But all the Highland clans had sworn the oaths. The rumor was they’d written for permission to James Stewart at his court across the sea, and he had given it because he knew their hearts yet lay with him, and he would rather that they swallow a false oath and save their land and lives. And so King William’s plans to seek revenge upon the Highland clans appeared to falter.

But the chief of clan MacDonald, though arriving at the place and time to swear the oath, had found no one to hear it, and been forced to journey on some extra days, so the king’s men did use this as a reason to say he had sworn too late.

And in his valley of Glencoe there was quartered a detachment of the soldiers of the Earl of Argyll—grandson to the Argyll who had been Montrose’s enemy, and son of the Argyll who’d lost his head for treason in the summer Lily’s father died. All these soldiers, who till then had peaceably enjoyed the hospitality of the MacDonalds, then received their secret, wicked orders and rose early in the morning and began a slaughter of their hosts, within their homes.

Henry looked at Walter. “So it’s ‘Prince of Orange’ now, and not King William? Are ye turning to a Jacobite?”

“A crown will never make a king,” said Walter. “There were women at Glencoe. And children. I will call him what I please.”

Archie said, “Aye, within this house, but mind your tongue when ye step out that door. They hang men here for less.”

“I’m not afraid,” said Walter.

Archie looked across at him a moment. “Are ye not?” His voice was calm, and yet beneath there was an undercurrent Lily had not heard before, and one that left her cold.

Matthew said, “Let him be.”

He said it quietly, and without any movement, but again there was that challenge and the sense that there had been a shift within the household.

Archie smiled, and turned his gaze on Matthew. “Ye’ll be turning me out of my bed now, will ye?”

“No. I’ll take lodgings. I’m out of the business.”

“Oh, aye? And what else can ye do, then?”

A shrug. “There’ll be plenty of work at the harbor.”

That didn’t suit Barbara. “They’ve had gangs at work, taking lads from the taverns and off the Shore, pressing them onto the English ships,” she said. “The king said he’d stop it if we gave them one thousand men out of Scotland to serve in the navy, but it hasn’t stopped. It’s not safe, being there on your own.”

“Don’t you worry for me,” Matthew said. He was talking to Barbara but looking at Archie when he answered, evenly, “I can take care of myself.”

* * *

The past days had brought storms, but now the skies had cleared and Lily took heart from the fact that Colonel Graeme’s ship had not yet sailed. She might have time.

She knew she could not go to him in person, it would hardly be allowed, but there were always boatmen in the harbor who, if paid enough, would carry letters to the larger ships. All Lily wanted was to let him know that she yet lived, and where she was, and that he and his family rarely left her thoughts, and that she wished both he and Jamie well, and hoped that time would one day bring their lives together once again.