Ye must hae it backward, Katherine," Luag said with as much gentleness as he could manage, which wasn’t much. He didn’t understand why, but he sat there on the floor of Leif’s inn room praying it would be enough.

Good, she responded with a raised eyebrow, curiosity rather than her usual glorious haughtiness.

He explained frankly. "It would na surprise me one bit if my kinsmen the MacDonalds hae enlisted the help o’ the English tae take ower Scotland, but there is na way the Stewarts would dae sae. As the rightful but incarcerated king and his regent, James and his uncle Robert already hae Scotland. If history says the English were involved, then this whole situation is more dire than I thought. ‘Tis urgent, even now that Roland will dissuade the druids.”

This brought the mood down. Jessica laid her head on Leif’s shoulder, where the two sat side by side on the bed. Taran slumped where he stood against the door holding Lauren.

Leif gave everyone a pointed look. "That is enough talk for this evening. Let us recommence on the morrow."

Katherine raised her face with resolution, however. "I think just Luag and I should gae in and talk tae the Regent."

A change in the set of Leif’s jaw told Luag his friend was about to nix this idea.

But Katherine raised her hands and quickly signed for him to please give her a chance to finish.

Leif relented, telling her so with a quick raise of his head.

After briefly looking surprised, she rushed into her sales talk, which she had plainly thought through in great detail. "We already had trouble with Taran going in, and everyone kens ye are his brother, Leif. Aye, ye hae explained everyone kens Luag is a MacDonald, but he could enter Aberdeen as my aged mither. Just two women with marketing baskets on their arms should raise na fashing."

Leif shook his head no. "Ye made quite a name for yerself last evening. Ye as wull are memorable now."

But she didn't give up. "Then I wull put Jessica's plaid ower my head and we wull both be auld women."

She looked at Jessica for her approval.

Jessica nodded that of course that was fine with her, but she raised her own objections. "Yer charm will na work nearly sae wull as an auld woman, and certies ye canna expect two auld peasant women wull be admitted intae the Regent's presence?"

"Ye hae the right o' it," Katherine said, seeming to accept defeat for a moment.

But then she spoke up again with that scheming gleam in her eye which drew him to her like a moth to a flame. "‘Tis why we wull gae tae the Lady o’ Bath. We wull gae at first light through a different gate and ask the guard where she bides. She winked at me last night, impressed by my bluff. Luag wull reveal himself tae her as a MacDonald, once she invites us in. If the MacDonalds and the English are in on the invasion together, then she wull be happy tae help us any way she can."

Luag nodded slowly as the cleverness of her plan sank in. "But I hae tae warn the Regent aboot the impending attack. She will na take ower wull tae that."

Katherine smiled indulgently at him, the way one smiles at a small child who has stated something obvious. From a man it would've infuriated him, but somehow from her it made him like her.

When she spoke, the feeling intensified.

"O’ course. But Luag wull insist on speaking with the Regent privately.”

Luag looked to Leif. "‘Tis a good plan. I agree. The rest o’ ye bide here at the inn and we wull rejoin ye in at most tae days. If we have na come oot in tae days, then try some other way o’ getting the news tae the Regent."

Leif nodded sagely and then looked to his wife as if for comfort, but in in truth this was his way of signaling the others it was time to leave.

So they did. Taran and Lauren quickly went to their own room and closed the door before Luag could ask Taran if he could sleep in there and Lauren could sleep in Katherine's room.

Nope.

Luag turned to Katherine.

Katherine shrugged in a pretty way, signing, "We will just hae tae bear it, I suppose. She giggled then, the sort of anxious giggle a young lass gives her lass friends when a lad smiles at her.

He smiled at her in gratitude and stepped aside, clearing the way for her to precede him into her room, the only other room here at the inn.

She opened the door and stepped inside, turning at the last moment and holding the door open in invitation.

He accepted.

There was only one bed, a double.

"Ye take the bed,” he told her even as he was taking off his weapons and stowing them beneath it within easy reach of the floor where he would be sleeping.

"That's nice o’ ye, considering this is my room," she quipped, dropping her plaid on the floor for him and then scrambling under the covers fully clothed.

He piled his plaid on top of hers to make as comfy a billet as he could. "If ye need the chamber pot in the middle o’ the night, just kick me and I'll roll ower tae let ye by."

She rolled over in the bed so that she was on her side, facing him. "Thank ye for permission. ‘Twas my plan."

Her face was so smug, he wanted to pinch it. He settled for a mock pinch in the air in front of her nose. "Sae ye are na longer angry with me ower being a MacDonald?"

"That was na why I was angry."

"Oh?"

"Nay. I was angry because I thought ye had kept it a secret. Ye canna help what clan ye were born intae."

He couldn’t help the smile on his face as he drifted off to sleep. The room was dark. Mayhap she wouldn’t see.