Bravely(78)

Who was Harris of DunBroch?

A whippersnapper, that was all Merida knew. A whippersnapper whom she’d seen walking through the woods with Brionn, storming from her mother’s tent on the journey, and accepting a secret whisper from the Dásachtach.

She didn’t know how to know him anymore, not like she once had.

And even though it seemed like supernatural ruin should have been the most important thing, another, more mundane threat managed to loom larger.

It came in the form of a very familiar visitor as the castle counted down the days until the Christmas feast.

Wolftail.

He wasn’t alone, of course; he had his flanking assembly of soldiers that he brought with him, but for all intents and purposes, the Dásachtach’s right-hand man might as well have been the only one visiting, because like before, he was the only one who spoke.

“I’d been hoping to never come here again,” snarled Wolftail in his gravelly voice, and the rest of the pack watched him. “I have heard instead that your daughter is still here just as before, and rather than sending your remaining two sons to mac Alpin, you have kept them here.”

Merida had a good view of him, because she and the triplets all hid in the same place she’d hidden before to eavesdrop the Christmas before, on the balcony of the Great Hall. Elinor and Fergus looked very royal sat in their thrones with their guards arrayed to one side and Elinor’s neat foster girls arrayed to the other. It was pleasing, she had to admit, to see how much the Great Hall had improved. It looked much more impressive now. Much less like a place you could just come in and kick tables over and expect to get away with it. It looked like a place Mistress mac Lagan of Ardbarrach would find suitably royal.

“Then what you’ve heard is unfair,” Fergus rumbled. “My daughter visited Ardbarrach, Kinlochy, and Eilean Glan; even one of those journeys would have been impressive in the span of a year, much less three.”

“It was her proposal, not mine,” Wolftail said.

“Yes. And she fulfilled it. Moreover, you and I both know Kinlochy burned to the ground this year, so there was no way my daughter could have found a home there. One of my sons is fostering at Ardbarrach and is only home for the winter. And I’m quite sure you can see for yourself the many foster girls we have taken in from Eilean Glan.”

Elinor’s voice was very crisp. “If your master’s goal is uniting the kingdoms, we’ve more than done our duty. But if that was never his goal, now’s when we’ll find out.”

Wolftail said, “Of course that was his goal. What a thing to doubt.”

There was a heavy silence in the Great Hall, a silence Merida felt was punctuated by the memory of that burned-down town.

“Then I believe we can agree that my daughter’s work is done,” Elinor said.

“And DunBroch’s commitment is unquestioned and responsibility to your master complete,” added Fergus.

Wolftail licked his lips, and then he said, “Truly mac Alpin will be more than delighted to hear that he can rest easy this Yuletide. Will you introduce me to the fosters, and may I speak to your son about Ardbarrach, so that I can take this news back to him? And perhaps I can see all you have done to the grounds since last we came. Then I will return to him before the weather gets more poor.”

“Very well,” Elinor said. “We would be pleased to show you what we’ve accomplished.”

Up in the balcony, Hubert whispered, “That went well.”

Because it was Hubert, it was not much of a whisper at all, since even his whispers were quite loud, but it didn’t matter, as Wolftail had already been escorted from the Hall into the courtyard.

Merida was more relieved than she could say.

She didn’t know what she’d expected, but not this. She had had half a thought that the Dásachtach would have held a grudge for the way Elinor spoke to him outside the village, or been annoyed to not simply get the triplets sent to him as he asked.

But now it was over, and she could just worry about Harris.

“And now you get to show someone else your muscles,” Hamish told Hubert.

“And Mum can parade her clever girls for him, and we can get on with Christmas,” Merida said. “What a relief.”

Harris let out an irritated breath and stormed off. A few seconds later, there was a chaos of clicking and scratching as Brionn noticed that Harris had gone by and went careening down the stairs to follow him. They said that dogs became ever more like their masters the older they got, but there was no sign yet of Brionn closing the gap between his personality and Harris’s.

“What’s his problem?” Merida demanded. She couldn’t mention the bargain, but she felt safe enough asking, “Do you think he wants something he can’t say?”

“Yeah, to run away with the Dásachtach,” said Hubert.

“What?”

Hubert stood up to go. “We heard Mum tell Dad how the Dásachtach tried to get him to come with. We were eavesdropping. You remember Harris’s face, Hame?”

Hamish nodded grimly. “He was still all torn up about it. You should have seen it. He wouldn’t talk to us for the rest of the evening. I heard him throwing stuff in the room, even.”

“He thinks we’re all idiots,” Hubert said. “It’s pretty obvious. He thinks the Dásachtach has it right and Mum and Dad are just messy and old-fashioned.”