A thick, swirling mist was settling over the town. Within a quarter hour the dense fog would be impossible to navigate through; they’d arrived just in time to avoid the worst of it. Grimm had settled his horse in the small U-shaped courtyard behind the inn, where a ratty lean-to swayed precariously from the drooping roof. Occam would find sufficient shelter, provided the flood didn’t carry him off.
Grimm whisked the beaded water droplets off his plaid before entering the inn. Any weaver worth her salt wove the fabric so tightly it was virtually water-repellant, and the weavers at Dalkeith were some of the finest. He unfastened a length of the woolen fabric and draped it across his shoulder. Quinn and Ramsay were already at the fire, toasting their hands and drying their boots.
“Bloody nasty weather out there, ain’t it, lads?” The barkeep beckoned cheerfully through the doorway to the adjoining tavern. “Me, I’ve got a fire in here s’warm as tha’ one, and a fine brew to chase yer chill, so dinna tarry. Me name’s Mac,” he added with a friendly nod. “Come bide a wee.”
Grimm glanced at Quinn, who shrugged. His expression plainly said there wasn’t much else to do on such a miserably wet evening than pass it drinking. The three men ducked through the low doorway that partitioned the eatery from the tavern proper and claimed several battered wooden stools at a table by the hearth.
“Seein’ as ’tis nearly deserted in here, I may as well pull up a seat once I’ve seen t’ yer drinks. No’ many venture out in a downpour such as this.” The barkeep ambled unevenly to the bar, then lumbered back to their table, producing a bottle of whisky and four mugs with a flourish.
“ ’Tis a fardlin’ mess out there, ain’t it? An’ where be ye travelin’?” he asked, sitting heavily. “Dinna mind me leg, I think the wood’s goin’ soft,” he added as he grabbed a second stool, lifted his wooden leg by the ankle, and dropped it on the slats. “Sometimes it pains me when the weather goes damp. An’ in this damn country, tha’s all the time, ain’t it? Gloomy place, she is, but I love ’er. Y’ever been outside of Alba, lads?”
Grimm glanced at Quinn, who was gazing raptly at the barkeep, his expression a mixture of amusement and irritation. Grimm knew they were both wondering if the lonely little barkeep would ever shut up.
It was going to be a long night.
A few hours later the rain hadn’t abated, and Grimm used the excuse of checking on Occam to escape the smoky tavern and Mac’s incessant prattle. Besieged by the same restlessness that had ridden him at Dalkeith, he could scarcely sit still for longer than a few hours. He slipped into the back courtyard of the inn, wondering what Jillian was doing at the moment. A slight smile curved his lips as he pictured her stomping about, tossing her glorious mane of hair, outraged that she’d been left behind. Jillian despised being excluded from anything “the lads” did. But this was for the best, and she would realize it when Quinn returned with his gift and made his formal pledge. Grimm could scarcely look at Quinn without being struck by what a perfect couple they would make, giving birth to perfect, golden children with aristocratic features and not a touch of inherited madness. Perhaps by getting the two of them together he could redeem himself in some small measure, he mused, although the thought of Jillian with Quinn caused his stomach to tighten painfully.
“Get out o’ me kitchen and dinna be returnin’, ye ratty-ass whelp.” A door on the far side of the courtyard suddenly burst open. A child tumbled head over heels into the night and landed prone in the mud.
Grimm studied the man whose wide frame nearly filled the doorway. He was a big, beefy man, well over six feet tall, with a frizzled crown of short-cropped brown curls. His face was mottled red in patches, either due to rage or exertion, or more likely both, Grimm decided. He clutched a wide butcher’s knife that gleamed dully in the light.
The lad clambered to his knees, slipping on the sodden ground. He scrubbed at a spattering of mud on his cheek with thin, dirty fingers. “But Bannion always gives us the scraps. Please, sir, we need to eat!”
“I’m no’ Bannion, ye insolent whelp! Bannion doesna work here anymore, and no wonder, if he be giving away to such as ye. I’m the meat butcher now.” The man cuffed the child with such vigor that the boy collapsed onto his backside in the mud, shaking his head dazedly. “Ye think we spare any cuts fer the likes o’ ye? Ye can rot in a gutter, Robbie MacAuley says. I dinna expect anyone to feed me. It’s the likes o’ ye rats that grow up to be thieves and murderers of honest, hardworkin’ men.” The meat butcher stepped out into the rain, dragged the child from the mud by his scruffy collar, and shook him. When the lad began howling, the butcher cracked a meaty hand across his face.