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nor I will have any part of it,” Josie warned.
    Her mother nodded slightly.
    Waving a hand in the air, as if to quiet everyone, the laird said, “This is a very vexing puzzle indeed, but so far as I can see, no great harm has been done to either party.”
    Rood glowered his disagreement, but a hard look from the laird kept him silent. “Mister Rood, I am sure you have pressing business elsewhere on the estate.” His tone made it clear that this was an order.
    Still furious, Rood stepped out of the room and stomped away toward the back door.
    â€œThere,” said the laird. “Now, let us retire to the parlor and discuss our business like gentlefolk.”
    He turned and led them back to the front parlor, where he had been talking just minutes before with the widow. And though I doubted he meant to include me in “gentlefolk,” I was not about to leave Bonnie Josie and her mother alone with the man. He was dangerous. And—I feared—he meant them no good. But I went no farther than the parlor door, where I stood slightly in shadow.
    Josie saw her mother seated once again on one of the cushioned chairs, then stood beside her, a hand on the widow’s shoulder for comfort. Next to the chair was a shining wooden table with the thinnest legs I’d ever seen. A tray with a dainty cup and saucer and a teapot, of some white china, sat atop it.
    â€œGet rid of this boy,” the laird said, waving at me as if once again shooing away a fly. He had remained standing and now folded his arms over his chest. Often Da stood the very same way when he was about to hand down punishments for Lachlan and me.
    â€œHe’ll stay until I am satisfied he took no permanent harm at the hands of your henchman.” Josie’s face looked set in stone.
    â€œRood’s methods are simple, but his heart is in the right place,” said the laird. “It is you who are behaving unwisely, young lady, and guiding your poor mother to do the same.”
    I bit my lip to keep from shouting out at him.
    The laird ignored me and continued, “Surely you must see that all those people who have been legally evicted from the estate cannot be allowed to remain encamped around the Lodge. It gives them false hope. It keeps them from finding work and starting their lives anew.” Once again, his voice was gentle, but the intent beneath it was pure steel.
    There was a flash of anger in Josie’s eyes, and she answered him back steel for steel. “They needn’t have had to start anew without your bully boys burning them out. At least with them camped here, it will be known throughout the Highlands that there’s one corner of McRoy land where the old clan loyalties are not forgotten.”
    The widow leaned back in her chair, as if shrinking from a pair of snarling dogs.
    Raising his hands, the laird said, “You are upset, Josephine. I can see that. And your thinking is confused, as if you were one of them, a peasant, and not the daughter of a laird. It’s what comes of having all these idle rascals on your doorstep, living off your goodwill. I’m done with all that.”
    â€œHave done with kindness?” said Josie, with a shake of her head. “Have done with family and honor and loyalty? I cannot live that way, Uncle. I will not live that way.”
    I would have lifted my cap to her then, had I been wearing one.
    â€œIt is like hearing your father again.” The laird gave her the sort of smile given a bairn when it says something amusing. “He could have been a rich man if not for his sentimentality about the clan.”
    The widow raised her hand and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. She spoke low, as if she understood the argument but would not shout it out. “Thomas was rich enough, Daniel, just not in the way you mean. His treasure was the love of his people.”
    The laird snorted and turned away from her to stare out of the window. It was an