“But she already has one husband, doesn’t she? And to think that the British people would stand by and let a woman like that be queen. They’d never allow it.”

“Let’s hope it never comes to that. I’m sure the Prince of Wales will do his duty in the end and not let us down. He’s been raised to be king, after all.”

She nodded and sat, staring into the fire.

“So how have you been keeping?” I asked her.

“Not too bad, thank you. A touch of rheumatics now and then. And lonely sometimes, stuck away out here. Your brother visits me, but apart from that . . .”

“What about your neighbors?”

“Gone,” she said. “The cottages on either side of me both stand empty now. They’ve cut back on estate workers since all that land was sold off, you know. And your brother only employs a handful of gillies on the estate too. The old men are retiring and there’s no young men to fill their shoes. They don’t want this type of hard work anymore. They’re off to the cities. Not that there are many young men now. Not since the Great War took them away.”

While she was speaking my brain was racing. Empty cottages on either side of her. Suddenly I had a good idea about who could fill one of those cottages, at least for a while. My grandfather could come up here to get the fresh air he needed and he could help me with my current assignment. I resolved to write to him immediately.

As soon as I left Nanny I checked out those empty cottages and decided that one of them would do very nicely. It appeared to be fully furnished and not too dusty. It also had a pleasant little kitchen that looked out over the lake. I could picture my grandfather sitting there with his cup of tea. I closed the door carefully then mounted and rode back to the castle. I left Rob Roy in the hands of the groom and went in to see about breakfast. All that Highland air had given me a marvelous appetite. There was only one occupant in the dining room—a young man sitting at the long table, tucking into a large helping of kedgeree and scrambled eggs. He rose as I came in, then his eyes lit up.

“Well, hello there,” he said. “We meet again, I see.”

It was the objectionable young man from the train.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I think I mentioned that I had an invitation to stay,” he said.

“You also mentioned that the castle was positively medieval and the hosts boring, if I remember correctly,” I said coldly.