Page 2 of Once Upon a Haunted Horn and Hoof

“Am I goin’ to have a sister?” Avianca looked up at her mother with wide, green eyes.

“Yes. Or a brathair.” Yvaine told their daughter, giggling and hugging the girl to her chest.

“Nay, I want a sister,” protested the little girl, as if she thought she had a choice in the matter.

“Are we done with this clishmaclaver now, so I can talk?” asked Callum in a sarcastic tone. “After all, it is my tavern, unless ye’ve forgotten.”

“Nay, we havena forgotten. Ye will never let us forget that,” mumbled Gavin into his tankard.

“What is it, Callum?” asked Keithen. “Tell everyone what ye have to say.” When he was sure his employer was going to tell everyone his ridiculous story about having a ghost, he said something totally different that Keithen wasn’t expecting at all.

“When ye started workin’ here a fortnight ago, Keithen, I told ye I would hire ye, but that ye had to do somethin’ for me in return.” Callum crossed his arms over his chest.

“Aye, that’s right,” said Keithen, still smiling from his sister’s good news. “What did ye want me to do? Change the rushes on the floor? Or perhaps help ye make that secret recipe for your famous Mountain Magic?”

“Nay!” spat the old man, his face turning red at the suggestion. “Ye are no’ goin’ to learn my secret so dinna even try. No one ever will. And the rushes are fine and dinna need changin’.”

“Then what is it, Callum?” asked Cam, sitting back down and putting his arm around his wife.

“Keithen is a MacKeefe now, is he no?” asked Callum.

“Callum, ye ken he is,” Gavin answered. “Storm invited him into the clan when his sister married Cam.”

Callum snorted. “I still dinna consider him one of us. After all, he’s yet to prove his worth.”

The mood suddenly grew solemn.

“Well, what can I do to prove to you that I honor bein’ a MacKeefe?” asked Keithen. “Just name it, and I will do it.”

“Keithen, nay,” he heard Cam’s urgent whisper. When he looked up, he saw both Cam and Gavin scowling at him, shaking their heads in some sort of silent warning not to agree to a thing.

“Anythin’?” asked Callum. He narrowed his eyes, and his long-bearded chin jutted up in the air.

“Aye. Anythin’ at all.” Keithen had no worries. After all, he was young and strong, and the old man probably needed help moving something heavy. Even if he had to muck out the stables, he’d willingly do so to be accepted into the prestigious MacKeefe clan.

Cam cleared his throat, and Gavin faked a cough. Keithen looked over at his friends again. Now they were waving their hands in the air along with shaking their heads. He wasn’t sure what was going on.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Callum in an approving tone. “Mayhap ye’ll earn yer title of bein’ a MacKeefe after all.”

Keithen was once naught but a commoner who lived in a town in the Lowlands. He had done more than his share of jobs that most people would find disgusting or appalling. Nothing could bother him in the least. He prided himself on his ability to be adaptable, and make the crazy old man accept him along the way.

“Ye’re gettin’ married,” announced Callum.

“What?” Keithen’s head snapped around, and he stared at the old man with wide eyes. “Nay, I’m no’. I assure ye, I’m no’ gettin’ married and neither do I want to do so right now. I dinna even have myself a lass.”

“Ye do now,” said Callum.

Cam and Gavin both groaned. Keithen swore he heard one of them whisper I told ye so. Suddenly, the room went silent as everyone listened intently.

“Keithen, ye are in for it now,” said Cam.

“Ye never should have agreed to willingly do anythin’ for Callum,” added Gavin. “That was yer first mistake.”

“What’s this all about?” Keithen shrugged, feeling totally confused. “I’m tellin’ ye, I do no’ have a special lass, and I dinna plan on gettin’ married for a long, long time yet.”

“Yer bride-to-be is Lorna MacNeil,” Callum continued. “She’s arrivin’ here in the mornin’ to marry ye right away. Now, be sure no’ to do anythin’ to scare her off.” Callum turned to go back to the drink board, but Keithen grabbed him by the arm.

“Wait a minute. Ye are no’ serious about this?”