The sound died in her palms but her shoulders kept shaking.
Beside her, two kitchen lads were staring at the tablecloth.
The hall waited.
Anthony watched the animal for a long moment. It continued chewing with complete composure, tail curled neatly, ears turned slightly away, the posture of a creature that had assessed the situation and found it satisfactory.
He exhaled through his nose.
Of all the plates on this table, mine?
"I am besieged," he said. Not to anyone in particular. To the situation itself. "First a healer who disobeys every instruction given to her. Now a beast that steals me supper in front of me entire clan."
"He has good instincts," Catriona said.
She was failing, visibly, to suppress the mirth around her mouth.
Anthony looked at the fox gravely. The fox did not look back. It had, apparently, concluded that he was no longer the most interesting thing in the room.
Aye. Of course.
"Aye." He reached for his cup. "Disrespect runs strong in yer household."
He heard it leave him before he could stop it. A short, quiet laugh, the kind that escaped when something caught you entirely off guard. Four seconds at most. He returned his expression to neutral immediately.
But the hall had heard it.
From the far end of the table, Mairi had abandoned all pretense, both hands pressed to her mouth, shoulders shaking openly.
Beside her, the two kitchen lads exchanged a sideways glance and allowed themselves small, careful grins, the kind that said they'd be talking about this for a month.
Even Donal, at the far end of the table, had set down his cup and was studying the grain of the wood with an expression of profound interest.
Fergus had found something extremely important to look at on the far wall.
I'll be hearin' about this from Fergus until spring.
Catriona's smile reached her eyes properly then, briefly, before she pulled it back.
She reached for her cup and said nothing more, but the warmth of it sat in the air between them for the rest of the meal. He found, to his considerable irritation, that he didn't particularly want it to end.
The fox finished the meat, cleaned his whiskers with one paw, and went to sleep against her hip.
Anthony did not ask for his supper to be replaced.
He found her the next morning with her pouch half-packed and her back to the door, tying herb bundles with the focused efficiency of someone who had already made a decision and was simply preparing to execute it.
He'd seen Fergus in the corridor a minute earlier, and Fergus had given him the particular look that meant,
Something is about to require your attention.
He stopped in the doorway.
"Ye're nae leavin'."
She didn't turn immediately. Kept tying. "I require lungwort. Yer stores are insufficient."
"Ye will ask before stepping beyond me gates."
