Highland Master by Amanda Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

three steps up on your right.”
    Realizing that he would be putting off the inevitable if he delayed further, Fin said, “You did say that you wanted to know more about me, sir.”
    “I did, aye, but I want to think now. Forbye, the women will ask ye all that at supper, and I’m thinking I have nae need to hear ye spit out the details twice.”

    Having returned to the hall with her grandmother and mother while Morag ran up to get a shawl, Catriona had just begun to think that her grandfather might have ordered supper put back when the inner chamber door opened and he stepped through the doorway. Fin followed him, looking freshly scrubbed but tired.
    Immediately feeling guilty again about trying to slap him, Catriona smiled and felt a rush of pleasure when he smiled back. The smile was not the small one she had seen on the hillside earlier but wider and more natural, lighting his eyes and revealing his even white teeth.
    The Mackintosh strode to the central chair at the long high table, facing the lower hall, and gestured Fin tothe seat at his right. Morag hurried in as the other three women took their places. Lady Annis sat at her husband’s left with Ealga next to her, Morag next to Ealga, and Catriona at the end.
    For some time, everyone’s attention fixed on servers who proffered platters of food and jugs of whisky and claret. But when Lady Annis had accepted all that she wanted, she leaned forward and said across her husband to their guest, “One trusts that ye’ve found all ye need, sir. Did they show ye to your chamber?”
    “Not yet, my lady,” he said. “We talked too long.”
    Catriona had leaned forward when her grandmother did, and his gaze caught hers long enough for her to smile before he shifted it politely back to Lady Annis.
    “What did ye talk about?” her ladyship demanded of him.
    If the question disconcerted Fin, he did not show it. But the Mackintosh said curtly, “What we discussed concerns others, my lady, and
will
remain between us.”
    The emphasis on that single word made Catriona look to her mother, hoping that Ealga might understand what he meant. But Ealga watched her own mother.
    Lady Annis kept a gimlet gaze on her husband but turned it at last to Fin and said, “Do such concerns include where ye hail from, Fin of the Battles?”
    “At present, my lady, I come from the Scottish Borders,” he said.
    “Ye’re not a Borderer by birth, I trow,” she said. “Ye lack the sound and manner of such. Ye sound like ye hail from a place nearer to Glen Mòr.”
    “I have lived in the Borders for years, but I do know the Great Glen,” he said. “I spent my childhood in Lochabernear the west shore of Loch Ness. I regret to admit, though,” he added glibly, “that I never saw the monster that dwells there.”
    Ignoring that gambit, if gambit it was, Lady Annis said, “My father was Hugh Fraser of Lovat, on the east shore of Loch Ness. I ken most folks fine from Inverness down both shores to Loch Lochy. Who are your parents?”
    “My father was known as Teàrlach MacGill, my mother as Fenella nic Ruari,” he said. “I also spent some years in Fife, madam, near its eastern coast.”
    A movement from her grandfather—almost a start—diverted Catriona’s attention as Fin spoke. But she could not read the Mackintosh’s expression, because he had fixed his attention on Fin and did not say a word.
    Her grandmother said, “Your father’s name does sound as if I ought to know it, but MacGill is a general sort of patronymic, is it not? I expect that your business with the Mackintosh pertains more to your having come here from the Borders. Still, I suppose I must not question you about what you did there or…”
    She paused, clearly hoping that he would invite her to question him. But Fin just smiled as if he were waiting for her to finish her sentence.
    Sighing, she said, “What did your father do in Fife that required him to take your family so far from Lochaber?”
    Fin looked