“Two plans,” Derrick said, stepping back and looking over the board. “We’ll need a primary and fallback, just in case.”
“We,” Oliver echoed. “What do you mean,we? You can’t come.”
Derrick turned and faced him. “No choice. Sam ordered me to go with you.”
Oliver would have gone to find Derrick’s wife and first scold her for being willing to put her husband in harm’s way, then hug her for being so kind to him, but all he could do was look at his best mate and shake his head. Just once.
“I’ll go,” Ewan volunteered.
Oliver hardly had the wherewithal to smother his surprise. That was an offer he hadn’t expected.
“With all due respect,” he said carefully, “this is for all intents and purposes medieval Scotland we’re headed back to with swords and witch hunters and many people who will want you dead.”
“Sounds like a rough night in Glasgow to me,” Ewan said with a yawn. “I’ll manage.”
“Ewan—”
Oliver heard Cameron clear his throat and he turned to look at his freely chosen laird.
“My lord?”
“I know we all want him dead more often than not,” Cameron said with a faint smile, “but he’s more observant than you give him credit for being.”
“And what,” Derrick managed in a strangled voice, “are you saying?”
“What he’s saying,” Ewan said pleasantly, “is that you are a gaggle of dolts who had no idea what you were looking at all those years you worked for him. I, if I might be so bold, am not so stupid.” He paused. “I’m also the one who picked up the phone when Moraig called, then drove Alistair to her house after which I drove both of them to hospital in Inverness.”
Oliver staggered. He tripped over Derrick who had also staggered and found himself sitting in an untidy little heap with his boss on Cameron’s office sofa. He looked at Derrick, then at Ewan.
“My ears are going,” he said faintly.
“I won’t offer details you both are incapable of understanding,” Ewan said archly. “I’ll just say that I know Ian MacLeod very well and John Bagley keeps my Claymore in the back of his studio so I don’t have to carry it around like a Year Four lad totting his lunchbox.”
“When?” Oliver asked blankly. “When did you find out anything?”
Ewan rolled his eyes. “I grew up here in the hall. Old Alistair was also my great-uncle, which you should know if you don’t. Did you think I hadn’t paid attention to happenings in the clan?”
“And you didn’t want the title?” Oliver managed. He shot Cameron a look. “Before, I mean.”
“I would have had to fight Derrick over it and that might have mussed my manicure.”
Oliver felt his eyes narrow. “You’re responsible for the mani-pedi, aren’t you?”
Ewan only returned his look mildly. “When one has spent, as I have, an enormous amount of time becoming proficient with a wide variety of weapons including steel, one’s hands occasionally require attention lest the fairer sex complain.”
Oliver shuddered. “Shut up, I beg you.”
“And nay,” Ewan said, making Cameron a brief bow, “I never wanted the title. I was thrilled when Cameron hopped over all those centuries to take up his rightful place yet again.” He smiled briefly. “As for the rest, anything for a brother, aye?”
Oliver nodded sharply, because that was better than looking around for a handy corner in which to bawl like a bairn. He looked at Cameron who only smiled.
“Go take a nap in front of the fire for half an hour,” Cameron said, nodding toward the great hall. “You already know what needs to be done, but we’ll have a proper schematic plotted out for your approval. You and Ewan can fly down and be there well before dusk.”
Oliver would have protested, but he found himself hauled up from the sofa and shoved out the office door. It was shut in his face, so he supposed he had no choice but to leave his mates to their discussion of magnets and Highlanders with swords and eejits with books to complete.
He imagined the best use he could make of his time was indeed to nap even for a few minutes, so he walked across the hall, then cast himself down on that very comfortable sofa he’d used more than once in the past. He closed his eyes, then felt Mairead sit down with him.
He was almost certain he could feel her hand on his head.
