“I thank ye, but I cannot. Not this evening. I have company awaiting me. My sister has come down from Abercairney with her second son, young Robin, who is now fifteen and aims to be a lawyer and is seeking education. Not that I am well connected in that area, but where I can assist, I will.”

Jamie, sitting on the floor, said, “He can have my place at Mr. Skene’s school, if he likes.”

The captain thanked him very solemnly, but Lily saw the crinkles at the corners of his eyes that meant that he was holding back a smile. “I doubt that Mr. Skene would be the best instructor of Scots law. Although,” he said to Lily, “I believe that ye could well instruct our Robin in the art of pure persuasion.”

She was not sure what he meant by that, but she liked Robin, and she said so. “Will he be here long?”

“I do hope not,” said the captain, but again he was not serious. “I’ve four lads of my own. What I shall do with five, I can’t imagine, and my wife, poor lady, is beside herself at the idea.”

Jean remarked, “Your sister’s brave, to travel such a distance at a time like this.”

“My sister in her life has met too many dangers on her own estate to fear a little travel when the need arises.”

Jean said, “I should not stray far from my own hearth when such a monster as the Earl of Argyll is yet loose upon the countryside with his wild Highland men.”

The captain smiled again, but this time it was with his lips alone, and there were no crinkles beside his eyes. “Ye’ll be confusing Highland men with Campbells,” he told Jean. “’Tis a mistake the earl himself makes all too often in his scheming, but the hearts of our good Highlanders are true, and they will hold fast for King James. We’ll have that devil Argyll in our hands afore the month’s end.”

Lily stopped combing the kitten to look up at Captain Graeme. “When ye catch him, what then will ye do with him?”

His smile, for her, was genuine. “I’ll pay him the same wages that his father paid the great Montrose, with interest. Then he’ll worry ye no more.”

But it did worry Lily, thinking of the Earl of Argyll.

She was thinking of him when her father came to settle her with Bessie in their little bed built close against the larger one. She asked him, “Are the rebels in the west, still?”

“Aye.” He smoothed the curling hair back from her forehead so that he could kiss her there. To sweeten her dreams, so he always said. “Why d’ye ask?”

She’d thought about the rebels much. She knew that things were different, since King Charles had died in February. Now, his brother James was king, and many men were angry because King James was a Catholic, and some did not think a Catholic should be king.