Highland Master Read Online Free PDF Page A

less freeboard than she liked, but the loch was calm, and she was skilled with the oars.
    Glancing over her shoulder, she had to lean and look past her large passenger to be sure she would not hit a rock as she backed away, then turned the bow toward the island. She noted that he watched her narrowly as she wielded the oars. By the time she had executed her turn, he had visibly relaxed. But he did not apologize.
    When she was facing away from him again, he said, “You never answered my question about how your people usually treat strangers. However—”
    “We treat them civilly, of course, unless they prove uncivil.”
    “Then we treat people alike, lass. Moreover, before we met, I had talked with no one since this morning, so I can scarcely have offended anyone.”
    “Mayhap whoever you were with this morning took offense at something.”
    “Nay, for I was with my own lads, riding from Glen Garry northward.”
    She glanced over her shoulder again. “You rode with a tail of men?”
    “Two lads only,” he said with a shrug slight enough to show that he still distrusted the coble’s stability.
    “Where are they now?” she asked.
    “Knowing that the mountains west of here are easier penetrated on foot than on horseback, as we were, I chose to walk on ahead of them.”
    “But why did they not just come with you? And where are your horses?”
    “I sent the men on an errand, and they were to stable the horses until our return from the mountains. They expect to meet me at Castle Moigh, though.”
    “Mayhap
they
attracted attention. Or mayhap you did without knowing that you had. I did ask you earlier if you had enemies hereabouts,” she added. “You said only that you had not passed this way before.”
    He was silent long enough for her to take two strokes with the oars and for that odd prickling awareness of him to stir again before he said, “By my troth, lass, I have
not
passed this way before. I have heard, though, that rather than enjoying a repute for civility, the men of Clan Chattan are a fractious lot. Also, you did mention trouble brewing. It seems logical that my mishap may have resulted from that.”
    Noting that he still had not said whether he had enemies in the area, Catriona nibbled her lower lip, thinking. She could not refute his logic, for it was excellent. But she was reluctant to discuss the irritating Comyns with a stranger.
    “I see,” he murmured provocatively.
    “
What
do you see?”
    “That I may be right,” he said. “Just who is stirring this trouble of yours?”
    Grimacing, she said, “ ’Tis only the plaguey Comyns. I cannot think why they would trouble you, though.”
    “Comyns? I thought that clan had nearly died out.”
    “Aye, but they were once lords of Lochindorb Castle, which lies near here and is now home to the Lord of the North. The Comyns seek to grow strong again.”
    “Do they hold a grievance against your confederation, then?”
    “Nay, they act in response to imagined complaints and their own arrogance,” she said. “Much of their sense of ill-usage arises, as most such conflicts do, from land that they think should be theirs but which is and always has been Mackintosh land. Except for Lochindorb and all of its estates,” she added conscientiously.
    He was silent. Glancing back again, she saw him frowning. When she rested her oars and gave him a quizzical look, the frown eased and he said, “How quickly did you come upon me? Do you recall?”
    “Not exactly,” she said, returning to her rowing. “Does it matter?”
    “It might,” he said. “The trees in those woods were too far apart for me to miss seeing an archer who stood near enough to shoot me from point-blank range. But I could have missed seeing one who shot from a greater distance.”
    “Mayhap something distracted you, kept you from seeing him.”
    “I doubt it. I don’t recall what I was thinking when the arrow struck. But being alone in unknown woods as I was, I was not careless. Nor