Honestly? He’d do that for her? She could stay with the family and earn her own coin? “What about shoes?”

“All our servants wear shoes.”

Heat rose to her cheeks and she covered them with cool fingers, hoping he wouldn’t notice if she was blushing. “I’ve never owned a pair.”

“No shoes?” he asked as if being barefoot were a sin, though few of the crofter’s children in Connel were able to afford them. “Well then, I reckon you’ll be happier at Achnacarry than anywhere you’ve lived in all your days.”

Divana held up her basket and pretended to examine it, though she was hiding her smile. If Sir Kennan’s bonfire did indeed bring a ship, she’d no longer be alone. She’d live and work in a castle. At Achnacarry, mayhap she’d even chance to see Sir Kennan from time to time…at least when he wasn’t away being a sea captain.

* * *

One side of the bothy was hewn from the steep wall of the bluff, while the other three consisted of stones bonded together with crumbling mortar. In truth, if Divana stayed on Hyskeir another year, the walls would likely fall to pieces around her. The roof had all but blown away, and Kennan lay on his aching belly, pushing twisted clumps of thatch into any crevice that looked as if it might spring a leak. But with every shove, the existing thatch crumbled a bit more.

I should have left the bloody roof alone.

There was nothing on the isle to use for proper repairs. The fact that Divana had survived alone this long was a miracle, if not a testament to her resourcefulness. He pushed in another clump of twisted thatch, and a gust of wind caught the miserable thing and blew it to the ground.

“Fie!”

There had to be something on this godforsaken isle he could use to tie the thatch down. Aye, he might braid the seagrass into a rope, but they’d most likely see a boat from Rùm before the plant dried and was ready to use. While scavenging for driftwood, he’d spotted bits of rubbish washed up on the shore. Perhaps if he scouted about, he might find some wire or a length of rope that wasn’t so eaten away by salt water it was useless.

He’d collected the driftwood on the northern tip, but on the south shore, there was a wee cove where bits and pieces of castoffs from ships were more likely to gather. Unfortunately, his feet didn’t seem to be growing any tougher. So, as he’d done since the surf spat him out on this blessed isle, Kennan treaded lightly over the jagged stones. Yesterday he’d walked the circumference of the isle, a trek that took about an hour. He’d spotted the cove but hadn’t ventured down to the water because the rocks were jagged and filled with nesting ducks.

Divana said the eiders all arrived within a few days. Good timing, he reckoned, because it took an awful lot of clams to sate a man’s hunger. Not to mention the poor lass looked as if she needed a month of feasting to add some meat to her slender bones.