying to keep her out of trouble.”
Jamie snorted. “No’ the Caitrin I remember,” he objected. It came to him then that Toran had even prevailed on Jamie’s older sister to keep her occupied, but sadly, she’d had little use for a lass five years her junior. Perhaps if she had, things would have ended differently. Jamie shook his head at the memory and returned his attention to Toran. “She was all knees and elbows by the time she left us, aye, but she was pretty enough for a lass of fourteen summers.”
“So ye did have a yen for her. I thought so, even then. Ye canna deny it.”
“Ye’re daft.” Jamie hid his annoyance at Toran’s allegation by picking up his cup and studying the liquid left in it. Toran was right, of course. Jamie had admired Caitrin’s spirit and never objected to her company, even welcoming it as she grew. Much to Toran’s dismay. Jamie had never been sure if Toran thought of her as a pesky younger sister or if he’d suspected she was sweet on him and didn’t want to encourage her.Thatpossibility was something they’d never discusssed.
