He was turning to Katie to lay down the law when she looked up at him, eyes gleaming. Her lovely lips in a slight smile. “Isn’t that right, Laird?”
Evan squeezed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. Alasdair’s snort brought him up short, and he glared at his brother. “Ye can build a cage or whatever ye wish to keep these puppies secure.” He raised his voice and looked Katie, Mrs. Fraser, Gavin, and Alasdair in the eyes. “In the stables. Do I make myself clear?”
Several mumbled ayes followed.
“Now, Mistress Stirling, we must depart.”
“Oh dear; I just remembered yer brother said Mr. MacDuff was here. I must speak with him.” Katie rushed off before he could stop her. Then, like the fool he was where the lass was concerned, he trailed behind her to the door where MacDuff and two other men stood talking.
“How is yer wife and the bairn this afternoon, Mr. MacDuff?”
Two bloodshot eyes looked back at Katie. “Freya is a bit worn out, but the bairn seems fine. Especially if measured by the strength of his lungs.”
Katie smiled and placed her hands on her hips. “And ye, Mr. MacDuff. How are ye feeling? The last time I saw ye, ye were hugging an empty whisky bottle.”
The man’s face grew red, and he looked down at his feet. “Aye. I apologize for that, mistress. ’Twas a bad thing for me to do with Freya suffering so, but so hard to listen to her cries and not be able to do anything for her.”
Katie placed her hand on his arm. “It might make ye feel better to ken that just about every husband I’ve ever encountered during a childbirth used the same method to dull the pain.”
“Thank ye. Also, I want to thank ye for helping my wife out. She was scared and even though Mrs. MacCabe delivered many a bairn in her day, Freya was a bit concerned that she was getting on in years.”
“I’m glad everything went well. I’ll stop by and see Freya sometime today to make sure everything is as it should be.”
The man nodded his thanks and turned to leave.
Katie called him back. “Go to the kitchen and ask Cook to mix up the drink I told her about for those feeling poorly after a night of drinking. ’Twill help with yer headache and upset stomach.”
The young man grinned at her, his cheeks growing rosy. “Aye. Thank ye, mistress.”
“We must be off now, Katie. ’Tis growing late, and I want to visit as many cottages as we can. We have to move these people into their own homes.” Evan opened the door to find at least twenty people coming up the path, dragging cows and goats, along with a mess of bairns carrying cats and tugging on dogs.
Chapter Sixteen
Katie studied the crowd of people trooping up the pathway and glanced sideways at Evan. His expression was not hard to read, and she needed to jump in before the steam coming out of the man’s ears led to an explosion.
She walked up to the group, her arms open in welcome. “Fàilte, everyone. Welcome. I’m so glad ye made it safe and sound.”
“Not too sound, Mistress.” Mr. Adam Stirling walked up to her, twisting his cap in his hands. “My wee lad fell out of a tree this morning trying to rescue his sister’s kitten, and I think he might have broken something.”
“Ach, nay.” Katie hurried toward the cart with young Brandon lying there, his wee face twisted with pain. “Brandon, love. What did ye do?”
She didn’t need to turn around to ken the sigh that almost blew the hair off her head came from Evan. “Lass, we need to leave.”
She closed her eyes and drew on her patience. “It won’t take me long to examine the lad and fix him up. No more than an hour.”
“An hour! God’s toes, it’s already well past noon.”
Katie rounded on him. “I am a healer. What would ye have me do, my laird? Allow the poor bairn to suffer while we have tea and biscuits with the neighbors?”
His expression went from anger to resignation. “Nay.” He ran his fingers through his hair. More strands were pulled from his queue. He might as well unfasten the whole thing. She did wonder how the man still had locks on his head for the amount of times she’d seen him do that.
“Ye can go by yerself.” She turned as if to dismiss him, but he grabbed her shoulder and turned her back to him. “One hour. Then I will drag ye out of the castle. Ye ken?” The anger had returned.
Silence fell from the group as they all eyed this large man who was threatening their mistress. Grumbles erupted from some of the men, and a few of them fisted their hands and looked as if they intended to inflict physical harm on Evan. For as grateful as she was for their protective reaction, she kenned that it would surely take more than a few farmers to fell the Highlander.
She held her hand up to the crowd. “Nay, ’tis all right.” She turned to Evan and, trying very hard to not look as though she wanted to throttle the man herself, held out her hand. “This is Laird Evan MacNeil.”
At the raised eyebrows that greeted her statement, she quickly added, “’Tis a slight misunderstanding about the ownership of the castle that the laird and I are working out.”
The clansmen looked back and forth between her and Evan. Katie continued, “’Tis more important for us to get wee Brandon taken care of. The rest of ye can see Mrs. Brody, the housekeeper, who
