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“I’ll be there.”

“We’re having lunch first,” Lachlan said.

“All right.”

“Edeen’s coming too. She said she doesn’t trust us to go easy on you the first time.” Lachlan smiled.

“You’re right about that,” Edeen said.

Robert chuckled.

“But we wouldn’t do that to you. We don’t want you to avoid other practices,” Lachlan said. Footfalls headed toward the guest chamber. “Sounds like you have some more visitors.”

***

Colleen and Maisie headed down the long hallway after climbing the circular stairs—Maisie swore she didn’t want to look at one more stair today—and reached a chamber. The door was open, and Colleen knocked on it. A pretty redheaded woman with beautiful green eyes was in the room standing beside the bed where Robert was buried under blankets. Lachlan and Enrick were there too.

“Hey, is it okay if we check on Robert?” Colleen asked.

“I’m fine.” Robert rubbed his forehead, his dark-brown hair dry now. The color had returned to his lips and face, and he gave Maisie a small smile, his blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight streaming through the window.

Maisie was glad to see he was looking better.

The red-haired woman eyed Maisie, measuring her up. Was she interested in dating Robert? Or was she his mate? Maisie shouldn’t have cared one way or another, but it bothered her just the same.

She was a sucker for beautiful blue eyes and a wolf who was apologetic—especially as she wasn’t used to an alpha male apologizing to her for anything.

“Do you have a first aid kit?” Maisie said.

“Yeah, sure,” Colleen said.

“I’ll go get it,” Lachlan said.

“And wire cutters and a pair of pliers,” Robert said.

Lachlan frowned at him, then said, “Okay,” in a drawn-out fashion.

“I’m Robert’s sister and Lachlan’s mate, Edeen. And you are?” Edeen asked.

Colleen jumped right in with introductions. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought you had already met each other, Edeen. This is Maisie MacTavish, proud owner of one of our Irish wolfhounds from the same litter that your Ruby came from. Maisie and her sister, Anne, own the MacTavish Inn down the coast. Maisie also does photography for magazines. Edeen creates faux vintage gowns and other beautiful clothes out of her and Lachlan’s home.”

“Oh, how wonderful. I would be happy to do a portrait of Ruby for you, Edeen,” Maisie said. “I take a lot of animal photographs.” She loved doing them, and she wanted to do one of Conan too, though he wouldn’t sit still for her yet.

“That’s right,” Colleen said. “She took the Christmas pictures of the litter to help us sell them on our breeder’s website. Of course, then she fell in love with all the pups and picked out one of them for her own.”

“Aye, the unruliest one, so it seems. I had to bring Conan back here for obedience training for three weeks,” Maisie said to Edeen.

“Oh, Conan, sure. I’ve seen him in training,” Edeen said. “He’s a beautiful brindle and doing a great job.”

“That’s wonderful to hear.” Maisie was truly pleased, as she’d thought the dog would be hopeless to train, but then that made her wonder if his owners were the ones who were not very good at making him mind.

“I would love to commission you for some animal portraits for our fox terriers, Ruby, our Scottish fold cat, and Highland calves too,” Edeen said.

“That’s great.” Maisie wondered if Edeen was trying to set her up with her brother, which she thought was cute.

Carrying the first aid kit and the other items they’d asked for, Lachlan walked back into the chamber.

“Um, could Robert and I have some privacy for a few minutes?” Maisie hated to propose such a thing in front of the others, but she preferred doing this without a big audience.