Mayhap she stayed because Wen, also very wet, had hunkered down beside Adair, as close as he could get.
Adair did not know what to make of what had happened out in the forest, the sense of communion with the stag and the aid it had lent. Meeting with Bradana after and that terrible, powerful moment when she’d seized his hand. The emotions that had come at him then, rising up seemingly from nowhere.
Nay, not from nowhere. They had a source. One he did not comprehend.
Had she felt that also? He watched her even as he pretended to center his attention on Wen, so close beside him.
The hound, out of all these here, seemed to favor him.
“Wha’ happened?” Kendrick asked, taking a seat also by the fire. “Tell me now before my scamps o’ sons arrive.”
Adair squinted at his uncle. Would he welcome the truth? Some men did not wish to hear ill of their kin, and especially their sons.
A bit ruefully, Adair said, “My cousins took me up through the forest. It seemed we did no’ take a direct route but circled round some. But then, I do not know the land. At length we came to a clearing, a good place for hunting, so I thought. They left me there.”
Kendrick huffed out an unhappy breath. “How did ye—”
Before he could complete the question, Kerr and Tolen came in. They crashed into the chamber noisily, shedding water, and Mistress Tavia, who’d just sat down, stood up again with a cry of dismay.
“Och!” said Tolen, stopping just inside the door. “So ye found him, then.”
He did not sound particularly pleased about it. Adair reckoned he was supposed to have perished out in the wild.
“Wha’ happened?” Kendrick cried. “Your cousin was in your care.”
“No’ our fault,” Tolen said quickly.
And in a dour voice, Kerr repeated, “No’ our fault.”
“How not? Ye took him hunting and were meant to look after him.”
“He went astray,” Tolen claimed with a hard look at Adair that cursed him for failing to remain so.
“So,” Kendrick barked, “ye did no’ leave him out there on purpose?”
“Is that wha’ he says?” Tolen demanded with scorn. “Nay—he took a fright, so he did, when faced wi’ our wild country. I reckon he is used to the soft fields o’ Erin.”
The scorn in Toren’s voice made Adair shift uncomfortably.
It was Bradana who replied. “He did find his own way back, though, mostly. Wen and I met him up in the trees no’ far off.”
Tolen’s hard glare scorched her. He said nothing.
Kendrick roared, “My sons have embarrassed and disappointed me. There is a law o’ hospitality. ’Tis as good as a geis. This law ha’ ye broken.”
Both young men looked angry, neither of them ashamed.
Mistress Tavia waved her hands at them. “Go. Go. Ye be shedding water everywhere.”
Seizing the escape she offered, they went. A silence fell in the room, during which Mistress Tavia once more sat down, cradling her belly.
“Kendrick,” she said at length, “I am no’ fit to tolerate this nonsense.”
“Nay,” Kendrick agreed, apparently abashed even as his sons were not. He lifted his eyes to Adair. “I apologize for my sons’ actions. They are strong-headed and it leads them into trouble from time to time. Ye maun forgive their boyish antics.”
Adair must forgive nothing, but he did not say so.
“Boyish antics!” Mistress Tavia exclaimed. “They are men full grown.”
