“Ye make me proud, lads, that ye take her safety so seriously. I do, too.”
“Ye care about more than her safety, Stellan,” Erik said.
“Ye kenned?” Stellan’s mouth fell open, eliciting a laugh from the others. He shrugged, then grinned. “I shouldha guessed. Ye’ve been careful no’ to call me by either name. Thank ye.”
“We’re with ye, no matter when or why we stay or go,” Camus told him. “Ye ken that."
“I do, and I’m grateful. Naught is decided, but I hope Mariota will go with us.”
They broke out in cheers that fell silent as Stellan waved them off.
“We kenned there was something between ye,” Elias said, and rolled his eyes, then turned his wide-eyed gaze on Gregor, making the others laugh.
Stellan did, too. He couldn’t help it. He had chosen these men purposefully, some of the best warriors at Sutherland, but some of its best men, too. “Ye must no’ breathe a word,” he cautioned. “No’ even to discuss anything we say here now among yerselves lest ye be overheard. Dinna tell a soul, I dinna care how deep in yer cups ye are. Just prepare for any eventuality. Alber is still a threat. Stay sharp.”
At that moment, he heard the scrape of a boot on the plank flooring outside the door. Signaling for quiet, he stood, rushed to the door and flung it open.
No one was there. Had he imagined the sound? He looked down the hall toward the stairs in time to see Alber’s shoulders and head disappear down them. Nay!
Was he off to tell the MacKay? Or to hole up and think how to use what he heard against the Sutherlands? Stellan considered chasing him, even took a step out into the hall toward the stairs, but he knew it was too late. Alber could have gone in several directions from the great hall. Stellan closed the door and turned back to his men. “I am discovered,” he told them. “Alber was out there.”
The men jumped to their feet, ready to give chase, but Stellan gestured for them to sit back down. “He may have heard naught, but we canna depend on that. We can be certain he will use anything he knows against us. Against me. We may be leaving sooner than expected.”
“We have to do something. He’s the source of trouble here, and now he thinks to take on Sutherland? We canna allow that.”
“Dinna fash,” Stellan said firmly. “We willna allow him to. His days are numbered. He just doesna ken it yet.”
He let them talk for another moment, then held up a hand. “Elias and Erik, head down and hang out near the solar. Mariota should leave there soon. I dinna want Alber anywhere near her. Gregor, check the stables. If he’s gone there, he’s going to leave the keep. That makes him too hard to track. Find out. Camus, stay by Mariota’s door. If Alber comes back up, let him think she’s in there. Wait a wee after he leaves, then come down to the great hall and settle down as if ye are off duty. That will confuse him.”
“What are ye going to do?”
The question was on all their faces. Stellan grinned. “Wander about. Give him a chance to find me rather than her. When she leaves the solar, as long as Alber is nowhere nearby, take her to the healer. I’d like him to think she’s locked up tight in her chamber, just waiting for him to try something. But I dinna want her anywhere near that.”
“Why no’? The lass has beaten him before.”
Stellan nodded at Erik’s question. “She has. How many times do ye think he’ll fall for her tricks?”
Erik pursed his lips. His expression was his answer.
“Aye, never again. He’s angry and out for vengeance, but that doesna make him stupid.”
“I’d like to make him dead,” Camus muttered.
“Get in line,” Stellan told him, then grinned. “Ye each ken what to do. Out with ye.”
After the men left, Stellan made certain he was fully but discretely armed, with extra blades tucked in his boots, the small of his back, even up a sleeve, secured by a tie sewn inside the shirt. Let Alber try something. He was ready.
CHAPTER 16
Though Stellan sometimes got a vague sense of feelings that he might have picked up from Anders, he didn’t expect to hear from him. But later that evening, after wandering the keep but never finding Alber, a ghillie brought a note from his twin, signed “Stellan.” He grinned at that before he read the missive. The rest of it was not as amusing.
News about Mar being on the move had reached Sutherland. Domnhall still held Dingwall, but for how long? It lay south of Sutherland territory, but close enough to require watchfulness on Sutherland’s part, especially as Mar was determined to boot Domnhall back to Islay and out of the disputed Ross territory on mainland Scotland.
Their da was watchful but not expecting Mar to bring trouble north to Sutherland. Rather, he’d stay on Domnhall’s tail and continue the disagreement over Ross territory. Anders helpfully informed him that Sutherland had sent a missive to MacKay with what they knew, offering to share information and ally, with the MacKay’s consent, for mutual protection, with or without a betrothal between their clans.
Stellan could understand their concerns, but was glad he did not have to be the one to inform the MacKay. As the second son away from home, he would not normally have been privy to Sutherland’s thinking and didn’t want to have to explain why he had been informed.
But the last bit of news from Anders disturbed Stellan the most. In keeping with his concerns, Sutherland wanted “Anders” to return home, and intended to send him on a scouting mission to see what he could discover about Mar’s intentions. If there had been no further threat to the MacKay heir, he was instructed to leave her in the care of her father and her trusted MacKay guards.
