"Is that so?" Morgan smiled and turned to Asta. "We couldn't possibly miss that, could we?" He raised his voice and called, "Marco!" Russo appeared in the open windows. "Bring the estate car round, we're going to the village for a drink and you drive. I've a feeling we might need you."
The Campbell Arms was very old, built of gray granite, but the sign that hung above the door was freshly painted. Dillon parked across the street and he and Hannah and Ferguson got out and crossed, pausing as a young gypsy rode by bareback on a pony leading three others behind. There was a poster on the wall advertising the Ardmurchan Fair and Games.
"That looks like fun," Ferguson said and opened the door and led the way in.
There was an old-fashioned snug bar, the type that in the old days was for women only. This was empty, but a further door gave access to a large saloon, beams in the ceiling. There was a long bar with a marble top, scores of bottles behind ranged against a great mirror. There was a peat fire on an open hearth, tables, chairs, booths with high-backed wooden settles. It was not exactly shoulder-to-shoulder, but perhaps a crowd of thirty or more, some obviously gypsies to do with the fair, others more local, old men wearing cloth caps and leggings, or in some cases Highland bonnets and plaids like Hector Munro, who stood at one end of the bar with Rory and Fergus.
There was a buzz of conversation that stopped abruptly as Ferguson stepped in, the others at his shoulder. The woman behind the bar came round wiping her hands on a cloth. She wore an old hand-knitted jumper and slacks. "You are welcome in this place, Brigadier," she said in a Highland accent and took his hand. "My name is Molly."
"Good to be here, my dear," he said. "I hear your food is excellent."
"Over here." She led them to one of the booths by the fire and turned to the room. "Get on with your drinking while I handle the damned English," she told them in Gaelic.
Sean Dillon said in Irish, "A bad mistake you make in my case, woman of the house, but I'll forgive you if you can find me a Bushmills whiskey."
She turned, her mouth open in surprise, then put a hand to his face. "Irish is it? Good lad yourself and I might surprise you." They settled down and she added in English, "Fish pie is what there is today if you have a mind to eat. Fresh cod, onions, and potatoes."
"Which sounds incredible to me," Ferguson told her. "I'll have a Guinness, lager beer for the lady, and whatever you and my friend here have decided."
"A man after my own heart and a good Scots name to you."
She went off and as the conversation flowed again Dillon lit a cigarette. "The old man with the granite face and the bonnet at the end of the bar is Hector Munro, the damaged one is Fergus, and the bit of rough with the good shoulders that's looking at you so admiringly, Hannah, my love, is Rory."
She flushed. "Not my type."
Dillon turned and nodded to the Munros. "Oh, I don't know, with a couple of drinks in you at the shank of the night, who knows?"
"You are a bastard, Dillon."
"I know, it's been said before."
Hector Munro wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and came over, shouldering men aside. "Mr. Dillon, you did my son a service," he said in English, "and for that I thank you. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot."
"This is my uncle, Brigadier Ferguson," Dillon said.
"I ken the name Ferguson," Munro said. "There are a few not many miles from here Tomentoul way, they were on our left flank at Culloden fighting King George's bloody Germans."
"You do have a lengthy memory," Ferguson said. "Almost two hundred and fifty years long. Yes, my ancestors did fight at Culloden for Prince Charles."
"Good man yourself." Munro pumped his hand and went back to the bar.
"My goodness, we are trapped in memory lane," Ferguson said as Molly brought the drinks. She put them on the table and the door opened and Morgan and Asta walked in, Murdoch and Marco behind them.
There was another silence, Morgan surveying the room, and then he came forward with Asta. Behind him Marco stayed at the bar and Murdoch approached Molly. Morgan and Asta sat on the settle opposite Ferguson and his party.
"Brigadier, what a pleasure. I didn't have a chance to introduce you to my daughter last night. Asta-Brigadier Ferguson."
"A pleasure, my dear," Ferguson told her. "You know my nephew. This charming lady, by the way, is my secretary, Miss Hannah Bernstein."
Murdoch came from the bar with glasses and a bottle of white wine. "Not much choice, sir, it's a Chablis."
"As long as they didn't make it in the back yard it will be fine," Morgan said. "What about the food?"
"Fish and potato pie, old boy," Ferguson said. "They only have one dish a day."
"Then fish and potato pie it is," Morgan told him. "We're hardly having lunch at the Caprice."
"Indeed not," Ferguson said. "Very different waters."
"Exactly." Murdoch poured the wine and Morgan raised his glass. "What shall we drink to?"
"Confusion to our enemies," Dillon said. "A good Irish toast."
"How very apt."
Asta drank a little wine and said, "How nice to meet you, Miss Bernstein. Strange, but in the time we were together, Dillon never mentioned you. Having met you, of course, I understand why."
"Try and behave yourself, why don't you," Dillon told her.
Her eyes widened in outrage and Morgan frowned, and then Murdoch leaned over and whispered in his ear and Morgan turned and looked toward the bar. At that moment Fergus was sliding toward the door.
Morgan called in Italian, "Stop him, Marco, that's the one I want."
Marco put a hand to Fergus's chest and pushed him back and Hector Munro and Rory took a step forward. "Leave my son be or you answer to me," the old man said.
Morgan called, "Munro, I asked for your son earlier and you claimed no knowledge as to his whereabouts. As your employer, I expected better."
"My son is my business. What touches him touches us all."
"Please spare me that kind of peasant claptrap. He assaulted my daughter and for that he must pay."
And Fergus was frightened now, his face white and desperate. He tried to dodge around Marco, who caught him with ease, grabbing him by the neck, turning him, sending him to his knees before Morgan.
The bar was totally silent. "Now then, you animal," Morgan said.
Rory came in on the run. "Here's for you," he cried and swung a punch into the base of Marco's spine. The Sicilian shrugged it off, turned, blocking Rory's next punch, and gave him a right that landed high on the left cheek, sending Rory staggering back against the bar.
Fergus, cowering in fear on the floor, saw his chance, got up to make for the door. Marco, turning, was already moving to block him off when Hannah Bernstein stuck out a foot and tripped him. Marco went sprawling and Fergus was out of the door like a weasel.
"Dreadful, isn't it," Ferguson said to Morgan. "I can't take her anywhere."
As Marco got up, Rory moved in from the bar and Dillon jumped in between them. "This dog is mine," he said in Irish to Rory. "Now drink your beer like a good lad and let be."
Rory stared at him, rage in his eyes, then took a deep breath. "As you say, Irishman, but if he lays a hand on me again, he is my meat," and he turned and went back to the bar.
"Strange," Ferguson said to Morgan, "but since meeting you life's taken on an entirely new meaning."
"Hasn't it?" Morgan said amiably, and at that moment Molly arrived with a huge tray containing plates of her fish and potato pie.
"My word that does smell good." Ferguson beamed. "Let's tuck in, I'm sure we're going to need all our strength."
Afterwards, standing in the street outside, Morgan said, "I wondered about dinner tomorrow night perhaps. I thought it might be nice to invite Lady Katherine."
"Excellent thought," Ferguson said. "Delighted to accept."
Asta said, "Do you ride, Dillon?"