Page 56 of Highland Fire

“Here. These are for you.” Mungan thrust a clump of flowers at Moira.

Moira warily took the half-crushed, half-withered daisies. It was late in the year, and she wondered how he had found them. Considering the poor state of the little bouquet, she suspected he had sent one of his men out searching for them. She inwardly sighed. She had only just finished eating her morning meal and was planning to go to see Adair. Mungan’s crude attempt at courting her was not something she wished to deal with now.

“Thank ye. They are verra pretty. Now, if ye would excuse me, I should like to find Adair.”

“He is being cared for.” Mungan grabbed her by the arm, tugging her outside his keep. “My men brought back one of Iver’s hirelings, so Tavig is verra busy talking to the fellow.”

“Shouldnae ye be with him? After all, if ye are to help Tavig fight Iver ye will need to ken all ye are able to about Iver, his men, and Drumdearg.”

“Tavig will tell me what is important. I thought I would show ye my holdings while my cousin is too busy to interfere. The lad hangs o’er ye like a dark cloud. Here is the armorer’s shed,” he told her.

By the time Mungan finished showing her every part of his keep, every outbuilding and every person living inside the walls, Moira was completely out of breath. She slumped against the alms table in the front hall where food and drink were set out for beggars and monks. Mungan was wealthy, tall, dark, and handsome in a rough-featured way. It would be flattering to be wooed by such a man, except that he wooed her lands, not her. Because of that, Moira was highly annoyed over being dragged around the man’s holding like some puppy.

“So, lass, ye can see that I have a lot to offer you.”

“Aye, that ye do, Sir Mungan. Ye have a verra fine holding. Why, ye seem to be doing as fine as some of those grand English lairds.” She almost smiled as he puffed out his already impressively large chest.

“I dinnae feel I make too grand a boast when I tell ye ’tis finer and richer than Tavig’s Drumdearg.”

“That is quite possibly true. Howbeit, I have ne’er seen Drumdearg. There may be something there that pleases me more.” She forced herself to stand up. “I thank ye for showing me about. Now, if ye would please excuse me, I believe I shall stagger to my bed and have a wee rest.”

Mungan rubbed his big hand over his square chin. “Ye are tired? I thought ye stronger than that since ye survived that journey with my cousin.”

Moira paused on the stairs to look at him. “Ah, weel, we walked.”

Inwardly shaking her head, she made her way toward the east tower. She would have a brief lie-down to restore her strength, then find Adair. Moira realized that she missed the child. He had been taken from her so quickly she was left with the feeling that she had somehow lost him. She also could not stop wondering about the care he was being given.

Moira stepped into the room allotted to her and Tavig, saw Una pacing back and forth, and groaned. She tossed her bedraggled bouquet on the clothes chest. Barely glancing at her glaring cousin, Moira walked to her bed and flung herself onto it, face up.

“Ye have been out walking with Mungan, havenae ye?” Una demanded, standing by the side of the bed and placing her fists on her shapely hips.

“My state of total exhaustion gave me away, did it?”

“I saw ye from my chamber window. I saw him escorting ye about the courtyard.”

“Ye mean ye saw him dragging me from pillar to post, most of it done at a near-run on my part.”

Una gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Ye just have to learn how to keep up with him and how to slow him down. He is a big mon and takes monly strides.”

“That mon’s monly strides could keep pace with a galloping horse.”

“I ken how ye were flirting with him and admiring this fine keep.”

“Una, I was too busy trying to stay on my feet for I am certain that if I had stumbled, he wouldnae have noticed. He would have just kept on dragging me along. As for admiring his keep, I fear I saw little of it. ’Twas mostly a blur as I sped by.”

“He gave ye flowers,” she snapped, grabbing up the wilting bouquet and shaking it at Moira.

“If ye admire them so much, ye can have them.”

After scowling at the battered daisies for a moment, Una tossed them aside. “Did ye drop them and step on them?”

“Nay, they looked like that when he gave them to me. Sir Mungan doesnae have a skilled hand for wooing. Although, considering he is wooing a lump of stone on the other side of his loch, he isnae doing too badly.”

“I dinnae understand what ye are babbling about.” Una pushed Moira’s leg aside and sat down on the bed. “I am here to tell ye that I want Mungan.” She glared at Moira. “He and I are already lovers.”

“Nay!” Moira placed her hand on her chest “Una, I am shocked.”

“Oh, do cease your nonsense. So, ye have clearly guessed what is between Mungan and me. Why put yourself between us?”