Page 44 of Wolf Pack

Isobel sheathed her sword since everyone was done, and the women who wanted to challenge her with scowls wouldn’t step up to practice fighting with her. She finally saw Conall drinking mead off to the western part of the inner bailey, observing her. He should have been practicing fighting still!

He smiled at her and saluted her with his flask.

“I’m off to the croft,” Isobel told Alasdair. “I must see that everyone is doing well.”

“Will you have dinner with us?” Alasdair asked.

Bessetta shook her head as if annoyed with her brother for nottellingIsobel where she should be.

“You plan to take care of Cleary and Baine. I would rather be at the croft protecting my family, should things turn out…badly.”

“Aye. Then on the morrow? We’ll see you to break our fast.” This time, Alasdair said it as a command, not a question.

Bessetta sighed with obvious relief. Isobel was amused that his sister seemed to want to get to know her better. Or maybe Isobel and Alasdair might get to know each other better.

Isobel noted Alasdair did not mention coming to the loch this evening, but she suspected it was because so many people were within hearing distance, and he didn’t want to announce it to the clan. She hoped it wasn’t because he was worried about how they would observe him seeing her in private.

Then Isobel hugged Elene. “I will see you again soon.”

“Aye. Be safe.”

“I will.” Isobel headed towards the stables to retrieve her horse, silently gesturing to Conall to accompany her.

Before they could reach the stable, a young boy appeared and brought out both of their horses.

“I will return on the morrow,” Conall told Rory, who had been working with him on mending the wall earlier in the day.

“Aye, see you then.” Rory patted Conall’s horse on the rump.

Then Isobel smiled at Alasdair. “See you then also.”

“Aye, lass. Be safe.”

Isobel and Conall rode out of the inner bailey to the outer one and off into the meadow, through some woods, crossed a shallow creek, then reached the bracken near the croft.

“What will you call your horse?” Isobel asked Conall.

“Bramble. And yours?”

“Thistle.”

Conall twisted his mouth in thought. “Do you believe the pack leader will want to mate you?”

“It is to be seen. Mayhap.”

“I saw the way those women scorned you.”

“Mege seems to be the one showing the most animosity.”

“What would you have done if they had fought you in practice? Held back like you did with the other lasses? Or would you have shown them how powerful you truly are?”

“What do you think?”

“You would have knocked their swords from their grips and struck them with your shield, forcing them back to where they would have fallen on their arses.”

“That’s what I would have liked to have done. But Alasdair and everyone else had been watching. How would he have viewed me if I had done that?” Isobel sighed.

She would have done what Conall said if she hadn’t had such an audience to prove how deadly she could be to the women.

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