Page 13 of Honour Bound
I swallowed. ‘Wow. So we can make a reasonable guess about which part of the competition Debbie is going to be in. Do you know anything else?’
Taylor shook his head. ‘No. I could find out. If I asked around, I’m sure someone would have some information.’
I thought about it. ‘Nah, best not. We don’t want to seem like we’re cheating. And I’m betting the Clan Chieftains will do whatever they can to stop me participating. We don’t want to give them a reason to cancel my entry.’ A smile played around my lips as I imagined their reaction if I won. ‘Besides, if the challenges aren’t repeated from one set of Games to the next, information about the last ones won’t help ? although it wouldn’t hurt to keep our ears to the ground. We know the Carnegies are the organisers so maybe something will drift our way. Debbie did.’
‘So you’re definitely going to compete?’ Taylor asked.
My smile spread until I was grinning so hard it was possible my carefully applied make-up would crack. ‘You can count on it.’ Aifric’s face hovered in my mind for a moment before I added, ‘And I’m going to win.’
***
Travis was only too happy to give me time off from mountain rescue. He was so quick to agree that I almost opened my mouth to argue with him but in the end I decided it was easier not to look a gift horse in the face. It was a close-run thing though. I really had to stop letting my emotions get the better of me.
Once that small matter was taken care of, my posse set about making the necessary preparations. That meant locating supplies – not to mention finding the cash to buy them.
‘We could just nick everything we need,’ Lexie said pragmatically when we pooled our money and realised how little we had.
It was tempting but I couldn’t take the risk. ‘We don’t steal from our own. And if we steal anything from the Sidhe who turn up at the Cruaich…’
‘Yeah, yeah. But buying all that food will be expensive.’
I grimaced. After Aifric Moncrieffe tried to poison me we couldn’t take any chances: no food or drink could pass our lips at the Cruaich so we had to buy in. It was necessary – but costly.
‘We also need to get hold of your Clan tartan,’ Lexie continued, ‘and weaponry for when…’
‘Whoa. No weapons.’
She looked exasperated. ‘I know you don’t like fighting but I don’t think you’ll be able to avoid it.’
‘I’m not going to give those bastards another reason to slag off my name. If I win through force then that’s not a win. Weapons won’t be necessary.’
‘Hello?’ She knocked the side of her head. ‘Gigantic spider to beat off? Not to mention what else they’ve found or what they’ll ask you to do. This is a weakness of yours, Integrity. If the other Clans are determined to stop you from winning, they’ll exploit your unwillingness to fight.’
I shrugged. ‘They don’t know about it so they can’t exploit it.’
‘I think they’ll realise it quickly enough,’ Lexie grumbled.
‘If they do,’ I responded calmly, ‘we’ll deal with it.’
‘Fine,’ she said, with a toss of her blue hair. ‘You still need your tartan, though. In fact, if we’re going to be your entourage, we need to wear it too.’ She pursed her lips and indicated a mark on her thigh just below her arse. ‘I’m thinking mini skirt. Or hot pants.’
Unfortunately for Speck, he chose that moment to wander into the room.
‘Hey Speckster!’ Lexie called. ‘Do you think I should wear hot pants?’ She twirled round. ‘Or a mini skirt?’
His face immediately went flame red. ‘What?’
Mischief glinted in her eyes. ‘In the Adair colours. It’s to support Tegs. I could always run up a tartan bikini as well.’
‘It’ll be February, Lex,’ I said. ‘In Scotland.’
She grinned. ‘That’s okay. The Cruaich is bound to have a hot tub, right? Although,’ she added, her face taking on a thoughtful cast, ‘we’ll save money if I just go in the nude.’
Speck didn’t know where to look. Feeling sorry for him, I came to his rescue. ‘What have you got, Speck?’ I asked.
He coughed. ‘First of all,’ he said, looking pointedly at Lexie, ‘you can’t use the Adair tartan. It’s verboten.’
I screwed up my face. ‘Those pricks. No wonder it wasn’t present in the Cruaich main hall.’ Every single one of the other twenty-four Clans’ tartans was proudly displayed there for all to see – except the one for Clan Adair. ‘Can’t we resurrect it?’
