The Best of Loki Grant (Highland Highlights #4)

Chapter Twelve

Loki became a favorite from this first book. I’m not sure exactly why. Was it Missy Angel? The way Alex accepted him into the clan? I think it was most likely his cheekiness, and this first scene is a great illustration of the boy’s character.

Brodie is at a loss because he cannot find Celestina. Who knew help would come in the form of a wee ruffian who lived behind an inn in Ayr? And yes, the lad was indeed spying…

Brodie and Nicol stood in the middle of town, Nicol paying close attention to their surroundings while his friend picked up every twig and stick in the area to shred and toss at will.

“I swear if you do no’ stop your pacing, everyone will know your intent,” Nicol smiled.

Brodie stopped for long enough to glare at his friend. “I swear if you do no’ wipe that incessant grin off your face, I’ll do it for you.”

“What do you want to do next? Ivarsson is a rich man, and ‘tis said he has several homes. No one knows where he took her.” Nicol stared up and down the road, as if willing the passersby to give them information.

“Somebody has to know something,” Brodie barked.

“I can no’ believe the most beautiful lass in all of Ayrshire was moved out of the village without anyone noticing.

” He reached for more sticks to tear apart but found none.

Circling a copse of trees for more, he ran right into a young lad who had been standing sentinel just around the corner.

“Lad, watch where you are about. You can no’ just walk into people,” Brodie roared as he helped the boy up and set him aside.

“I dinna run into you, master. You ran into me.”

The lad’s cheekiness put a smile on his face. He had to be between six and eight summers, yet he stood there as if he owned half the land. He glared at Brodie with his hands on his hips in a challenge.

Brodie wrapped his arm around the boy’s waist and flipped him sideways, carrying him around the corner to Nicol. The lad’s arms and legs flailed like windmills until Brodie dropped him to the ground. “Look what I found hiding in the trees behind us, Nicol. An eavesdropper.”

“I wasnae spying.” The boy’s chin jutted up a few inches as he scuffled to his feet.

“Aye, you were, lad. I caught you.” Brodie tried to hide his grin, but he couldn’t. Feisty boys always reminded him of his own boyhood.

The lad crossed his arms and scrunched his face as he stared at his captor. “I was about to come out. I was just waiting.”

“Waiting for what?” Brodie’s eyebrow arched in anticipation.

“Waiting for you to be ready to pay me a big coin for my information. You have to wait till just the right time to get people to part with some gold, you see.”

Brodie glanced at Nicol to gauge his reaction to the young sprite. His friend’s eyes sparkled with amusement.

“And what information do you have worthy of a reward?” Brodie waited. This surely would prove to be entertaining. If the lad was as cheeky as he appeared, perhaps he could use him to help them find the traitors. A multitude of possibilities churned in his mind.

“I know about the angel.”

A fist hit Brodie square in the gut. The angel? His angel? He reached over and lifted the lad off the ground until his face sat a mere inch away from his.

“What angel? Out with it, lad, if you value your tongue.”

Nicol grabbed his arm. “Easy, Grant. I am sure the lad will be agreeable. Set him down and let’s find out.” He winked at Brodie. “And if he’s not, we can leave him up in that tree for awhile.”

Though he set the squirming lad down between them, Brodie kept one hand on him. He couldn’t risk losing him if he chose to bolt. “What’s your name?”

The boy tugged at Brodie’s hand, but to no avail. “Leave me be and I’ll tell you.”

“I do no’ think so. You’ll tell me now,” Brodie bellowed.

“Och, let go! Train me to be a Grant warrior like you and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Squeezing his arm a bit more, Brodie said, “Your name first, then we’ll negotiate.”

“Och, ease off! Loki, my name is Loki.”

Brodie relaxed his grip but didn’t free him completely. He didn’t trust the wee ruffian one bit.

“All right, Loki,” he said. “What angel? If ‘tis her we are looking for, I’ll consider training you.”

“The angel of Ayrshire. Everyone knows her. She has the long golden hair. Her father kept her locked up in the tower home at the end of that road. We could see her in the tower every once in a while. I used to watch her there. The sad angel.”

“And you know where she is now?”

“Certes, I know everythin’ in this town. I saw the mean bastard force her into a big cart, ‘twas the biggest I ever saw.”

“You have a raw mouth for a young lad. And even if what you say is true, it still does no’ mean you know where the cart went.”

“Ha! I noticed your moon face whenever she was around, so I decided to follow her.”

Nicol’s abrupt bark of laughter caught Brodie off guard. His moon face? “Do no’ lie to me, lad. You followed her to steal from the man.”

“Och, that, too.” His lips pursed. “But you are easy to read. You’ll follow her anywhere.

If yer wondering how I did it, I climbed under the cart into the box and rode along.

“Twas one of those fine carts, it was, with a separate compartment underneath. Aye, I do know where she is, but it’ll cost you, master warrior.

I knew you’d be looking for her. You must promise to train me. ”

Nicol’s hoot echoed in the trees. This lad had bollocks the size of a bull’s; Brodie had to give him that. A wise one for his age. Perhaps he could indeed be of use to them.

“All right. Where are your mother and father? I need to talk to them before I can make you a page to me.”

“I got none. I dinna need a mither or a father.”

“Where are they, Loki? Warriors do no’ lie.” Brodie gave him a little shake of encouragement.

“I am nae lying. Me mama died birthing me. I ne’er knew me da.”

The lad quieted and stared at the ground after this admission. Brodie heard a loud rumbling from his belly. “Where do you live?”

“Over there,” his dirty finger pointed behind a nearby inn.

“I have a wooden crate in the back to hide under in the rain.

Suits me fine. I can take care of meself.

But I want to be a Grant warrior, like I said.

‘Tis said they are the biggest and best warriors of all the Scots. I saw you come in the other day to the royal castle. And I saw the biggest laird in all the land—your laird, Alexander Grant. I want to be like you and The Grant. I promise to work hard.”

Brodie sighed. The lad lived on the street and was starving. “Nicol, go get the lad a meat pie and bring it back.” He handed his friend a coin before returning his attention to the sprite. “Will you promise to stay put if I feed you? Here, I have an oatcake for you till Nicol returns with the pie.”

The boy nodded emphatically. He could almost see the drool about to roll down Loki’s chin.

He took him by the scruff of the neck and sat him down under a nearby oak tree.

Hellfire, did the lad have to pull on his heartstrings so?

And since when did he have any heartstrings?

Heartstrings were only in lasses…or at least that’s what he’d thought before meeting Celestina.

Loki grabbed the oatcake, muttered his thanks and stuffed his face in a flash. Brodie thought of his two nephews, Alex’s lads. What if they had to go hungry?

Nicol returned with the meat pie and a sweet pastry. Brodie rolled his eyes at his friend. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one with the failing of heartstrings.

Once the lad was happily snacking on his bounty, Brodie and Nicol sat in the grass next to him.

“All right, lad. We’ll train you, but you have to tell us everything you know about the angel as soon as you finish the meat pie.

” They waited patiently as the boy devoured his food, smacking his lips in satisfaction every once in a while.

He was about to eat the sweet roll when Brodie grabbed it.

“Och, no’ yet. Information first. Where did the man take the angel?”

The lad stared at the pastry with a longing that forced Brodie to look away. “Hellfire,” he mumbled out of the corner of his mouth.

“He took her north. There’s an old keep called Creggan Hall with a tower directly north of here. ‘Tis about a day’s travel on a horse near Largs. He locked her in the tower.”

“Locked her up, why?”

Loki held his hand out for the pastry. The lad had timing; he had to give him that. He handed the treat over.

The lad licked the icing off the top before he spoke. “Aye, he locked her up, and he says he will no’ let her go until he knows she does no’ carry a babe.”

“How in hell did you find that out?” Brodie glanced at Nicol.

Could it be true? It made sense. The plan must have been planted in Ivarsson’s head by Father Padraig.

He would sleep better at night if he didn’t have to think of his wife with that man’s hands all over her.

Perfect. The more he thought about the arrangement, the more he liked it.

She’d be safe for at least a fortnight, which would give him plenty of time to kidnap her.

“I knocked on the back door and the cook gave me scraps to eat. I heard the kitchen lasses gossiping about it.”

An idea popped into Brodie’s head. He grinned at Nicol before he spoke. “Aye, lad, here’s the plan. You have to prove to me you are a hard worker and smart, too. Can you find your way back to the tower if Nicol brings you on his horse?”

“Aye.”

“Then here is your test. I have something you need to bring to the lass. Then you have to return with the proof that she received it.” He nodded as he talked, suddenly excited at this new prospect. “If you are successful, we will commence your training.”

“Aye, master. I’ll do it.” Loki pointed to Nicol. “You heard him promise me.”

“Lad, I am a Grant. I do no’ go back on my word. My name is Brodie, no’ master. And this is Nicol.”

“Aye, Master Brodie, tell me what to do. And you have to feed me, too.” Loki grinned at him. “Do no’ worry…they dinna call me Lucky Loki for naught.”