The remains of their luncheon were scattered over a white linen cloth spread on the ground. Tommy was sleeping in his basket under the dappled shade of a plum tree.

"Do you realize under ordinary circ.u.mstances we might never have met?"

"I would have found you some other way." He said it with the same unequivocal authority that tempered his life.

"Or perhaps I would have found you."

Johnnie paused for a moment to consider the potent spirit behind his wife's words and diplomatically said, "Yes, or that."

"Do you believe in fate ... in destiny?"

No, he thought. He believed in making one's own destiny, but a fragment of pagan impulse existed beneath his pragmatism, and he also knew what would please her.

"Sometimes I do," he said, touching her arm, her skin warm from the sun. Then he felt her suddenly not just with his sense of touch but deep in his heart and soul, as if some mystic impulse had reached inside and marked him. "You're my life," he softly murmured, "the air I breathe, my joy, my pleasure. And maybe it is fate," he said tentatively, "like a part of my father living again in Tommy."

His graceful words reminded her how generous was his love, how benevolent, and the guilt she'd been struggling with the past weeks reached uncomfortable levels. "If you want to return to Scotland when the Privy Council reverses their decision," she said, coming to a sudden decision, "I'd be amenable to going back."

"Would you?" He spoke very softly, as if not quite certain of her meaning.

She nodded. "I know how much it means to you."

"You needn't do it for me." He cast her a searching glance as he lay beside her.

"I know. But I'd like to. And our son should grow up in his own country."

His blue eyes held hers for a lengthy absorbed moment, and then, reaching over, he caught her in his arms and kissed her-a light, joyous kiss. Rolling on his back a second later, he carried her with him so she lay on his chest. His eyes shone with glowing happiness. "Thank you," he quietly said.

And she realized then how oppressive had been his exile.

"You can work on Three Kings again," he declared, undiluted cheer in his voice.

"I'd like that," she declared, genuinely heartened by the thought. "Munro is discontent here as well."

"Everyone is."

Her eyes flared wide at her obtuseness. "How did you manage to keep them all so reticent?"

He wondered she didn't know. They were his men. He shrugged. "There would be an end to it, everyone knew."

"And you've all been waiting for me?"

He smiled. "You and the Privy Council."

"I have enormous command then." The provocative notion pleased her.

"In some things," he cautiously replied.

"Actually, I was thinking about prevailing on you for a small favor right now," she said with a lush enticement, her smile deliberately seductive.

"Were you really?" His voice deepened.

"If I were to demand it, would you comply?"

He glanced over to see that the baby still slept. "Probably," he said with a grin.

"Probably?" she sweetly prodded.

"Probably," he firmly replied. She could push him only so far.

Her lashes half lowered over her verdant eyes. "If I were to request it of you instead?" she murmured, her voice fragrant with temptation.

"In that case consider it my pleasure, ma'am." His hands lazily drifted down the gentle curve of her back, smoothing the pale primrose muslin of her gown.

"And mine as well," she whispered, feeling the warmth of his hands, tantalizing, languid, gliding over the curve of her bottom.

"I know ..." he breathed, his cheeky smile touching her mouth. And then he rolled her under him so quickly she gasped.

"You're fast." Breathless and teasing, she didn't just mean his powerful, swooping roll. His arousal, hard and long, was pressed against her bare stomach, her skirt in crushed folds at her waist, the sun hot on her legs.

His laugh was warm, close, as he lay atop her, the cloth of his breeches silky on her skin. "I'm learning from my wife," he murmured, undoing the b.u.t.tons at the neckline of her light summer gown. "Besides, Tommy may wake any minute ..." Slipping his hand inside her bodice, he brushed his palm over the fullness of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "... and want these back." His fingers found a tender, tingling nipple, and stroked it until it peaked.

A precipitous, luscious heat began melting through her; his touch was sensitive, acute. "He can share them with you," she whispered, lost to all but the sensuous, intoxicating pleasure inundating her mind.

His dark head bent low, and his mouth closed over one quivering pink crest with exquisite, compelling pressure. The flavor of love was rich with the sweet taste of Scotland that warm summer afternoon in the manicured garden of the Low Country manor house.

They were going home.

NOTES.

1. Tradition has it that the Carres (Car, Kar, Ker, Kerr) were notoriously left-handed. A left-handed person is still called ker-handed, car-handed, or corry-fisted in the Scottish Borderland.

The stairways in the Carre castles and defensive towers built in the centuries of continual border warfare were constructed to accommodate their left-handedness.

The early peel towers, generally three or four stories, were built of stone with ma.s.sive, thick walls. Built singly or attached to dwelling houses or castles, they were easily defended. The only entrance was through a double door at ground level, the outer door of iron grating, the inner one of oak reinforced with iron. The ground floor was used as a storeroom, and the upper floors were reached by a narrow curving stair called a turnpike. This stairway usually rose in a clockwise spiral so that a defender retreating up the flight had his unguarded left side to the wall and his sword arm to the outside. His attacker, coming up, was at the disadvantage with his sword arm to the wall.

In the Carre homes their stairs were built anticlockwise to accommodate their left sword arms.

2. Queen Anne convened the Scottish Parliament in 1703 because England needed a vote of money from Scotland to pursue the war with France. The Court hoped that the Scots Parliament would vote supply for the army, and when that was accomplished, everyone could go home. But after Darien and the Ma.s.sacre at Glencoe, after a century of English foreign policy that ignored Scotland's interests, the Scots were determined to make const.i.tutional changes.

In the summer of 1703 Parliament drafted two important Acts that would effectively transfer power from Queen Anne back to the Scottish Parliament. The most important was the Act of Security, which stipulated that after the death of Queen Anne and heirs of her body (she had none), all offices civil and military, formerly under the control of the Monarch, would in the future be appointed by the Scots Parliament. Since the dispensing of government positions and pensions was the basis of political control, England would no longer have any power in Scottish affairs.

In addition, twelve limitations on the power of the Crown were proposed that would give Scotland authority over its own government. Among them would be: that elections would be held annually; Parliament would choose its own president; royal a.s.sent to laws would be automatic; declarations of war and the negotiations of peace treaties would require the approval of the Scottish Parliament.

It was also agreed that the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament after the death of the Queen would have the power of nominating and declaring her Successor, provided that the same person not be the Successor to the Crown of England. The wording of the proposal meant that the Successor chosen by the English would be automatically excluded as Scotland's Monarch unless Scotland's Parliament was a.s.sured freedom.

In open defiance of the Court, the Scottish Parliament had strongly a.s.serted the national independence of Scotland. And it kept its bargaining power intact by refusing to vote supply for the army or agree to the Succession in England.

From the English point of view, it was outright rebellion.

3. The Wine Act of 1703 authorized the import of all wines and other foreign liquors, repealing an Act of 1700, which had prohibited French wines. The reason Queensberry introduced such a measure in the middle of a war with France was that England was desperate to raise money through import duty, and such an act would also curry favor with members of the Scottish Parliament. Appointments as collectors of import duties would mean lucrative jobs for those members of Parliament selected to fill the posts. And these men would then be beholden to the Court interests to retain their appointments. The Act was additionally tempting to the Peers and Barons of the Shires because they had the privilege of exemption from customs duties.

Most Scots approved the Act in the spirit of challenging the English embargo on trade with the enemy. While smuggling was a reality of life, and French wines had always been available, with legal importation profits would increase. And the Burghs and n.o.bility were the major merchants of Scotland. The costliness of the cargoes in relation to their bulk gave French wine a value to the merchant that was out of all proportion to its significance in overall trade. Some observers believed it to be the main import trade of Scotland.

4. Most authorities agree that "clan" tartans were not known before the second half of the eighteenth century. Until Stewart of Garth wrote his book on the Highlanders between 1817 and 1822, no definite statement ascribing tartans to clans, septs, and families as something a.n.a.logous to heraldic insignia has ever been discovered, with the exception of that in the Vestiarium Scotic.u.m, a work of more than doubtful authenticity.

The lack of reference to "clan" tartans by the bards at the time of the Jacobite Rising is significant. Nearly all of them mention the romantic appeal of the Highland dress, but not one word defines "clan" tartans.

In a range of Grant portraits at Castle Grant, for example, no tartan repeats, and none has any relationship with the Tartan Book patterns. All the pictorial evidence suggests that the Scottish gentleman or lady regarded the use of such patterns in his or her clothing in the same spirit that we select the material of our suiting today; he or she simply fancied a certain color and design. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to accept that certain dyes would prevail in different regions and that traditional types of pattern might be followed in various areas.

If there was any uniformity in dress of the Jacobites at the battle of Culloden, or any "clan" tartans, it would seem that one of the many accounts or descriptions of the battle would mention them. In an account published in 1749, James Ray writes that the only forms of identification were the white c.o.c.kades of the Rebels and the red or yellow crosses of cloth or ribbon of the Loyalists. A fragment of Macdonald of Kingburgh's tartan and Macdonald of Keppoch's tartan, both worn during the '45, are reproduced in Stewart's Old and Rare Scottish Tartans, and neither conforms to the many Macdonald "clan" tartans worn today.

And, as indication of tartan as fashion rather then heraldic device, here is an ad from the Caledonian Mercury for October 4, 1745: "Gairdner and Taylor, in their Warehouse at the Sign of the Golden Key, opposite to Forrester's Wynd, Lawn-Market, Edinburgh, continue to sell, in Wholesale and Retail, at lowest Prices, all sorts of Woollen Narrow and Broad Cloths of the Manufacture of Scotland ... At above Warehouse to be sold at lowest Rates, great Choice of Tartans, the newest Patterns, [obemphasis mine] Cotton Checks and Sarges, of which they are also Makers."

5. If Scotland was to join in the trade with America, Africa, and Asia on an equal footing with other European countries, it needed a company authorized by the government. In 1693 the Scottish Parliament pa.s.sed an Act declaring that Scottish merchants could form companies for trading in all parts of the world. This was seen by the English companies as a challenge to their monopolies, but the Act was approved by King William, who was anxious to distract attention from the inquiries concerning his part in the Ma.s.sacre of Glencoe. Since it was only an enabling Act, the King and his ministers and the English trading companies intended no more would come of it.

But in May 1695, the Scottish Parliament pa.s.sed an "Act for a Company trading to Africa and the Indies." The reaction of the English trading interests was swift; both the Lords and Commons presented a pet.i.tion to the King expressing their displeasure. King William proceeded to do all he could to sabotage the Scottish Company. The English subscribers withdrew. English diplomatic pressure prevented subscriptions in Amsterdam and Hamburg. A circular letter was sent to the Governors of the Plantations instructing them to prohibit all a.s.sistance to the Scottish Company.

Thrown on their own resources, the Scottish population responded with an outburst of patriotic fervor. The full 400,000 called for was subscribed, although it amounted to half of the total money in circulation in the country. Many people invested their entire fortunes.

With English hostility the original scheme of trade with Asia, Africa, and America became more problematical, and the fatal decision was made to commit the entire venture to the establishment of a trading colony on the Isthmus of Panama at Darien. The Scots were not to know that King William would have his Amba.s.sador virtually encourage Spain to attack the colony.

Within four years, mismanagement, English hostility, tropical disease, and Spanish attack led to the abandonment of the colony and the loss of most of the men and ships. Disaster couldn't have been more complete or humiliating.

Darien exposed the problem of Scotland's disadvantageous relationship with England. Const.i.tutional change was now inescapable.

At the same time Darien impoverished the whole country. It ruined the people who invested in it, and that meant a large proportion of the members of Parliament. These legislators were now much more vulnerable to bribery than ever, and it's significant that one of the clauses of the Treaty of Union of 1707 provided for the compensation of the shareholders in the Scottish Company.

6. The postal service originally began as the King's post and was gradually made available to the general public. By the end of the seventeenth century the various Masters of the Post had established postal service throughout most of Scotland. In the Post Office Act of 1695 the scale of charges for carrying a letter was set, and the use of personal carriers and express delivery was allowed beyond the services of the state monopoly.

Speed of service was, of course, of importance. Reports of English parliamentary proceedings sent from London on Sat.u.r.day were said to reach Edinburgh by the following Thursday. In matters of confidentiality the postal service was held in low regard. You could almost be certain your letter would be read, so if they were going to contain any comments of a political or sensitive nature, precautions had to be taken in advance. Someone trustworthy delivered a key letter to the person with whom you corresponded with a code to interpret subsequent letters. Each prominent political figure would in the future appear as some relative or friend whose utterances couldn't be used by authorities as an excuse for taking proceedings against you.

Envelopes were rarely used; the sheets were simply folded, secured with a seal, and addressed on the back. From August 1693 the Bishop mark began to be used by the Edinburgh Letter Office, at least for mail to England. Oval-shaped, it gave the day and the month, but not the year, of posting. On the question of cost, in 1689 correspondence from London to Edinburgh cost five shillings per letter, and from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, three shillings.

7. In the early eighteenth century the town of Edinburgh, all enclosed within the city walls, consisted princ.i.p.ally of one long street-Canongate and High Street-that stretched a mile long from Holyrood Palace to the Castle. From this main thoroughfare branched off innumerable side streets and alleys, all bordered by towering houses, some up to ten and twelve stories. With so many inhabitants crowded into so small an area, the disposal of garbage and refuse was a problem.

The method of disposal was systematized if not hygienic. At ten o'clock each night the filth collected in each household was poured from the windows with the warning "Gardy loo" (Gardez l'eau), and pa.s.sersby not fleet enough of foot would receive an ill-scented drenching. At the dreaded hour when the domestic garbage was flung out, the smells (known as the "flowers of Edinburgh") filled the air. Citizens burned sheets of brown paper to neutralize the outside odors that penetrated the interiors of their apartments.

The dirt and ordure lay on the street all night until laborers came at seven o'clock in the morning with wheelbarrows to remove it. Worst of all was Sunday, when strict piety forbade all work, and since street-cleaning was deemed an act of neither necessity nor mercy, the refuse remained till Monday morning.

Edinburgh wasn't unique in its unsatisfactory method of refuse disposal. London streets were equally filthy.

8. One example of an abduction was the case of the heiress Jean Home.

When the Laird of Ayton died, his daughter, Jean Home, age eleven, was put by the Privy Council in the care of her grandmother, Countess Dowager of Home, and her cousin, Charles.

Another relative, John Home of Prendergast, applied with some others to the Privy Council on December 6, 1677, for the sequestration of the young girl from the influence of her appointed guardians. It was ordered that her grandmother, Charles, and Jean Home should appear before the Council to answer or object to the pet.i.tion.

Instead of doing so, Charles and five Lairds, all but one of whom represented different branches of the Homes, decided to take the young heiress and her future literally into their own hands. In the Council's words, "they did ride away the said night and seiz upon the persone of the said Jean and caried her away to the English bordours," where they married her off to their seventeen-year-old nephew George.

Court proceedings against the clandestine marriage began almost immediately, and legal wrangling continued for years. The heiress in this case never did regain her freedom from the marriage and died six years later.

9. In order to be legally binding, English marriages before 1753 did not have to be performed in church by a clergyman of the Church of England, according to the rites laid down in the Book of Common Prayer.

A valid and binding marriage was created by a mere verbal contract, performed by an exchange of vows to this effect between a man and a woman over the age of consent (fourteen and twelve), witnessed by two persons, and expressed in the present tense. A promise in the future tense, however, was binding only if it was followed by consummation.

A marriage performed by a clergyman, however, offered further advantages over a mere contract marriage. The first was the partic.i.p.ation of the clergyman, whose presence gave it the appearance of respectability. The second was that the ceremony was recognized by both the canon law and the common law as legally binding and as carrying with it full property rights. The third was that it was easier to prove, since there were witnesses, usually a written entry in a marriage register, and often a written certificate.

In Scotland from 15601834, there were two essentials of a regular marriage: the proclamation of the intended marriage in the parish church and the celebration of the ceremony by a minister of the established church. But for the price of a fine, those who preferred home marriages were accommodated and, by several seventeenth century acts, a scale of fines and penalties were imposed on clandestine and irregular marriages.

10. The idea for this plot element came from a real-life story that ill.u.s.trates the power of the profit motive over politics.

Andrew Russell, the second son of a well-to-do Stirling merchant, went to the Low Countries in 1668. Settling in Rotterdam with his wife and family, he served as factor for many Scottish traders until shortly before his death in 1697. He became a wealthy man brokering goods for Scottish merchants, and the importance of Russell's factorial business in Scotland's trade was thrown into sharp relief during the dramatic events of 1683.

In 1679 Archbishop Sharp of Saint Andrews, Lord Primate of Scotland, had been a.s.sa.s.sinated by Covenanting fanatics. On January 11, 1683, the Privy Council ordered a process of treason to be raised against Andrew Russell for complicity in the murder and commanded him to appear before the Lords of Justiciary in Edinburgh. On February 8 his brother-in-law sent him a copy of the libel and warned him that a few days earlier William Blackwood had been sentenced to death for "naked concourse with the rebels," although he had only been seen talking to them. On March 31 another merchant wrote of further arrests, remarking that "your friends are not apprehending to sie [see] you here." In these circ.u.mstances it's not surprising that Russell declined to appear.

His decision, though expected, caused a remarkable panic amoung Scottish merchants. On March 21 a group of nine, including three bailies of Edinburgh and men from Stirling, Perth, and Aberdeen, presented an urgent pet.i.tion to the Privy Council "for themselves and on behalf of the merchants of these burghs." They began by reciting that "the most considerable trade and commerce of the product of this nation consists for the most part with the provinces of the Low Countreyes, and without able and experienced factors there the trade here will certainly perish." They then pointed out that the accused Russell, "who has a considerable business in management from this as only factor there," was at that moment in possession of very considerable quant.i.ties of money and goods entrusted to him by the merchants of "most of the trading tounes of this country." Since their exports were sold on account, it would be virtually impossible to recover these debts from him at short notice; they begged, therefore, that his trial and the embargo might be postponed until he could satisfy his employers. Otherwise, "it will not only tend to the discouragement of the trade of his kingdome in generall but to the irreparable ruine of these who have the greatest part if not all their stock in his hand."

The Privy Countil wavered and decided to write to the Conservator of Trade, asking him to confirm whether Andrew Russell was "such a person as the merchants here generallie represent him to be." The Conservator declared Russell to be "a sober loyall persone" and "seeing the said Russell manadges the wholl trade allmost not only of this citty but also of a great part of the natione, and is a great encourager of the trade of the steple port," the process was finally declared abandoned.

11. Although smallpox was a dread disease with a high mortality rate, there was little understanding of contagion. So Roxane's presence at social engagements wouldn't have been considered dangerous to other guests.

Lord Lovat writes to his agent in Edinburgh in the early eighteenth century, "My house has been all the week full of company as well as the last and my child's lying in the small pox makes me unfit to answer such a letter of business as yours." The very survival of the letter shows that the agent worried no more about it than did the company who went on staying in the house. And diaries show that mothers carrying their own children would often visit relatives sick with smallpox, not realizing they were exposing their children to the disease.

On the other hand, some people seemed to understand the possibility of transmission, because when the Duke of Marlborough's only son, Jack, contracted smallpox at Cambridge in 1704, his mother and two sisters immediately set off for Cambridge as fast as horses could pull a heavy coach.

The Duke of Marlborough, who had not had the disease, stayed in London, waiting in trepidation for the news. He writes to his wife: "I hope Dr Haines and Dr Coladon got to you this morning. I am so troubled at the sad condition this poor child seems to be in, that I know not what to do. I pray G.o.d to give you some comfort in this great affliction. If you think anything under heaven can be done, pray let me know it; or if you think my coming can be of least use, let me know it. I beg I may hear as often as possible, for I have no thought but what is at Cambridge. Medicines are sent by the doctors. I shall be impatient to the last degree until I hear from you."

But there was no hope. Jack died on February 20, 1704, just as his father, who had been sent for by Sarah, finally arrived from London. He came when his son was dying, despite the possibility of contracting the disease.

Dear Reader, I hope you enjoyed this story of early eighteenth-century Scotland. It was a pleasure to research the time period, to see all the beautiful countryside of Scotland, and, as always happens, my characters take over my life during the writing process. Johnnie Carre and Elizabeth Graham exist as real people in my mind ... bring on the therapists!

When I first began researching Scotland, I read some general histories to introduce myself to the era. It wasn't until I was reading more specifically on the events leading up to the Union of 1707 that I became conscious of the distinct differences in viewpoint between English and Scottish authors. From that point I always checked provenance of both author and publisher; it mattered. Doesn't it always, in politics?

A further ill.u.s.tration of that clear division was brought to my attention when I was in Scotland later doing more research. My husband and I were checking into a lovely old hotel in Edinburgh that would be hosting the European Economic Community Conference. Although the conference was still two months off, the police were interviewing all guests. We were questioned by an elegantly dressed young detective with a wonderful Scottish accent, and my husband asked him whether the police were concerned with possible IRA bombings during the conference; we'd just come from London, where there had been several bombings in the last three weeks.

The detective said, "They never bother us. Their argument is with England." I found his contemporary comment fascinating. Even after almost three hundred years of Union, Scotland is perceived as distinctly separate from England.

So in a way Johnnie Carre's aspirations for Scotland were achieved.

Best wishes, P.S. I enjoy hearing from readers. If you have any questions or comments, I'd be pleased to answer them. Visit my website at www.susanjohnsonauthor.net.