Amanda Scott Read Online Free PDF Page B

years ago, when we both were young and foolish.”
    “I’ll warrant there have been a few since then, however.”
    “Perhaps, but you will also recall that there was a war of sorts and that I have shouldered duties since then that keep me far too busy for dalliance.”
    “Oh, yes, your august position.” Patrick was relaxing more, reverting again to irreverent school chum. “How long do you mean to stay here, by the bye?”
    “Not long. I stopped only to bring messages from Inveraray, and to see how you are getting on. It’s been years since I’ve come this far west, and I promised to visit my uncle Balcardane on Loch Leven. I stayed with him for six weeks, you’ll remember, when I was eleven. I sent word ahead, and I expect to put up there for perhaps a month or so.”
    “Business?”
    “Aye. There was trouble last year over a few of the factors in Appin country, one in particular, because Cumberland and others of his ilk in London think Highland-bred factors have shown undue favoritism to the Highland rebels.”
    “But the Barons confirmed the factors, did they not? I’d have heard else.”
    “We did confirm them. Argyll just wants to be certain we did right. He is still Lord Justice General of Scotland, you know, and thus a member of the Barons’ Court, though he rarely sits with us. The factor in question is a Campbell.”
    “Aren’t they all?” Patrick said with a wry smile.
    “Not all.”
    “Oh, aye, some do not bear the Campbell name, but would you have me believe any of them are outsiders, Rory?”
    “There are, in fact, two Stewarts. Although the Campbells are the only clan any Englishman trusts, you must know that does not mean a prick’s worth in the present political climate. There are many who do not trust any Scotsman at all.”
    “So you have come to pull a few chestnuts out of the fire for his grace.”
    Rory shrugged. “I have come to test the heat of the coals, perhaps. I do not yet know if there are any chestnuts to rescue. But I must tell you, my friend, the escape of Allan Breck will not make my task any easier.”
    Patrick shifted uneasily but met Rory’s steady gaze without flinching. “Damn but I wish you would roar at a fellow instead of sticking pins in him,” he said. “You’ve been like that since childhood, you know, and it’s damned irritating. I know I mucked this up for you. Didn’t do my own career much good either, and I own that I hope nothing brings Argyll within spitting distance of this place for the next six months at least. Receiving the next letter will be bad enough. I don’t want to hear him bellow what he thinks of my character for all and sundry to hear.”
    “His judgment is sound, I think.”
    “If that’s your tender way of telling me I deserve to hear whatever he chooses to bellow at me, I don’t deny it,” Patrick said. “But he is attached solely to his own interest, you know. One rarely hears anyone praise his honor or his principles.”
    “I trust you do not speak so freely to anyone else,” Rory said.
    Patrick grinned. “I do not, and unless you have changed considerably, my friend, I take no risk in speaking my mind to you.”
    “I am Argyll’s man.”
    “So you are, and so you have always been, but you were once a lad who thought for himself, Rory. Some moments ago you said I could still treat you like a schoolmate. I trusted you then, you know. Have you altered so much over the years that you would advise me to trust you no longer?”
    Guilt nibbled at his conscience when an image of Mab MacKissock leapt to his mind’s eye, but Rory smiled and shook his head. “I still think for myself,” he said, “and you can still trust me to hear your thoughts without prejudice. I might wonder about your judgment, however, if I had not already seen from the moment of my arrival how well in hand you have everything else here.”
    “Thank you for that. It means a lot just now.”
    A companionable silence fell as both men sipped their