Amanda Scott Read Online Free

However, once again, France has promised us full support when the rebellion gets under way.”
    “We saw how little such promises were worth in forty-five.”
    “Aye, we did, but memories are short and wishes strong.”
    Maggie, moving nearer, said, “I have been telling him, sir, that we must make a push to discover what passes with his highness in London and to assure those who might help us that we stand ready to join them the instant they make plain their intent.”
    The sheriff nodded thoughtfully. “We do have lads in London with their ears to the ground—and a few lasses, too,” he said, smiling at her. “Indeed, mistress, I warrant news comes to us from England at a speed that would astonish German George had he but the least notion of it, so I cannot agree that your father ought to go south, if that is the course you have urged upon him.”
    “’Tis true,” MacDrumin said, nodding, “and so I’ve told her, but she’s got this maggot in her brain that we’ll not get the whole truth if we cannot hear it from one of our own. Not,” he added with a sigh, “that there might not be a wee bit of sense in the lass’s argument when all is said and done.”
    Kate had moved up behind Maggie. “What of Angus or Cousin Dugald, my lord? Could one of them not go?”
    “Nay, lass,” MacDrumin said, his gaze sweeping over the two young men. “We’ve a need for someone who can move in the first circles, for that is where he will learn the most. What’s more, with young Ian and your auld mother and gran to look after, you’ve more need of Dugald and Angus here than we have for them in London. But enough chatter. We are not so safe, even here and now, that we can afford to rattle on about such things without great care. We’ll be off now, your worship, if it’s all the same to you. You’ve my deepest thanks for this.”
    “I accept your thanks,” the sheriff said, “and your excellent whisky as well, you rascal.”
    “And welcome,” MacDrumin said, grinning, “though ’tis a pity you couldna see your way clear to making yon Campbell pay for the herring. We could have used the gelt.”
    “I thought it unwise to infuriate him further. Are the herring truly all spoiled?”
    “They should be, and the kegs as well—which is much worse, of course—for they’ve been sitting amongst the pine trees these four days past, waiting on a proper moon, whilst our Fergus hid harmlessly under a bush each night and peered at the loch.”
    They left the sheriff chuckling and made their way to the south end of town, where they were met by friends who had been expecting them. Mounted at last and fed, they made good time along the eastern shore of Loch Ness to the trail leading to Glen Drumin, nestled deep in the heart of the Monadhliath mountains.
    As she rode, Maggie thought back to their brief conversation with the sheriff and knew her father had been tactful for once when he had so gently refused Kate’s suggestion that either Angus or Dugald serve as their envoy to London. Neither man would do. Whoever went to meet Charles Edward Stewart—their own Bonnie Prince Charlie—must be someone who could meet him in polite company, for although he would travel incognito, he would scorn this time to travel as a commoner. He had surely had enough of that after Culloden, during the months he had been forced to hide out in the hills, protected by Highlanders who slipped him from hut to hut and cave to cave, often right under the noses of the soldiers who searched for him, before his escape to France.
    She thought again of her cousin Colin as a possible emissary, and dismissed him. He was still young, only a year older than she was, and seemed even younger, despite the fact that at eighteen, he had been old enough to fight at Culloden and come home with no more than a sword scratch.
    Glancing at MacDrumin, she saw that he was smiling again, no doubt congratulating himself on the success of his latest venture. She wished she