Lexie looked like she was about to slam her palm down and squash Bob like a bug. ‘I think she’ll do fine,’ I replied drily. ‘You’re coming with me. You can be another pair of eyes. An honorary Clan member.’ My eyes gleamed. ‘For the first time in twenty-six years, the Adair Clan entourage will outnumber the others. There’ll be three of us for two of them.’

‘Three?’ Brochan asked. ‘Who’s the third person going to be?’ He looked at my face and groaned. ‘No. Not her. She’s nuts.’

I grinned at him and winked. Right now, she was the only Sidhe apart from possibly Jamie whom I trusted.

Chapter Nineteen

The Sidhe were sticklers for punctuality. I’d slept surprisingly well on the hard bed and the pain in my ribs was far more manageable now I’d had some rest. It was a struggle to get up and drag myself down to meet the rest of my merry band at dawn, even though I was usually a morning person.

They were waiting, several with scowls on their faces. It clearly galled a lot of them that they’d had to come to an Adair for help– and that they’d been forced to delay the trip because of me. For my part, I waved happily at them. Lily and Aifric smiled back. Byron glared at me suspiciously for a moment before relaxing into a small smile. The others simply glowered.

‘Chieftain! You honour me with your request,’ Lily sang.

‘I can’t believe the Macquarries let her come,’ the younger of the two Kincaids muttered.

‘That’s because they’re all crazy,’ I heard the Darroch Chieftain reply. Even though she was agreeing with Kincaid, she still received a nasty look for butting in on the conversation. Interesting. Maybe they all hated each other as much as they hated me.

One by one, they mounted their horses. Even Lily sprang up onto a pretty white mare. ‘No bells,’ she said sadly. ‘I like bells. Ding a ling a ling a ling!’

Byron leaned over to me. ‘She wanted them tied into the mane,’ he informed me. ‘Along with multi-coloured ribbons.’

I shrugged. ‘What’s wrong with that?’ If I could get a nice docile horse with hot-pink fripperies attached to its mane, maybe this riding business wouldn’t be so bad.

Byron frowned. ‘You haven’t forgotten how serious this mission is, have you?’

‘Hey,’ I said lightly, ‘I chose to accept it. It would have been a shame if you chose to self-destruct ten seconds after delivering it, though.’

‘Huh?’

‘Mission Impossible?’

Aifric and his horse trotted over. ‘This mission is far from impossible, Ms. Taylor. Don’t be so anxious.’

Good grief. Pop culture references were clearly going to be lost on this lot.

‘Mount up, Integrity,’ Byron said. ‘We don’t want to waste time.’