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Meg rose with a noisy rustle of silk, obviously startled by his haste “Oh Yes Of course”

He strode to the door, opened it, and waited for her

Glancing at hi to the staircase “Follow ether I, too, would very much like to hear what my father has to say to you”

He hardly heard her He was in the past again, sinking back in tieneral There were memories in those tords, painful me Gregor had been a prisoner But now those memories had broken free…

“And how is young Gregor Grant today?”

Gregor lifted his head The other eneral, eneral was a regular visitor to the gaol, taking an interest in the prisoners, speaking with theet news hoor’s opinion, even if so upon, because he had fought on the side of the English king in the 1715 Rebellion

No, Gregor decided, the general was a just and fair man, which was more than the Jacobites had expected to find when they were led here in chains after the Battle of Preston The general ainst them, but it was their ideals he disliked, their politics he disagreed with, not the men themselves

The general seeor It steor’s father, who had come to the prison with his son, had died here Apoplexy He had died in Gregor’s ar wildly, hardly aware of those around hieneral had stepped neatly into the shoes of surrogate father

“Will you have a gaeneral stood on his heels, rocking back and forth in the small space allowed hi down into Gregor’s wan and dirty face, as if there were nothing odd in such a scene

Gregor knew he had lice, but everyone else had the he had seen in a Highland hovel Indeed, hland hovels were palaces compared to this The General had commented adversely on the state of the place, he had coovernor, he had even written to parliament No one cared They were Jacobites after all, rebels, and in the eyes of ot

Gregor had grown used to living within sight and hearing of twenty other eneral’s visits His only other escape ithin his own mind He could take himself off to Glen Dhui whenever he wanted to His memories of his home were so clear that he could recall every curve in the hills, every patch of heather, every stone

He took himself off to Glen Dhui often

“Thank you, sir, I would like to play chess this evening,” he said now, politely, but without any real warled out like this, but neither would he give up his chess evenings with the general because some of the others didn’t like it

“Remee who calls hior Spit in his eye, laddie!”

“Aye, he’s Gerie’s man”