Free Highland Master by Amanda Scott Page A

than her moss-green gown had the evening before.
    “ ’Tis camlet, sir, fine wool,” she said. “I’ll send for a shawl though. It may grow windy.” As she spoke, she gestured to someone in the lower hall.
    Collecting his sword and sword belt from his room, Fin went down to the entryway but found the young gillie Tadhg waiting there instead of Catriona.
    “I thought ye might need me tae help look after the dog, sir,” Tadhg said. “See you, I mean tae be a knight one day m’self. I can swim, and I’m a fine runner, and I mean tae be a great swordsman, too. Ye could teach me much, I wager.”
    Fin smiled at him. “You need to grow a foot or two first, lad.”
    “Aye, sure, I will. And Sir Ivor says I ha’ tae learn tae use me head, too.”
    Recalling that Ivor was Catriona’s brother, Fin said, “He is right about that, laddie. You cannot come with us today, but we’ll talk more of this anon.”
    Grinning, Tadhg dashed off, and Catriona soon joined Fin. Launching the boat as they had the day before, they laughed together at the audible sigh that Boreas gave as he curled himself in the stern and laid his head on his forepaws.
    Once ashore, Fin slung on his sword belt so that the weapon lay across his back in its sling. Then he and Catriona strode northward along the track.
    He smiled when she raised her face to the cloudy sky and drew a long breath. Despite her smaller size, he barely had to shorten his stride to accommodate her. Moreover, much of the track was wide enough for them to walk abreast.
    “Do you know the Cairngorms?” she asked ten minutes later.
    “We caught glimpses of them on our way here,” he said. “I cannot say that I know them, but they do look as forbidding as men say they are.”
    “They can be gey dangerous, aye,” she said. She was silent again for a time. Then, she said, “I want to ask you something else.”
    “Ask me anything,” he said rashly. “If I can answer you, I will.”
    “You mentioned Lochaber yesterday and told my grandmother that you spent your childhood there. The first seat of the Mackintosh lies in Lochaber, albeit at a distance from Loch Ness. Do you know of Tor Castle?”
    “Aye, sure,” he said, hoping that his tone concealed his reluctance to discuss that topic at any length yet. “I’d wager that anyone from Lochaber has heard of Tor Castle, although it lies high in the mountains, in Glen Arkaig.”
    “My grandfather wants to be buried there. He goes there every Christmas.”
    Fin nearly admitted that he knew that, too. But he managed to hold his tongue. After a period of silence, he told her about meeting Tadhg and what the boy had said.
    She chuckled. “Aye, Ivor says he’ll make a fine knight. But if he doesn’t, Tadhg has declared that being a running gillie would be almost as good.”
    Fin laughed. “I doubt he’d find carrying messages as much fun as a tiltyard.”
    She smiled again, and the sun had come out. It was a fine day.
    Boreas trotted ahead of them. Carrying his snout high, the dog ranged back and forth from one side of the trail to the other, taking scents from the air.
    They approached a narrowing of the track where dense shrubbery closed in on both sides. On the landward side, the shrubs covered much of the steep hillside until woodland took over. Fin slowed to let Catriona go ahead of him.
    As she did, Boreas stopped and turned to look uphill, sniffing, ears aprick.
    Catriona halted. Fin, perforce, did likewise.
    The dog’s growl started low and deep in its throat. But it was loud enough for Fin to hear. Putting a hand on each of Catriona’s shoulders and feeling her start at his touch, he murmured, “Let me by, lass.”

    So intently had Catriona concentrated on Boreas that she had not sensed how close Fin had come. When his warm hands grasped her shoulders, although she started, she felt an immediate sense of safety.
    “Prithee, sir, stay as near the downhill shrubbery as you can when you pass me,” she said quietly.