Page 46 of Wolf Pack

“Will you be returning the keep…to guard it?” Agnes asked.

Now Agnes was fishing for what would happen between Alasdair and Isobel.

“Nay.What can I help you with?”

“I was going to wash. Do you want to go with me to the stream?”

“Aye, of course.”

They went into the croft and bundled up the clothes Agnes wanted to wash, including Isobel and her cousins' clothes still caked with salt from the trip across the ocean. Isobel hoped Agnes hadn’t planned to clean all their clothes by herself.

“What are you going to do?” Isobel asked Conall as they left the croft.

“Repair that one wall on the south side of the barn. It took a beating when we were hunkered down in the cave.”

“Oh, good.” Isobel smiled at him. She was so proud of him. She took more than half of the bundle of clothes from Agnes, and they walked on the well-worn path through the bracken to a small stream. She’d heard its gentle gurgling in the distance whenever she’d left the croft. She hadn’t had the chance to explore the area yet and was glad the stream was nearby.

She dipped her hand in the cool stream, relishing the feeling of the water against her skin.

Agnes smiled at her, a crinkle forming at the corner of her eyes. "I'm glad you and your kin found your way to us," she said, her voice soft and comforting.

Isobel nodded, silently thanking Agnes once again for taking them all in.

“Alasdair loaned you the horses?” Agnes asked.

“Nay. He gave them to Conall and me.” Isobel explained his reasoning.

Agnes smiled. “Aye. I see. I wanted to talk to you about something though.” She sounded a little concerned. “Cleary and Baine quickly came by here while Dawy and the twins were fishing. My husband and the children didna see the brothers, but I wondered why they had come here.”

“Because they know we’re Icelanders.”

“That’s what they were asking about.”

Isobel began cleaning Libby’s spare clothes. “What did you tell them?”

“That you were with our clan. The question rattled me, and I wasna sure what to say. I know they want to be members of the clan—safety in numbers—and they are eager to help in any way they can. But if they’re wolves, none of us know how they’ll react. I didna want to reveal that you were from Iceland. They’re serious about killing any Viking raiders they meet.”

“So they met the same marauders Alasdair and his men were dealing with?”

“Aye. Baine told me they killed two of the ones who had raided a nearby village. The one where the prisoners were taken.” Agnes beat on Dawy’s spare trewes to clean them.

Isobel didn’t want to have to tell anyone in the pack that Ari and the other man guarding the longships were with the clan she and her cousins had lived with. Then Cleary and Bainewouldthink the worst of them. “We’re no’ Viking raiders.”

“Of course no’.” Agnes beat Dawy’s clothes more as if trying to relieve her frustrations.

Isobel worried about the safety of her kin. “They wouldna hurt you and Dawy for allowing us to stay with you, would they?”

If that were the case, she and her cousins would be better off staying at the castle. But then she recalled that Alasdair said he was turning them tonight.

“Nay. And they willna hurt any of you either.”

But Dawy couldn’t fight easily with a broken leg, and both were the age of Isobel’s da and mother, so she worried about them. Even though her mother and da had been fighters, Agnes and her husband were farmers, not warriors.

“Alasdair plans to turn them tonight.”

“Oh?” Agnes shook her head. “I dinna know if that’s a good thing or bad.”

“I know. That’s what I worry about. That’s why I willna be returning to the castle tonight. I want to be here in case they come here causing trouble.”

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