Page 20 of The Lady of Her Highland Clan

Fiona tried to muster some enthusiasm. "Aye..."

"But?" Clyde asked.

"But," Fiona began. She was about to say, but I have to convince the elders, but then she stopped.

The door to the study had opened, and in walked the chief clan elder.

"Miss Duncan," he said, his face souring when he saw her. His eyes turned to Clyde and soured some more. "We've been looking everywhere."

He cast his face about some more, making his displeasure absolutely clear if it were not already. Fiona felt an instinctive desire to laugh.

"Well, ye've found me now," said Fiona, trying her hardest not to smile. The elder staggered forward, each footstep taking an age. He drew closer, his aged face peering in.

"Miss," he began, "just what are ye doing in here?" He cast his scored face toward Clyde as if to hammer home his point.

Fiona felt her hackles rise. It was her father's study, and she had every right to be there. However, she still needed his approval. Smothering her urge to tell him to boil his head, Fiona smiled weakly.

"I was just looking through my father's auld things." She said this firmly and with no apology. But before the elder could say more, she rose from her seat.

"I was just going tae show Clyde tae the hall for some breakfast," she said, hoping to throw the elder off the scent.

It worked. The elder's eyes rounded, then he coughed.

"Of course," he said, formally extending his hand to Clyde, ushering him from the room. "We will find one o' the household servants," he said, with another little aside to Fiona.

She was left in no doubt that he thought this task beneath him. She smiled briefly at Clyde as he went past. Clyde's green eyes twinkled as he left the room, but Fiona couldn't help thinking it was the prospect of hidden treasure that excited him, not her.

She waited until Clyde had gone, and the elder had flagged down a passing servant before turning to him again.

The old man came back into the chamber, his parched skin set in an expression of disapproval. As Fiona struggled to remember his name, he started talking.

"Miss Duncan, the elders o' the clan are vera worried," said the elder, the corners of his mouth turned down.

"Why?" began Fiona. But she didn't need to ask. The old man was going to tell her whether she liked it or not.

"We are vera concerned about the clan's good name," he began. Fiona made all the right eyes at him, but deep inside boiled.

What good name?She couldn't help the feeling that the elder was just looking for things to complain about. Then again, she could not afford to upset him either.

Swallowing down her pride, Fiona turned to the elder. His expression of near-permanent disapproval was hard to penetrate. As far as she had known him, he had always worn it.

Squaring up to him, Fiona forced herself to smile. She was going to have to launch a charm offensive if she wanted to get them to accept her as head of the clan.

"An' so am I," said Fiona, nodding deeply. "Nothing matters more tae me than the reputation o' the clan..."

She clutched the map in her hands tentatively. In her head, thoughts of her father, her mother, the ruby, and the hidden treasure of the clan rushed around. Out of nowhere, she had been handed a way to make it all right.

But as she thought of the treasure and looked at the etched disapproval on the man's face, she was not so sure. Suddenly, she felt foolish.

If she were to tell the clan that she was going in search of the clan treasure, most likely, they would laugh.

The elder frowned at her some more. "Well, Miss Duncan, yer conduct yesterday was a muckle funny way tae show it."

"I-I ken," said Fiona, embarrassed.

"Do ye really?" demanded the elder, inching closer. Now he was so near she could feel his breath on her cheek. And she rather wished she could not.

"Aye, o' course. I am sorry," she said, as evenly as she could do.