Once more, she was on the trail to Aberdeen with Luag, and she got a bit of embarrassment when they’d been on the trail a few hours and she needed to find a bush. Thankfully, Jessica signaled to Leif that she needed one as well, saving Katherine the trouble.

Knowing how to dismount by herself now and being extremely proud of the fact, Katherine did so. After handing the reins to Luag to hold while she did her business, she ran over to Jessica and Lauren, happy to have some time alone with her friends.

But Taran handed his and Lauren’s reigns to Leif, indicating he would escort Lauren.

Katherine confronted Taran. "If ye take Lauren, then who will take me? Lauren can protect me and Jessica, sae the lasses should be able tae go off by ourselves, right Lauren? Jessica?"

Jessica shook her head no where she stood by Leif, obviously planning on helping him hold Lauren and Taran's horses.

"Lauren?" Katherine asked, knowing there was desperation in her voice but not caring. She was not going to pee within sight of any of the men.

Lauren gave Katherine an apologetic smile, holding onto her new husband as if it were the most pleasurable thing in the world to do —which Katherine allowed that maybe it was, but that was beside the point. "I'm a ninny when it comes tae fighting. Did I seem sae tough tae ye back at PenUlt? Nay. All that fighting skill was Galdus. He knew how tae fight like nay one's business, and like a fool, I let him lead me. He used his fighting knowledge tae lure me intae allowing him tae start controlling me. Now that I am finally rid o’ the auld druid in that dagger, I'm as helpless as ye are. ‘Tis glad o’ it I am."

"May I tag along with ye?" Katherine called out after Lauren and Taran.

But they ignored her.

Having a sneaking suspicion what was going on here, Katherine turned her attention to Leif. "I dinna suppose ye wull let me tag along when ye escort Jessica tae use the bushes?"

Leif started to shake his head no.

But his wife elbowed him in the ribs, smiling sweetly while she did so.

Chuckling, Leif said, "Verra wull. Ye can tag along with Jessica. For now."

Katherine looked around for Luag's reaction to all this.

But his face was hidden. The man was sensibly doing his own business behind his and her horses while she haggled with the others.

Seeing her opportunity, she went behind the horses, feeling a strange affinity with Luag as he circled the horses around to give her privacy.

So this was how it was going to be? She and Luag were a default couple? She could work with that. It wasn't going to be how the others intended. She was not going to stay here any longer than it took to get this business with the MacDonalds sorted out short-term. Long-term, they were on their own.

When the group sighted Aberdeen, Katherine was impressed despite herself. It was a fairly large city, and even outside the gates there were hundreds of buildings.

When Taran and Lauren arrived at the gate in front of the group, the guard halted them.

"Taran, ye deserted yer men when they needed ye the night afore the last battle. Leif covered for ye, but I dinna think ye'll find a verra warm ‘wull coome’ inside here. Ye can bide the night at one o’ the inns oot there."

Hearing this, Luag turned his horse around.

"What are you doing?" Katherine asked him.

"If Taran is getting such a poor reception, I wull dae even worse. They all ken what family I belong tae."

"We need tae go inside," she urged him.

"That’s true, but we wull hae tae devise some sort o’ scheme sae we are na recognized. We need an inn for tonight. Leif will hae tae hire it for us. I will hae tae sneak in like an ootlaw."

A party of English-speaking people walked by the front gate on the road. Katherine was fascinated, because everyone else was speaking Gaelic. Once they had passed by, she was overcome with anger and stormed up to the front gate and gave that guard a piece of her mind.

"Taran fought in the battle the next day, even after having tae gae all by himself ower tae Laird Ualraig's castle and rescue Lauren. If anything, I think he should be lauded, but especially na given such grief when he is just trying tae enter the city!"

The guards chewed on that a moment.

Meanwhile, a lady in the party of English-speaking people turned and winked at Katherine approvingly.

The guards were still chewing over their decision.

Katherine said to them, "Who is that lady?"

"The Lady of Bath from England," said the lead guard, who then turned to Taran. “Ye did well for yerself in the battle. Come on in.”

Katherine turned to smile at her friends in triumph.

But Leif frowned at her and shook his head no, subtly signing, "Luag canna go in any case."

Oh yeah.

Katherine turned back to the guards. "I guess we wull bide ootside the city after all. Thanks anyway.” She gave them her level ten smile.

It worked. They elbowed each other, grinning.

When Katherine turned around, she saw that her friends were already quite a ways down the road, apparently more desperate than she had realized not to have Luag recognized, now that Taran had been given trouble. She ran to catch up.

The problem arose again when they got to the inn. The couples wanted privacy, and Luag couldn't get a room at all.

“Loan me yer arisade,” Katherine said to Lauren.

“What for?”

“Just hand it over,” Katherine said with her best urgent face.

It worked.

“Here,” Katherine said, putting Lauren’s long, billowing plaid covering over Luag’s head and pulling it over his body as if he were an old woman. “Ye are my aging mither.”

Before she could instruct Luag on how to look like her aging mother, he stooped over and walked haltingly, saying in a high pitched and scratchy voice, “Ye wull take care o’ getting the room, wull na ye, dear?”

Everyone laughed.

But when they got to the inn, the stable boy ran to help Katherine’s ‘mither’ up the steps.

So Luag would be sleeping in Katherine’s room with her, but she'd worry about that later. For now, they were all in Leif and Jessica's room, planning what to do.

Lauren suggested, "Leif is a laird, sae the rest o’ us can enter Aberdeen as his and Jessica's servants."

The others agreed with that.

But Luag spoke up, looking them all in the eye by turns. "I hae some aught that wull guarantee I get an audience with the Regent, but not in peasant clothes. Ye wull hae tae trust me on this."

Instead of puzzlement, Leif gave Luag a knowing nod.

Katherine looked over at Jessica to see if she would reveal anything.

But Jessica shook her head no.

"Verra wull," Katherine said to the group, "sae Luag needs tae get an audience with the Regent but canna be noticed in toon. He wull hae tae go in disguise. And the best way tae accomplish that is for Luag and I tae pose as a laird and lady from England. They will na be known verra much around here, and the English are backing the Laird Regent—"

"What?"

"The English are backing the Laird Regent?"

"Ye canna mean it!"

Katherine got out her phone and brought up the book she’d downloaded, the one about the history of Inverurie. “Sorry, I thought ye all kenned that. Hear it for yerself.”