“What do you think you’re playing at?” Hugh demanded, keeping his voice low to avoid calling attention to the two of them.

The stone walls of the homes and merchants around them picked up every last bit of sound and caused it to echo, bouncing back and forth. The strain it took for him to withhold his anger was evident.

“I’m not playing at anything,” Derek hissed.

“Oh? That’s why you’re still here, in Kirkcaldy, when you should be on your way back to the manor house—if not already there?”

“It took much longer than usual to travel here,” Derek explained.

“You’ve still been away from the house for nearly a fortnight,” Hugh accused. “Do you know how the women have fretted over your absence? The strain nearly brought Heather’s time sooner than it should’ve come. Imagine what Jake would do to you if anything happened to her or the wee babe on your account.”

“You sound like one of the women now,” Derek sneered.

Hugh’s sharp intake of breath and the move he made toward his twin—one hand lingering near the dirk at his waist—put Derek on the alert, but nothing came of it.

“Watch what you say,” Hugh whispered, dangerously close to losing his temper. “I put my neck on the line to come after you, and I’m rewarded with insults.”

“What do you mean, your neck was on the line?”

Hugh sighed, leaning his back against the wall behind him.

“Phillip received word only three days after you departed that there’s been rumors of dissension among the Orkneys. It looked as though the worst of the bad blood between the clans had ceased, but months spent behind walls with nothing to do but talk each other into a fight seems to have set things off again.”

Derek rubbed his temples, the beginnings of a headache teasing there.

“Granted, they were only rumors, but everyone knows better than to put anything past an Orkney,” Hugh continued. “Fighting is what they do.”

“Aye. And you all thought they had something to do with my being held up,” Derek concluded, feeling slightly chastened for having insulted his brother in the light of this information.

“That’s right. I decided to come out for you with a handful of my men, and what do I find? I find you walking the streets of Kirkcaldy as though nothing in the world were wrong, as though you had nowhere else to be and no one waiting there for your return. Which is why I ask, what are you playing at?”

“I’m playing at nothing,” he insisted. “It’s more complicated than that.” Only once he’d looked around to be certain they were alone—there was no telling whether someone was waiting in the shadows between buildings, in the alleys, even at an open window—he lowered his voice even further and leaned in to be heard.

“I’ve made a bad friend here in the village. The man who owns the shipping company here, who demands I sell to him. I’d planned to leave tomorrow at first light to avoid another confrontation with him.”

“It’s not like you to run from a fight,” Hugh observed.

“Aye, but I’m fairly certain I’d be well outnumbered. And there’s nothing more to be done here, not at the moment. I need to decide a plan of action and, as you’ve pointed out, I’ve been away too long already.”

Hugh eyed him up, one eyebrow cocked. “And?” he prompted.

“And?”

“What else? I know it hasn’t taken you more than a week to decide you don’t know what you’re going to do. What else has held you here?”

“Why does there have to be anything else?”

“I’ve already spoken to Broc.”

“Damn it!” Derek’s voice echoed, again and again, building on itself until it filled the street. “The two of you, speaking behind my back? What did he tell you?”

Hugh snickered. “Enough.”

“I can only imagine.”

“He doesn’t understand why you’ve allowed a strange, foreign lass to turn your head the way she has.”

Derek glared at his brother. “And you? Do you understand?”

“You know I do, to a point. But not when it means letting everyone who cares about me believe I was killed,” Hugh growled. “You have no idea how we worried over you. Phillip was ready to send out a group of his men to search Orkney territory for you. What would’ve happened if he’d gone through with it? How many would we have lost?”

“What stopped him?”

“Sarah, of course.” He grinned in spite of his anger. “She’s got a sharp tongue, no doubt about it, but a level head. The sort of wife Phillip needs.”

“She thought it best to bide their time, then.”

“Aye. When I suggested I follow the most likely trail you would’ve taken, it seemed the closest thing to a compromise.”

“After all that fretting, I would think you’d be happy to see me alive and well,” Derek smirked.

“Give me time to get over wanting to beat you to death first.” Hugh folded his arms, shaking his head as he looked his brother up and down.

“Do I get the chance to explain myself? Or do you wish to heap more guilt upon my head?”

“I’m certain there’s more I could say, but it can wait.” A ghost of a genuine smile played at the corners of Hugh’s mouth.

“You must realize I’m unaccustomed to living life as you do. I’ve spent years coming and going as I’ve pleased, with no one to answer to but myself. You can’t expect me to adjust so quickly.”

“You have a responsibility to more than just yourself now. You’re under the laird’s protection—”

“I didn’t ask for that,” he argued. “If Phillip had sent a man to the Orkney lands for me, that would’ve been his choice alone. I never asked him to do anything of the sort for me and would rather he didn’t.”

“We don’t always get to make these decisions when there are people who care for our well-being. Dalla has been beside herself, no less so since my announcement that I was coming to inquire after you. And if you think you’ll get away with telling me I wouldn’t have to make any such journey on your behalf, you’re more daft than I imagined.”

“Nay. I would do it for you, brother,” Derek admitted.

“You still plan on leaving at first light?” Hugh asked, sounding skeptical. As though he could read his brother’s mind. Perhaps he could, as there had always been a connection between them which neither had ever known with another.

“Aye,” Derek announced with a firm nod. “Or as near to it as possible.”

“What will you do before that?” Hugh prompted, unable to keep from grinning. “Come on. Out with it. I know what you’re thinking, so don’t bother hiding it.”

Derek fumed. “I had planned on going back to the lass—Margery—and bringing her along with me.”

“I thought so. As did Broc.”

“You sound skeptical.”

“Has the lass shown any interest in any such arrangement?”

Derek chuckled. “Did that stop you and your bride?” He emphasized the last word, reminding Hugh of how he’d forced Dalla into marriage on purchasing her from her kidnapper.

“I was trying to save her.”

“And I’m trying to save her.”

He gritted his teeth at the memory of what he’d seen in her little room, and recounted the story to his brother. By the time he’d finished, Hugh looked as incensed as he felt.

“You should’ve killed him.”

“I wish I had.”

“She’s as unhappy as you say?”

“More, I’m certain of it.”

“But she has her own ideas as to her life, you know. Dalla had no such plans, and there was no one waiting for her at home. What will you say to that when your Margery inevitably argues?”

“I’ll tell her we’ll find a way to bring her from her village, but I can’t—I won’t—allow her to stay here another day on her own, nor in any other village or town. She seems to attract ill fortune.”

“By all means, bring her along, then,” Hugh muttered with a roll of his eyes. “The one thing we need on our journey home is ill fortune.”

He pushed off from the wall. “My men and I have made camp outside the village, and I’ll return to them now.”

Derek extended an arm to bar his progress. “I must warn you of one thing.”

“And that is?”

“I won’t leave without her. If she refuses to go, I’ll not leave. You can take Broc back if you wish—I’m certain he would rather go with you than stay here one more day—but I will stay behind. Phillip will know from your report that I’m perfectly safe here in the village.”

“But you aren’t safe,” Hugh argued. “You told me only minutes ago that you made an enemy here.”

“He wouldn’t be the first enemy I’ve ever made, brother, and it’s likely he won’t be the last. I can take care of myself, and anyone else who needs my protection. Or have you forgotten what I did for you and your bride back in Kincarny?”

“No. I haven’t forgotten. How could I?”

“Then you know very well how capable I am.”

“Aye.”

“You’ve nothing to worry about.” He clapped his hand over Hugh’s shoulder. “I’ll send word, no matter the outcome. Whether we stay here or go elsewhere, you will know.”

“But you will try to convince her to come with us, back to Duncan lands.”

“I will. I’ll do everything in my power to make her understand she’ll be safest with me. She belongs with me.”

Hugh chuckled. “You’re in terrible trouble, you know.”

Derek’s smile was grim. “I know.”