Page 94 of The Highland Laird’s Hellion Bride

Liam lifted his cup. “Who’s winnin’?”

“Mrs. McAulay . By a considerable margin.” Magnus pulled out the empty chair and sat. “The watches changed out clean this morning?”

Duncan’s expression stayed easy, but his eyes moved once to Liam and back. “Aye. Western approach had nothing to report. North postern neither.”

“And the lower pass?”

“Two men from first light. Same.” Duncan turned his cup in a slow circle on the table. “Calm mornin’.”

Magnus nodded.

He looked down the corridor toward the hall, where the noise had taken on a different shape now, a fiddle starting up, someone testing a tune and circling back to correct it.

The castle smelled of beeswax and fresh bread and the greenery they’d hauled in from the hills yesterday, and it sounded like a home. He sat with that for a moment before pushing back from the table.

He’d meant to go to the stables. He went back to the hall instead because he hadn’t seen Elspeth all morning, which was unlike her.

She should be pacing around the hall now. Where is she?

Agnes was standing near the far wall, watching the musicians with her arms folded and her head tilted. Magnus came and stood beside her, because she was the only other person in the room not currently talking.

She glanced up at him. “The tall one is off the beat.”

“Aye.” Magnus looked at the musicians. “He’ll find it.”

Agnes considered this and returned her attention to the tall musician. After a moment, she said, “Elspeth taught me a step last week. For the cèilidh.”

Magnus looked down at her. “Did she?”

“Aye. She said it was simple, but that simple was better than falling.” Agnes unfolded her arms and held one out to him with seriousness. “Will ye practice it with me? So I daenae fall in front of everyone.”

He looked at the small hand extended toward him. He looked at the hall full of people. He looked at the hand again.

He took it.

What followed was witnessed by considerably more people than he would have liked.

Agnes counted the steps aloud, which he respected, because it was the correct approach, and she turned at precisely the right moment, which she had clearly practiced.

The only issue was that Magnus was focusing hard on not dropping or stepping on the six-year-old. His feet made their own arrangements, and when he glanced up from watching Agnes’s careful footwork, he found that three village women, both musicians, Duncan, Liam, and Mrs. McAulay had formed a loose and very attentive audience.

Magnus released Agnes’s hand and straightened. “Good,” he told her. “Ye’ll nae fall.”

Agnes nodded, satisfied, and went back to watching the musicians.

Magnus walked to the door with his hands clasped behind his back. Becky nearly walked into him in the corridor.

She stepped back with an apology already forming, and he held up a hand.

“Lady Elspeth,” he said. “Where is she?”

Becky’s face did something small and uncertain that he didn’t like. “I daenae ken, me Laird. She hasnae rung for me this mornin’.”

“She hasnae come down?”

“Nay. I thought perhaps she was restin’. I didnae want to disturb her.”

“Where was she last night?” Magnus kept his voice level. “Did she seem so tired to sleep in past dawn?”