Katherine and Luag inquired of the guards at the other gate where the Lady of Bath was staying and then made their way to her townhouse.

An English girl answered the door. "Prithee pardon me. Milady has asked me to turn away all beggars. ‘Tis nothing personal, thou must needs understand—"

Before the girl could conclude and shut the door, Katherine revealed her young face and showed the girl the ring on her finger, the expensive old-fashioned ring she'd bought on Santa Monica’s 2nd Street Promenade. Had it been just two days ago?

"We are na beggars,” she told the servant, “And we think yer lady has good reason tae speak with us."

The girl stared back and forth from the ring to Katherine's face. "I remember you."

Now she smiled at Katherine in admiration. "You are the Scottish lady who talked her way into the gate yesterday. You're right. Milady was impressed with you." She opened the door all the way and gestured inside. "Please come in and have a seat, and I will go tell her you have arrived."

The sitting room looked surprisingly similar to many living rooms Katherine had seen in modern life. It didn't have a TV, stereo, or anything electronic at all of course, but many of her friends’ parents liked their living rooms to be just so, places where you talk to your guests rather than places of entertainment for the family. There were comfy chairs and end tables and knickknacks. There was even a grandfather clock.

A few moments later, the girl returned.

Two other girls came close behind her, fussing over the Lady of Bath, who was older, probably in her 50s, and had to be helped down the stairs.

Arthritis, Katherine thought.

The lady beamed a smile at Katherine. "Martha tells me you're quite well to do, but also that you request my assistance. I was quite impressed with you yesterday at the gate, and I'm intrigued. Please tell me the nature of the help you request."

Katherine looked around at Martha and the other two girls.

The lady shook her head no. "I'm impressed, but I cannot extend too much trust, you understand."

Luag tapped Katherine's shoulder.

She turned to give him an irritated retort.

But she was brought up short by what she saw. Four armed men stood close at hand in the hallway.

The lady gave Katherine a genuine smile. "Anything you're going to say to me, all my people can hear. They were born into my service, and they're loyal. I trust them with my very life, as you can see, and so does my husband, who is gone to court for the day as usual."

Luag spoke up now, mostly addressing the warriors. "We request yer assistance in getting me tae court. I wish tae speak with the Laird Regent about this matter o’ his resistance tae Donald Laird o’ the Isles’ claim on the region o’ Ross. If I can get an audience with him, things will gae more smoothly for everyone, with less bloodshed. For I am a MacDonald, ye see."

The lady narrowed her eyes at Luag, measuring him up. "How do you think I can get you in?"

Katherine piped up. “Perhaps we could be yer children?"

They wrangled over it an hour, going over all the possible problems, but the lady kept looking at Luag with keen interest, and in the end she agreed.

“It just so happens we have some English clothes that might be made to fit you on short notice." She eyed Katherine's ring. "Of course, such clothing is expensive."

Katherine took the ring off and held it up, giving Luag an ‘I told you so’ look and signing, ‘Who are you to tell me what not to buy.’ Out loud, she said to the lady, "Once we have the clothing, you may hold this ring as surety for it."

Luag walked through town next to the lady's litter with his head covered —ostensibly against the chill, this time. They swept right into the Regent's Aberdeen residence, a sizable manor house. Once inside and out of earshot from the street where a mob might be assembled, he uncovered his head, interested to see who among all these lesser nobles present would recognize him —and still more interested to hear who would call him out for his presence.

He found out quickly.

"My, my, my, isna that the MacDonald who attempted tae stop us from defending oorselves at the recent battle?"

"Bide a bit," said Luag. "If I could stop ye from defending yerself, then ye are na much o’ a warrior, are ye?" He looked up into the buffoon's face and held the man's gaze until he looked away.

Satisfied, Luag then proceeded down the hall, where he had several more such exchanges, winning every last one. It was is all well and good for these nobles to hang back behind their clansmen and let others do their dirty work. That was their prerogative, but Luag was the sort who did his own fighting, and everyone knew it. Most respected it. Those who didn't at least feared it, and that gave him a self-satisfied grin.

He spent so much time pausing and talking that the Lady of Bath caught up to him. "You certainly do run off a lot for a man who wants me to make an introduction," she said with mock irritation. "I almost think that wasn't your intention at all." Here, she looked him in the eye and raised her eyebrows, inviting him to confess the true nature of his visit to the Regent.

He couldn't do that, and so he held out his arm for her.

With a playfully superior look toward Katherine, the lady took his arm. “Come. I found out where the Regent is. I'll take you to him straightaway."

Dutifully, Luag slowed down to the auld lady’s pace, resisting the urge to turn and see what Katherine thought of this.

He could hear Katherine following them, so she couldn't be in too bad of spirits over it. Why he cared was beyond him, but he found that he did. Couldn't let it trouble him though. He needed his wits about him.

The lady gestured to the double doors they wanted, smiling at the two guards.

They smiled back and opened them for her, one of the them announcing, "the Lady of Bath."

Even in the Regent's inner sanctuary, an ordinary sitting room not unlike where Katherine and Luag and waited for the Lady of Bath, a dozen people doted on him.

The Regent took note of their entry and visibly excused himself from the small crowd of people gathered around him in order to look up at the lady. "My dear, welcome. Ye are early. Yer husband said ye would na be coming till supper, but yer presence is welcome now nonetheless."

The Lord of Bath excused himself and came over to take over escorting his wife.

Before he got there, she spoke up, curtsying. "Robert, I bring you Luag MacDonald, nephew to Donald MacDonald. He has news for you that he thinks will help solve the conflict with Donald, using less bloodshed. I know it was rash of me to bring him."

Everyone in the room gasped.

"Ye dare bring a MacDonald in here?"

"He and whoever came with him must be thrown out straight away."

"They retreated, and now they send one warrior tae negotiate?"

The Regent opened his mouth to speak and was gesturing toward the guards.

Luag took a big breath and as quickly as he could, said what he'd come to say. "Donald is na gaun'ae stop at that one battle. Even now, he marches on Aberdeen. Ye need tae prepare and meet him, or I fear ye will lose everything."

The guards grabbed him and Katherine and were carrying them out.

The Lord Regent was saying, "They may stay in Aberdeen for now, but get them oot o’ my house."

Before the door closed and the Regent couldn't hear him, Luag managed to call out, "The English are with Donald. They are working together. They already hae James captive, and now they want ye. Be on yer guard!"

The doors closed with a final bang.

Katherine and Luag were taken to the front gate and summarily dumped into the street.

Luag held his hand out to help Katherine up.

But Katherine pushed it away and pushed herself up off the ground. "What dae ye call that?" She asked, her face all twisted up in anger. "Ye always take ower, talking at the most inopportune moments. I had a plan for selling the Regent on oor situation. He would hae listened tae me. I'm way more charming than ye are, in case ye hadna noticed. And then ye went and ruined it. Ye are tae stubborn and full o’ yerself for yer own good, dae ye ken? Has na anyone ever telt ye that?"

Luag waited for a pause in her blathering before he said anything. He knew from experience with such matters that she would have to stop for breath. "I got said what needed tae be said," he told her. "As for letting ye sell it, ye are a lass, and a stranger at that. Ye didna hae a chance o’ being heard in there. 'Tis different at home in Inverurie where everybody knows ye are under my protection —er, and Leif's protection, and Taran's. Leif is the laird there, a big fish in a much smaller pond. Here, ‘tis far better I said it. I warned him. If ye had spoken up in yer usual shrewish manner, we would hae been thrown oot much sooner, dinna ye ken?"

She gave him a much sterner face. "I only came back tae this forsaken place tae help Jessica and Lauren. Ye will let me help them. I will be gone soon enough, and then ye willna hae tae fash about me anymair."

He put his foot down. "Helping yer friends ye may be, but ye must understand that I am gaun'ae help my friends. Leif and Taran are my friends, and dinna ye forget it."

They were out in the middle of the street where they had been tossed, and the yelling had drawn a small crowd. It was not the kind of crowd Luag wanted to draw, so he started walking toward yet a third gate, hoping they could make their exit without too much of a scene.

But even as he walked, she wasn't catching on. "What is this aboot ye being the nephew o’ Donald Laird o’ the Isles? I mean, I kenned ye were kin tae him, but his nephew? How dae I ken I can trust ye? I ken I hae asked that afore, but this makes it even more o’ a question—"

A young man ran up. "Luag! Alasdair bids me take ye tae him. Quickly!"

Luag started to pull himself away from the boy, but when he looked closer, he recognized the messenger who had been with the Wolf of Badenoch’s son Alasdair Stewart the night before that scene on the battlefield.

The messenger took them to a small house on the edge of town and stopped at the door to call in through the window. "Open up, Sorcha! These people need tae get off the street quickly. Please hurry!"

The door was opened by an older woman in a cook's apron, drying a tankard. "Verra well, gae on and hurry in." She gave Luag and Katherine curious looks but didn't say anything about them before going back to her bin full of dishes.

Luag took this as a good sign —not that she approved of them, but that she was loyal to Alasdair and wouldn't meddle in his affairs. That was the best that could be hoped for.

The messenger went to get his master.

In moments, Alasdair came bustling into the room with a sense of urgency about him. When he saw Luag, he stopped and put his hand on the pommel of his sword, though he didn't draw.

"Luag McDonald.” He paused a moment, holding Luag’s gaze with his own. “There has been much talk o’ the unusual circumstances under which ye disappeared from the battlefield tae days hence. Dae ye care tae explain yourself."

It hadn't really been a question, but Luag chose to interpret it as such. "‘Tis much more important we tell ye Donald Laird o’ the Isles even now marches on Aberdeen. He brings with him at least as many warriors as he had back at that battlefield. Aberdeen needs tae prepare or be taken ower completely, and the Regent tae."

Alasdair raised up his other hand, keeping a firm grip on the pommel of his sword, Luag noticed. "Whoa. Ye must hae some inside knowledge o’ this. Ye wull need tae tell me where this is coming from afore I wull heed, ye ken?"

The cat was already out of the bag, so there was no harm in telling one more person. Alasdair would hear it through the grapevine before the end of the day anyway. "I am Donald's nephew, is how I ken his plans." He raised his hands up in a sign of surrender and as a plea for Alasdair to keep listening to him. So far it was working. "But all that Leif telt ye is true. My loyalty is tae Leif, na tae my uncle. I truly hae come in all urgency tae warn ye o' my uncle's plans. I dinna care if ye believe anything else sae long as ye believe that ye need tae reinforce the Regent's position, lest he be also captured as James has been. For Donald is in league with the English. Ye canna trust them either. Ye need tae ken this.."

Alasdair watched Katherine's face to see her reaction to this news, looking more and more impressed that she showed no reaction at all. In fact, this visibly turned the tide of his mind. "And ye flee now from?"

Luag lowered his eyes. "We flee now from the Regent. I telt him what I just telt ye. He did na believe me." He raised his eyes again and looked Alasdair in the face. "But now I hae hope that ye will get the message through tae him."

Alasdair sighed deeply and withdrew his hand from his sword. Now pacing the room, he gestured to some seats but didn't look to see if they sat down. "I wull dae what I can tae get the Regent on board, but that isna much, ye ken. Where are ye staying, in case I need tae get word tae ye?"

Taking hold of Katherine's hand to loop her arm through his, Luag told the man the name of their inn and then quickly escorted Katherine out of there, sensing there were things Alasdair had to do which he wouldn't do in front of them.

But Katherine resisted, giving Alasdair that winning smile of hers. "Hae ye plaids we could borrow?”

So they left in their disguises as auld women, which worked perfectly. Everyone in the crowded streets looked right through them on their walk toward yet another city gate. They would have to walk around the outside wall of the city back to their inn, but that was better than being recognized, especially at this juncture.

"I guess we are keeping the Lady o’ Bath’s clothes and she is keeping yer ring," Luag said to her softly with his best look of apology.

She shrugged, making her plaid dance around her. "Dinna fash on it. I thought something like this might happen, and I can afford another ring."

This heightened Luag's sense of urgency concerning her, because she could only afford such a thing in the future. She was going back. Why did this trouble him so?

"We said what we came tae say," he told her anyway. If leaving would make her happy, then leave she should.