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Duncan gave him a sickly smile

“I have not seen you since you caor went on, as if his head were not threatening to cleave in two halves Duncan had not fought in the 1715—he had reor’s mother and sister, and estate or’s father’s body was buried at last in the ground of his ancestors He relooor’s father’s burial when he caor

He had described the black-draped bier carried in turn by the loyal Grant , and the piper’s lament like a shroud about thehland chieftain, no enuinelyhis father, even if he had never shared his Jacobite fanaticisreatness to the Grants—the faifted them Glen Dhui in the first place But the Stuarts, in the form of the Pretender James, had also been their ruin

Duncan was still watching him with quiet, dark eyes “Do ye really not re, sir?”

Gregor rubbed the ache between his brows, trying to ease it, trying to clear his befuddled h, Duncan” He took a shaky breath “Sit down, man, you make my neck hurt”

Duncan sat carefully on a sturdy chair As the chair looked substantial enough, Gregor could only assume his caution was because he really didn’t want to be there

“Where is Malcolm Bain?”

“He said he was going to the barracks,” Duncan replied, pursing his lips in the sa didn’t please hior bit back a smile

“We need ye to co needs ye…”

Gregor ant? If it has not escaped your notice, Duncan, I am already in employment”

Though for how long, once Airdy had his way?

“’Twas not yer fault ye lost Glen Dhui, sir”

Gregor felt his face stiffen What Duncan said was true enough, but for all that, he didn’t want to hear it When the Stuarts had called from across the water, his father had answered, and so it was that Gregor and his father had gone out in the 1715 They had lost, and with their loss had coht of fines and the confiscation of their lands and all personal belongings

With his father dead, Gregor had borne the brunt of it

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