Maggie looked across the water of the firth toward the farther shore, her forehead furrowing the way it always did when she felt Lily’s explanations made no sense. “But it looks nothing like a road.”

The day was sunny but the wind was brisk, and Maggie leaned back into Lily, seeking shelter. Now that Maggie had turned eight, the top of her fair head exactly reached the height of Lily’s heart.

The symbolism of that was not lost on Lily. With her arms wrapped closely round the little girl, she said, “Ye asked me where the Road of Leith was, and I’ve shown ye. It is no more than a stretch of water near the shore where ships may safely lie at anchor.”

From behind them, Captain Gordon said approvingly, “That is an excellent description.”

Maggie wriggled free of Lily’s arms and danced around to greet the captain, holding up her doll to show the new blue cloak that Barbara had made for her.

“Very bonny,” Captain Gordon said, “and perfect for Saint Andrew’s Day.” He looked around them at the crowds of people who were gathering and strolling past, awaiting the festivities. “Is Mrs. Browne not with you?”

Lily shook her head. “She said since red hair brings bad luck to ships, and a woman brings more, then a redheaded woman is bound to be very unwelcome today.”

Maggie told him, “They are giving a ship a new name.”

“Aye, so I did hear.”

“It’s over there,” said Maggie, pointing out the ship anchored across the firth at Burntisland. “Ye see? The second one, with all the blue and gold. It’s twice the size of yours.”

“A little more than twice, I think. But ships are built for different things,” the captain said. “My ship, like many others in the harbor here, is owned by merchants who employ me as its skipper. Now and then I may have sailed as far as Spain or Italy, but generally we sail no farther than to Holland or to France and home again, and she needs only to be large enough to hold her cargo and my men. ’Tis better she be slight and swift than lumbering and large, in case we’re forced to run from privateers. And sixteen guns are all I need to make someone think twice about pursuing us.” He nodded at another larger ship that was familiar to them all. “Now, something like the Royal William is completely different. She belongs to our Scots navy and the crown, and has a duty to patrol our coast and give an escort to the smaller merchant ships, like mine, when we are traveling in convoy. That’s why she’s a larger ship with thirty-two guns, and can carry troops of soldiers if she’s called upon to keep us safe.”

Maggie pointed out that, if he were the captain of the Royal William, he could wear a fine blue coat. “Ye would be very handsome.”

“Thank you. But then I’d be bound to sail wherever the king told me to, and nowhere else. So while I do agree it would be fine to have a ship so grand, I’ll steer the course I have awhile longer, if it’s all the same to you, and bide my time till we’ve a Stewart on the throne again.”