Leathan’s dark eyes moved over to Emily. “And who might you be? You obviously know a little something about dance.”
“Uncle, this is Emily Carson. She’s a dancer too.” Kyla reached over to pet the border collie sitting at her uncle’s feet. “Em, this is my Uncle Leath.”
Emily put her hand in Leathan’s extended hand, where it was swallowed up in a friendly shake. “Why did you name your dog Clyth? What does it mean?” she eagerly asked, always curious.
A smile squinted in the man’s eyes. “Clyth is the name of the place in Scotland where one of our ancestors lived in a castle.”
“A castle?” Emily’s voice squeaked a little. “A really and truly castle?”
“A really and truly castle,” Leathan assured her. “It’s not there anymore, but it was for many, many years.”
Emily held a tentative hand out to Clyth, who sniffed it and then rubbed the side of his head against it. “You have a cool name, Clyth. Oh, and you’re good with sheep too.”
While the girls were distracted by the border collie, the adults introduced themselves, explaining how they had met Kyla. Then Annie stepped closer to Leathan and pointed to his sporran. “Mr. Gunn, I’m interested in your sporran, and I’m hoping you can tell me a little about it. You see, I inherited my house in Stony Point from my grandmother—”
“And she’s always finding the most puzzling things in her attic!” Peggy helped the story along.
Annie nodded at Peggy and continued. “Yes, I am. Recently I found a sporran, also sealskin like yours. But even more, its cantle is identical to yours. Since I have no idea where the sporran came from, and my grandparents never showed it to me, I’m trying to figure out if it held any significance to them, or if there’s a story behind it.” She paused, and then took the photo out of her purse and handed it to Leathan.
The man stood motionless as he gazed at the photo.
When he remained silent, Annie asked, “Do you know if the design on your cantle is unique to your family, the Gunns?”
Once again Leathan was still. Then he said quickly, “I don’t believe it is, Mrs. Dawson. I’m sorry I can’t help you.”
Annie tried to hide her disappointment. “Please, do call me Annie. Don’t worry about it. We’ve enjoyed getting to know Kyla a little, and the sheepherding was so exciting! Congratulations on your win.”
“Thank you,” Leathan nodded. Then he spoke to his niece. “Kyla, the other dogs are in their kennel. Come help me with them.” Turning back to the others, he spoke to them. “Kyla and I need to go now. Enjoy the rest of the Games.” Nodding briskly, he called Clyth to follow and put his arm around Kyla’s shoulder to bring her along with him. Kyla waved over her shoulder and called, “Bye, Emily! It was nice meeting you!”
Startled at the sudden departure, the group from Stony Point stood looking at each other. They heard Kyla say to her uncle as he walked away from them, “Why do you need my help? Isn’t Dev here?”
They couldn’t hear Leathan Gunn’s response.
12
The friends looked at one another, cocking their heads, perplexed. “We should probably be used to these unusual reactions by now,” said Alice. “Especially Annie. But I’m not. How about the rest of you?”
Wally shook his head. “In my wild days I dodged trouble all the time, and well, sometimes trouble hit me right on the chin. But those were just consequences—you know? These folks are acting strange, for sure.”
“Kyla’s uncle wasn’t mean,” inserted Emily, not wanting her friend to be disliked by her family and adult friends.
Annie affectionately tugged the little girl’s pigtails. “No, he wasn’t, Emily. But he definitely was in more of a hurry to leave than he had been when he was telling you about his collie’s name. I think he was bothered by the photo I showed him but didn’t want to say it.”
“I agree with Annie,” said Peggy, “but before we decide what to do next, let’s go gather our stuff.” She glanced around at the new batch of contestants for the two-dog sheepdog finals gathering around the edge of the field. “We need to get off the field.”
The group returned to the blanket. “Mom! Kyla left her dancing shoes!” Emily snatched up the black shoes and stood before Peggy, cradling them in her arms. “What should we do?”
Ian put on his mayor’s fix-it tone. “Leathan said he needed Kyla to help with the dogs. All the kennels are kept in the same general area. We can go look around for her.”