“Finn!” The shout came from the wood.
A moment later, a ginger-haired youth emerged from the trees leading a horse and wearing a wide grin. Finn embraced the lad, then put him in a headlock and rubbed his head with his knuckles before releasing him.
“You’re traveling with a woman?” The lad’s eyes went wide as he took in Margaret and Ella. “A womananda bairn?”
“This is Alex Òg Gordon,”young Alex Gordon,Finn said, turning to Margaret, “my troublesome fifteen-year-old cousin and the future Earl of Sutherland.”
Alex blushed and dipped his head.
“This is Maggie and her daughter Ella,” Finn said. “Why were ye hiding in the brush?”
“I’ve come out here the last two days and waited for ye for hours,” Alex said. “I wanted to catch ye before ye went into the castle.”
“Why?” Finn asked. “What’s happened?”
“Moray keeps asking if you’ve arrived yet.”
“That’s no surprise,” Finn said. “He’s expecting me.”
“’Tis thewayhe asks,” Alex said. “I think ye may be in trouble.”
Finn pulled his cousin aside, and the two spoke in low voices Margaret could not make out.
“I’ll go into the castle alone first,” Finn told her when he returned to her side. “Alex will look after ye until I come back.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, doing her best to remain calm.
“I just want to make sure there are no surprises.” He leaned close so that Alex would not hear and added, “After all, last time I was here, I got sent off to kidnap a lass.”
His attempt to make light of whatever trouble waited in the castle did not reassure her.
“I won’t be long,” Finn said, but when he took her hand and raised it to his lips, it felt like goodbye.
As she watched Finn disappear from sight, she suppressed the urge to call out after him,Don’t leave me.Men did what they were going to do, regardless of how it affected anyone else, and Finn had decided to leave her and her daughter alone in the middle of the Highlands with no one but a stranger who was barely more than a boy.
A burst of laughter drew her attention to her protector, who was engaged in a lively game of peekaboo with Ella.
“I finally got a smile out of her,” Alex said, grinning at Margaret.
“Ella is usually shy, but I can see you’ve won her over already.” And that went a long way toward winning over Margaret as well. She sat down on the log beside him and asked, “Are ye staying long here at Huntly Castle?”
“I left home without my father’s permission,” he said, “so I expect I’ll be sent back soon.”
“Why did ye come without his permission?”
“Because he wouldn’t give it,” Alex said. “I had to come, ye see, because there’s a lass here that…well, I’m in love with her.”
She could not help smiling at how very forthcoming Alex was. Since Finn had left her with his chatty cousin, he had no one but himself to blame if she used the opportunity to learn more about him. “You and Finn are close?”
“Aye. Finn fostered with my father, so he spent a good deal of time with us at Dunrobin Castle. That’s our home up north in Sutherland,” Alex said. “Finn is like a big brother to me—the good kind of big brother.”
“Ye seemed quite surprised to find him traveling with me and Ella,” she said.
“Finn is not one to be with a lass long enough to travel with her.” Alex paused to do another peekaboo for Ella. “And he’s never with a lass who’s looking for a husband.”
“What makes ye think I’m looking for a husband?” she asked.
“Finn says a lass with a bairn always is,” Alex said, as if Finn was the authority on all things female.