Island of the Swans Read Online Free PDF Page B

campaigns, the two kept constant company whenever Lady Maxwell’s back was turned. For his part, Simon was equally anxious to prevent such adolescent attachment from one day blossoming into an unsuitable match, or worse, a bairn in the lass’s belly, which would then force his hand. Sir William Maxwell’s brat will be lucky if she has thruppence for a dowry, he mused.
    Simon set down his brandy snifter and licked his lips. He would certainly see to it that Thomas and the other young Fraser bucks would repay his many kindnesses by selecting brides whose purses would advance the Fraser cause at court. Thus, one day, the lads would be awarded the honors due them as men in the inner circle of Simon Fraser, Baron Lovat.
    I will have my lands and titles restored! he thought to himself with grim determination. And so may Thomas, if he marries properly!
    It might take five years for George III to right the wrong perpetrated by the king’s grandfather against Simon the Fox and Sir Thomas Fraser of Struy after Prince Charlie’s fiasco on the battlefield… it might take ten. Simon could wait.
    “I think, m’lady,” Simon continued aloud, “I should acquaint you with plans already underway to remove my ward to the Highlands very soon. He shall there assist my herdsman while learning to be handy with sword and firearms to ready him for army life when he comes of age. ’Tis the only route to advancement open to the poor boy, since God knows I have barely the means to keep this shabby abode in Edinburgh and to till the few acres left to me in the Highlands.”
    “To be sure,” murmured Lady Maxwell in a patently false display of sympathy for the failed Stuart Cause, which Simon knew full well the Protestant Lowlander had always disdained. “And I support your hopes the lad will make a dashing officer someday—all the more likely to snare an heiress with his good looks and kind heart.”
    Simon was surprised by Lady Maxwell’s boldness. Her words proved, however, that she understood his current plans for Thomas, which were quite similar, he supposed, to those she had plotted for that little polecat, Jane. Well, good luck to the lad who fell into this maternal trap.
    “I thought, sir,” Lady Maxwell said with characteristic Lowland candor, “that Clan Fraser and all others who joined the Rebellion of Forty-five were still forbidden to own or carry arms, or even play the bagpipes. How will you advance young Thomas in these arts, given these restrictions?”
    “These skills will be acquired discreetly , madam,” he replied testily, “and, as I am sure you understand full well, it may be some time before I can afford to purchase the lad a fair Commission in another regiment, as the Fraser Highlanders were disbanded after the Peace. Thomas will remain in the north till this be accomplished, however… you have my word on that!”
    “A most sensible plan,” Lady Maxwell replied soothingly, calculating that Simon’s scheme would take at least a year or two to complete, by which time Jane would be fifteen and, she hoped, betrothed to the richest man in Edinburgh—whoever that might be. “And generous it ’tis,” she added for good measure, “to provide for the lad out of the portion left to you.”
    She set down her teacup to signify their interview was over. Relief filled her heart. There were no heights a beautiful woman could not scale, if she made the correct choices in life , thought Magdalene, seeing before her Jane’s perfect oval face with its gently arched brows and high cheek bones. Who had learned that lesson better than Magdalene herself? she reflected bitterly. She recalled the day so many years earlier when she had succumbed to the charms of a hot-blooded, but ineffectual baronet with nothing but unproductive, marshy lands in Galloway and a disagreeable penchant for strong spirits.
    “’Tis settled, then, to both our good accounts,” she said briskly, offering her hand at the door to the stocky soldier