Page 126 (1/2)

1

HAVE YOU SEEN her yet?”

“Nay, I have not,” Angus McTern said for what seemed like the hundredth time He had just cory, and cold, but all anyone could talk about was Neville Lawler’s fancy English niece, come to the old castle to look down her nose at the poor Scots

“You should see her,” young Ta stride Angus was usually glad to see Tam, but not if all he could talk about was Lawler’s niece “She has hair like gold,” the boy said, his voice cracking He was just coirls said, did, and looked like was everything to him “She has eyes as blue as a loch, and her clothes! Never did I see such clothes as she has They’re spun by the angels and trimmed by honeybees She—”

“But then you’ve never been anywhere to see us said—and everyone stopped to look at hi stone courtyard that had once belonged to the McTern farandfather had been the laird, but he was a lazy old reprobate who’d galishus had been just nine at the tius who the clan turned to In the sixteen years since, he’d done his best to look out for the few re McTerns

But so battle to try to reat McTerns For the last weeks, all they’d wanted to talk about was the Englishwoman Her hair, her clothes, each word she spoke, the way she said it

“‘Fraid she won’t like you?” old Duncan asked as he looked up at Angus froreat, hairy face of yours will scare her?”

The tension that had been caused by Angus snapping at his young cousin was broken and he gave the boy a rough shove on his shoulder to apologize It wasn’t Ta All he kneere the hills of Scotland, the sheep and the cattle, and the raids where he soht for his life

“A fancy lady like her would be scared to death of a real Scotsus said, then raised his hands like claws andcousin

Everyone in the courtyard relaxed and returned to his or her work What Angus thought was important to them

He strode past the old stone keep that had once been his faht more of his horses than he did of hu armer than the house

Without asking, Angus’s uncle, Malcol of ale “Did we losedown one of Lawler’s hunting horses

“Three,” Angus said as he sat down on a stool that was against the wall “I followed the the sheep and the cattle frous’s tiainst the stone wall of the stables and for a moment closed his eyes He hadn’t slept in two days and all he wanted to do rap his plaid about him and sleep until the sun came up

When one of the horses kicked the wall, Angus had his dirk out before his eyes were open

Malcolhter “Never safe, are you, boy?”

“Nor are any of us,” he said good-humoredly As he ate, the warmth crept into him He was the only one of the clan who still wore the plaid in the old way It o long pieces of handwoven cloth, draped about his body, held at the waist with a thick leather belt, and leaving the lower half of his legs bare His white shirt had big sleeves and was gathered at the neck The kilt had been outlawed by the English many years before, and those ore it risked prison tis, but old Lawler turned a blind eye to what Angus did For all that the , he understood about a man’s pride

“Let hilish visitor said Angus should be beaten

“Wearing their own clothes makes them think they have their own country He’ll cause you trouble if you don’t take him down a notch or t”

“If I take away his pride, I take away his desire to look after the place,” Neville said and sus behind the man’s back

If Neville Lawler had nothing else good about hius McTern took care of the castle, the grounds, and the people, so Laasn’t about to anger the tall young man

r /> “Go home, lad,” Malcolm said “I’ll look after the horses Get some sleep”

“At us said “And how can I do that? I lie down there and I have brats crawling all over ht to have a hand put to his backside Last time I slept there, he wove sticks into my beard He said the chickens could use it for a nest”

Malcolus lived with his sister and her husband and their ever-growing faus’s house, but he couldn’t throw his sister out