They shook hands, solemnly, and Lily took the merk from him, and at his urging opened up the basket so that he could see the kitten, which immediately settled onto Captain Graeme’s lap, to Jamie’s great delight. And Robin, having seen the way for Mr. Cant to save his bishop on the chessboard, made the move himself, making a mirthful ending to the game, with Captain Graeme’s king his only piece remaining, stubbornly refusing to stand down.

But after dinner, as the captain walked her home, Lily was still confused about the way the chess game finished, so she asked him, “How could Mr. Cant win when he could not catch your king?”

“It was a stalemate,” Captain Graeme told her. He had changed his clothes and was now in his uniform, and although she still heard the whispers and the murmurs from the shadows round them, she felt safe. “A stalemate means your king can make no move at all that does not put his life in danger, so he retreats, and his opponent claims the victory, but the king yet lives to fight another day.”

“But he has lost.”

The captain slanted a look down at her, and smiled. “To lose a single battle does not mean ye lose the war. And to retreat means only that. Surrendering is not within the nature of most kings.” He glanced up at the window of a house they were approaching, where someone had just begun to close the shutters, even though it was midday. “Nor in my own.”

Lily held more tightly to her coin, and Captain Graeme told her, “Never fear, lass. It’s a good town, this. Good people all around ye, if ye look for them.”

That was the very opposite of what her father had advised, but then her father had not lived to tell her how to know a lawless man, so she asked Captain Graeme now, “How do ye ken which men are good?”

“Not only men,” he said. “All people. And ye ken them by their actions, not by what ye might hear said of them. Ye watch what someone does when it will gain him nothing, Lily, and when none but ye is there to see him do it. Then ye’ll ken his truest heart.”

She thought about that, after he had handed her to Jean and she had watched him walk away from them with that same sure and even soldier’s stride that raised quick memories of her father.

And she thought about it later on that evening, while Jean worked to ready supper and wee James began to fuss, and Corporal Morison took up the bairn and walked with him, out in the fresh air of the close.

He stayed outside so long that Lily pressed her face against the window, looking for a glimpse of them, and saw the great, tall soldier making silly faces to her baby brother, so the bairn would laugh. There was no one around to see him doing it—or so he thought. There was just Corporal Morison and wee James in the close.