Free Susan King - [Celtic Nights 03] by The Sword Maiden Page A

and alert to a stranger's arrival.
    Dismounting, he tethered his horse, who whickered softly. Faint snorts answered from the stable across the meadow. The horses kept there must belong to those inhabiting Innisfarna. Sooner or later, then, he would see Eva—and her Campbell husband. His gut constricted at the thought.
    The barking grew louder, joined by the yapping of a smaller dog. Muime must have acquired another mutt in his absence, Lachlann thought. He knocked on the door and called out.
    Both dogs erupted in a frenzy, and a woman's voice, barely audible over the noise, hushed them.
    "Mairi MacKerron," he said, "I am home!" He raised his voice, hoping she could hear what he said over the barking.
    "Go away," came a muffled reply.
    "I am come home," he said. "Let me in." He grabbed the iron latch and pulled, expecting it to open easily.
    It stuck. He tugged. The iron must have rusted, lacking a smith to keep it oiled. In the moonlight, he noticed new rivets, marking additional locks on the inside of the door; the door was bolted and barred, though it never had been before.
    "Go away," the woman said again.
    Puzzled, he knocked again. "Who is that?"
    He heard a heavy thump and a creak, as if a dog leaped against the door. Anguished yowls nearly drowned his voice. "Woman, open this door!" He had to shout to be heard.
    "Go away, you! Solas, get down! Grainne, you too! Leave us be, sir—the dogs are in a temper! And I have a blade, and I know how to use it!"
    "Blade! Jesu," he muttered. "I live here," he yelled, placing his mouth near a seam in the oak planks, raising his voice to a boom. "Open the door! It is Lachlann!"
    A pause followed, as if both woman and dogs were stunned into silence. "Lachlann MacKerron?" Now he heard her clearly: a young woman, her voice mellow as honey, blessedly familiar.
    His heart slammed, and he leaned hands and brow against the door in both gratitude and dread. "Eva?" he asked. "Eva MacArthur?"
    * * *
    Eva flattened her palms against the door, heart pounding. "Lachlann!"
    "Eva, let me in." The deep timbre of his voice, not heard in more than three years, sent thrills along her spine.
    Solas leaped at the door. Grainne leaped too, yapping furiously, rising on her hind legs. Eva pushed Grainne out of the way as she fumbled at the locks.
    "Ach Dhia, Solas, you knew!" Eva murmured. "You knew Lachlann was at the door, when I thought the man was another soldier from Innisfarna, come drunk in the middle of the night!"
    She slid free the wooden beam from the iron bars that held it, and pulled at the other fastening, an iron hasp and chain. The eye of the little bar fitted over a protruding iron staple, now jammed together. She tugged but could not loosen them.
    Lachlann knocked again. "Eva!"
    "The latch is stuck," she answered, pulling futilely. "It sometimes does this." Solas set up a heartbreaking howl, as did Grainne. "Oh, hush, Grainne. You too, Solas," Eva said, distracted by her struggle with the latch. Pulling on the center ring handle, she opened the door as wide as she could—a few inches at most—and peered out.
    Moonlight haloed Lachlann's head and shoulders and glinted on the shoulders of his polished steel cuirass. His face was shadowed, and he seemed even taller and larger than she remembered. She gaped up at him.
    "The bar may be rusted," he said. "Where did these bolts come from? Finlay and I never put them on this door."
    "The blacksmith from Glen Brae installed them." She yanked again to free the snug bite of the metal, but failed. Lachlann stood so close she could scarcely think. "How is it you are here?" she asked, flustered.
    "I live here," he answered. "Why are you here? And where is Mairi?" Solas poked her nose through the door crack, and Lachlann reached down to pat her head. "Ho, Solas, silly girl. It is good to see you again, too," he murmured.
    Eva gasped in frustration. "It will not come loose!"
    "Let me." Lachlann slipped his hand upward to find the iron fittings. His