many redheads.
“Who is that beside her?” he hissed at Alex.
“Beside who?”
“Ach, ye know damned well I meant Sileas.”
Alex didn’t try to hide his smile. “I believe that’s your neighbor, Gordan.” After a pause, he added, “Gordan is a fine man. I’d wager the lasses find him handsome as well.”
Ian stewed as a dozen squalling babes were sprinkled and prayed over.
“By the saints, how many babes were born this year?” he complained.
“I’d say the men had a verra good winter,” Alex said.
Ian and Alex were the first ones out the door after the last babe was baptized. The drops of holy water didn’t have time to dry on the babe’s wee head before they had their weapons in their hands.
“ ’Tis good to have her again,” Alex said, kissing the blade of his claymore.
He and Alex stood side by side with their blades unsheathed as Hugh and his entourage filed out of the church.
Hugh stopped in front of them. “Mark my words, unless you’re dead by Samhain,” he hissed in a low voice, “you’ll be on your knees before me at the gathering.”
“One of us will be dead before that happens,” Ian said.
Ian met the gaze of each man as they came out of the church and passed him. He recognized most of them. Every man understood that the return of the Highlanders from France had shifted the balance of power here on Skye. Each man would have to choose sides.
When the last of Hugh’s men was on the bridge to the castle, Ian caught sight of Ilysa, Duncan’s sister. She was such a slight thing, it was hard to believe she and Duncan came from the same mother. In a shapeless gown and with her hair covered in a drab kerchief like a grandmother, Ilysa blended in with the married women. He only noticed her when she looked up and gave him a razor-sharp glance. Then she tilted her head, signaling she wanted to talk with him.
When he approached the group of women, they crowded around him asking about his travels. It took him some time to ease Ilysa away.
“I am sorry to hear you lost your husband at Flodden,” he said once they were out of the hearing of the others.
An emotion he couldn’t read crossed Ilysa’s face before she dropped her gaze and nodded to acknowledge his condolence.
“Where are ye living?” he asked.
“I’m back at the castle.”
Ian stared at her. “That can’t be safe. Hugh and his men are a rough lot.”
Ilysa and Duncan had grown up in the castle, but Ian had assumed she was living with her husband’s family.
“Ach, no one notices me,” Ilysa said with a small smile. “And just to be sure they keep their distance, I let it be known that I’m learning magic from Tearlag.”
“I can’t believe Duncan is letting ye stay there,” Ian said.
“As if I’d let Duncan tell me what to do,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I managed without his instruction while the four of ye were gone. He did try, but I’m twice as stubborn as he is.”
That was saying something.
“But why stay at the castle?” Ian said. “If ye don’t want to go to your husband’s family, you’re welcome to stay at our house.”
“Connor needs eyes and ears in the castle, and none of ye can do that for him,” she said. “Hugh thinks so little of women, he has no notion I’m spying on him.”
If Duncan hadn’t been able to convince her, Ian wouldn’t be able to. “Ye be careful now. Don’t take any chances.”
“I have a message from Connor and Duncan,” Ilysa said in a low voice. “Ye are to meet them in the cave below Tearlag’s cottage day after tomorrow.”
Alex came up behind them and put his arm around Ilysa’s narrow shoulders. “So how is Duncan’s baby sister?”
“I am just fine, and ye can take your hands off me, Alexander Ban,” Ilysa said good-naturedly as she pushed Alex’s arm off. “What trouble are ye up to?”
“Trouble, me? No, I’ve been doing a good deed,” Alex said, with a devilish grin. Turning to Ian, he said, “I found a woman to help your mother and Sileas in the kitchen.”
“Did ye now?” Ian scratched his neck. “Let me guess. Does the woman ye found happen to be an attractive lass with loose morals?”
“Here I am, trying to help out a poor kinswoman whose been thrown out by her husband,” Alex said, shaking his head, “and all ye want to do is criticize.”
“Ye don’t mean Dina, do ye?” Ilysa asked.
Dina? Ian had a vague memory of a dark-eyed, curvy lass who was a couple of years older than he was. He’d been between her thighs once or twice when he was barely old enough to know what to do.
