Highland Master Read Free Page B

it, and trotted back to her with it in its mouth.
    Taking the arrow, Catriona said, “I think Boreas has found the cause of your injury, sir. If so, I can tell you that this arrow came from no Clan Chattan bow.”
    “Nor any Lochaber one,” he muttered.
    “Are you from Lochaber then?”
    Cursing himself for the slip, Fin said, “I grew up on the west side of the Great Glen. But have spent little time there of late. Do you ken aught else of this arrow?”
    “Nay, but I do wish that Ivor were here,” she said.
    “Ivor?” He raised his left eyebrow, winced, and said ruefully, “I shall have to remember for a time
not
to express my feelings with facial movements.”
    Chuckling, deciding she liked the melodic sound of his voice, she said, “Ivor is the younger of my two brothers. He is also the finest archer in Scotland, so he knows the fletching of most Highland clans and taught me what little I know. But he, my father, and my brother James are in the Borders with the Lord of the North.”
    “What makes you think this Ivor is the finest archer in the land?” he asked. “Scotland boasts many fine archers. I’m deft with a bow and arrow myself.”
    “No doubt you are. I shoot well, too, come to that. But Ivor is the best.”
    “I know a chap who can beat anything that your Ivor might do,” he said.
    “No such person exists,” she said confidently as she slipped the arrow under the linked girdle that kilted up her skirts. Then, kneeling again, she added, “Now, let me finish cleaning your wound. The only thing that I might bandage it with is a strip of my underskirt. But I fear that the flannel would chafe it and make it bleed more.”
    “I don’t need a bandage,” he said. “I heal quickly.”
    “See, you do brag, like any man. How much farther must you go?”
    “A day’s walk, mayhap two.”
    “Then you should come home with me and rest overnight. That gash
will
open again, because it does need bandaging and may even require a stitch or two.”
    His grimace revealed strong reluctance, either to stitches or to her invitation.
    Before he could speak, she said, “Don’t be so daft as to refuse. Someone wickedly attacked you, and that arrow knocked you headfirst against yon tree. You hit hard enough to make you bounce back and fall as you were when I found you.”
    “Sakes, lass, if you saw all that, did you not also see who shot me?”
    “I saw none of that,” she replied.

    Looking narrowly at her, Fin said, “If you saw none of it, you cannot possibly know how I fell. Sakes, I don’t know that much myself.”
    “Nevertheless, that or something like that
is
what happened,” she insisted. “This arrow that Boreas found madethe gash in your forehead because the blood on it is still sticky. You have a lump rising here by your ear”—he winced when she touched it—“and I see bark in your hair and down the collar of your shirt. Also, the sleeve of your jack is torn, and I see more bits of bark on your arm. The event depicts itself, sir. Moreover,” she added, pointing, “he shot from across the burn.”
    He had to admit, if only to himself, that if she was right about the rest, she was right about the direction of the shot.
    Deciding that he had lain long enough on the damp ground, he sat up and then had to hold himself steady and concentrate hard to fight off a new wave of dizziness. He tried to do so without letting her see how weak he felt.
    Meeting her twinkling gaze, he grimaced, suspecting that her powers of observation were keener than his ability just then to conceal his feelings.
    “That dizziness will pass if you give it time,” she said, confirming his suspicion. “But you would be foolish
not
to come with me, because one can easily see that you are in no fit state to continue on your own.”
    The dog moved up beside her, eyeing him thoughtfully. Just looking at it reminded Fin that Highland forests sheltered many a wolf pack. The beasts would soon catch scent of his blood if he