Read The Magic of Highland Dragons for Free Online

but only tapped his fingers rhythmically on the table in thought. The timing of everything was crucial. He would have to depart on the morrow for Ingarry to leave the message which would be delivered to Loghan… eight days hence should be enough time, shouldn’t it? Admittedly, for all his meddling over the years, he’d never tried to exact a plan in which so many different things could go wrong. He found it most disagreeable. It was making his head pound, even now.
    “Dirc! Whoever you are!” Faith was nearly shouting at him now. Her face looked like it might crumple into tears at any moment.
    “Ah hell, lass. Dinna get all upset. Everything is fine… will be fine. Come, ye’re tired and need to sleep. Everything will seem better on the morrow.” He led her from the table to one of the doors. Behind it was a tiny room, barely large enough to hold a cot. “There now, lie down. Rest.”
    She sank down onto the bed, but only because she really was too tired and mentally drained to argue further right then. He paused at the doorway and turned back to her.
    “When ye wake in the morning I willna be here, as I have an errand that will take most of the day. I’ll leave ye some food, and ye may make use of my home as ye please. I’ll be back before sunset.” He waited for her to nod her understanding before he went on. “Listen to me now and take heed. Dinna leave the dooryard of this cottage until I return, it’s far too dangerous. I wouldna have ye hurt while I’m away. Do I have yer oath lass?”
    “Yes, all right.”
    All out of fight for the moment, Faith lay back on the bed. She was tired, exhausted really. And tomorrow, when she was rested and feeling stronger, maybe she could go through his books and jars and figure some things out for herself. There must be plenty of clues. She was asleep within minutes.
     
    ***
     
    “Dirc has a lass in his cottage.”
    Bren looked up at his brother in surprise. He had only just sat down to break his fast after an early morning round of training with some of his men. He had gone in the loch afterwards to clean up, and his hair still hung in damp waves around his face. “Dirc? Old Dirc has a lass in his cottage? What lass?”
    His brother Drust sat on the edge of the table, snagging an apple from the bowl there and taking a big bite. “I dinna ken”, he said around his mouthful of apple. “She’s bonny though. Verra bonny.”
    “Ye saw this lass?” For Drust to say a lass was bonny, or even to bother with further comment about anything at all, was unusual. His brother kept most things completely to himself, often to the point of aggravating anyone trying to communicate with him.
    “Aye.” He paused to take another bite of the apple. “She was in the door yard this morning, just standing there, looking about like she wasna sure what to do.”
    Bren ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it back, only to have it fall back over his face in loose unruly curls. “Why on earth would Dirc be hiding a lass in his cottage? It doesna make sense… unless…”
    “Unless what?”
    Bren stood and began pacing slowly back and forth behind his chair. “Unless… Ye ken he’s been after me for years now to take a bride. Do ye suppose this could be another of his plots to marry me off?” He stopped and turned back to look at Drust, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the edge of the table. “This is verra suspect. I’ll have to get to the bottom of it, sooner rather than later, before the old man can make too much trouble. Remember what happened the last time he tried to meddle with such things as fate? It was a mess the likes of which I’d rather not see again.”
    Drust looked at his older brother and sighed. Sometimes he worried about Bren. He was such a hard man; powerful, indomitable. And he was a good man, deserving of happiness in his life. So much rested on his broad shoulders, yet he carried the burden with an ease that belied its real