“Not yet. But they could see it coming. They were already making plans, and MacClaren had started to look for ways that they could be together. But every way was going to be dangerous for Fiona if anyone knew that MacClaren was part of those plans. She was a woman in a man’s world, and Jamie had total control of her. And he had enough power as the laird’s brother to arrange for an accident to happen to anyone who got in his way if he chose. That put both of them in actual danger.”

“But you can’t tell me that either of them would let themselves tolerate that kind of treatment,” Jane said. “They’d fight back. She’d been fighting all her life, and so had he. It might have been in different ways, even in different hemispheres, but now that they’d come together again, they’d fight together.”

“It seems you’ve decided to write your own story,” Rodland said with amusement. “You don’t mind if I chime in?”

“If you can give them something to work with. I’ve not been happy with all this male-dominance crap.”

“Well, it was more subterfuge than outright battle, but it worked for them. Not that you’ll approve.” He glanced slyly at her. “MacClaren finished the portrait, and it was a great success. He took the agreed fee from Jamie and then booked passage to go back to America. He was gone a week later.”

“No,” Jane said definitively.

“Yes. I tried to tell you that it was a different time and mind-set. He settled in Buffalo, New York. But after a few weeks he got restless and moved to Denver, Colorado. That was the last place where he could be traced. Though there were rumors he might have gone on to Sacramento, California.”

“And you’re saying he just left Fiona in the lurch and went back to wandering the frontier?”

“What else could the poor lad do? Fiona was betrothed the week Jamie and Graeme got together after he returned to Scotland. Everyone said she appeared perfectly contented and was charming to Graeme. The nuptials were arranged to take place six months later. Graeme was completely happy with the arrangement because he became besotted with Fiona. He couldn’t believe it when she disappeared. He was the one who wouldn’t give up looking for her. He was totally humiliated that she’d jilted him, and at one time he even paid a visit to America on the wild chance that MacClaren had something to do with her disappearance.”

“Wild chance? He didn’t find her?”

“Not as far as anyone knew. Graeme had an unfortunate fall from a train crossing over a bridge in the northwest territory of Montana. No one knew how it happened. He never made it back to Scotland.”

“And he didn’t locate MacClaren?”