"I wasnae wonderin'."
Fergus made a sound that wasn't quite a word.
"Say it," Anthony said.
Fergus set the hoof down and straightened and turned around.
He only did that, the full turn, facing direct, when he'd decided something was worth the trouble of a proper conversation.
He looked at Anthony for a moment.
"Six years is a long time to be alone," he said.
"I'm nae alone. I have sixty men and a keep full of people."
"Alone." Fergus said it the same way he'd said it the first time.
Flat. Final. Like a door closing.
Anthony crossed his arms and leaned against the post. Said nothing.
"She's good," Fergus said. "Stubborn as a wall and she argues like it's a skill she's been honing her whole life, but she's good. The boy likes her. Seumas likes her, though he'd rather eat his own boots than admit it. Even that fox of hers has stopped stealin' from everyone except Callum, which I consider a reasonable judgment."
"Fergus."
"I'm just notin' what I see."
"What ye see is yer Laird's business. Nae yers."
Fergus looked at him for another moment. Then he raised both hands in the gesture that meantas ye likewhile communicating the complete opposite, and turned back to the horse.
Anthony pushed off the post and walked out.
In the yard he stopped. Looked at the well. The bucket still sat at the edge where she'd left it.
He walked past it and went inside. He went up to James' room.
The boy was awake, propped on his pillows, working on a small piece of wood with a short knife, shavings scattered across the blanket.
He looked up when the door opened.
"Ye're early," James said.
"I had a moment." Anthony pulled the chair to the bedside and sat. He looked at the wood. "What is that?"
James turned it. Pointed end, a rough curve at the top that was trying to be ears.
"Fox," he said. "Catriona said she'd show me how to do the tail."
"Hm."
"She kens how to carve. She said she learned it so she could make her own tool handles when she was travelin' and broke one." James looked at the carving. "She said ye have to learn a lot of things when ye're alone."
Anthony said nothing to that.
"She's teachin' me the names of all her herbs," James continued, picking up the knife again. "The real names, the Latin ones. She says if ye ken the real name of a thing ye can find it anywhere, even if people call it something different."
He turned the wood carefully. "She said that's true of people too."
