stone seat by the door.
Lieutenant Dundas had lost interest in us all.
"There's no more to do here," he said curtly to his men. "Watkins, leave that girl alone. There are still hours of light left. Get mounted, all of you. We'll ride up past Kilmacolm and cut the traitor off before he reaches the coast. He'll be trying to get a crossing to Gourock or Dunoon."
No one spoke as the sound of the horses' hooves died away down the track, but the silence was broken by Aunt Blair's moaning sobs.
Behind me, Ritchie cleared his throat.
"I'm sorry you betrayed Mr. Renwick. That wasn't well done."
"I didn't betray him." I blushed at the scorn in his voice. "He's hiding inside the cairn on the top of Windyhill. I told a lie to send the troopers away in the wrong direction. They believed me and chased after him."
Ritchie managed to smile at this news.
"Well done, Maggie! You mean he's safe?"
"I suppose so, as long as he stays out of sight inside the cairn."
"I'll go and find him and take him to a good hiding place," said Ritchie, making for the yard entrance. "It's what Father would want."
Aunt Blair started up.
"Ritchie, you will not. It's enough that your father's been arrested. There's to be no more running about the countryside today. If you're taken too, who's to keep us going here? Who's to run the farm?"
"Mother—"
"No!" I had never heard my aunt speak so forcibly.
For once, I agreed with my aunt.
"If you go up there, you'll just draw attention to him," I dared to chip in. "He's well hidden. He's safer by himself till the troops are called off the hills."
Ritchie tightened his lips but nodded reluctantly.
"Uncle Blair gave me some messages for you. He said to pay the fines with the silver in the strongbox, and if you really have to, you can ask the Laird of Duchal for a loan. And he said to harvest the infield first when the oats are ripe."
Aunt Blair let out a cry of despair, and Ritchie looked shaken.
"Harvest? But that's months away! Did the soldiers say what they were going to do with him? Did they talk of a trial? Maggie, did you hear anything about—they're not going to execute him?"
I shook my head. "They didn't say anything. They just said they'd take him to Lieutenant Dundas."
"That monster!" Aunt Blair was rocking on her seat.
Grizel, who had run into the house disheveled and red-faced when the dragoon had at last let her go, came outside again.
"Mistress, you'll not be pleased," she said reluctantly. "They've been in and out of everything. It's turmoil in there. The cauldron's overturned and the fire's out and the silver spoon has gone."
Nanny had been cowering in her mother's skirts, and she set up a wail, only daring to raise her voice now that the danger was over. Aunt Blair looked down at her, startled, as if she'd only just realized she was there.
"And where's Martha? Maggie, you went out to find her! Where is she?"
"I'm here, Mammy! Have the nasty men all gone away?"
Martha's little white face appeared, peeping fearfully out around the frame of the kitchen door.
"Martha! Where have you been all this time?"
Martha looked at Aunt Blair doubtfully, not sure whether she was in trouble or not.
"I came home from the preaching," she said at last. "I didn't like it. Then Annie came and started looking for things. She was in a big hurry. She turned the heather out of our bed. She only found a groat, though, in Grizel's little bag."
"Ha!" snorted Grizel. "I knew all along she'd try to steal my wages. I hid them well."
"And then Annie slapped me, Mammy, and told me to fetch the key to the strongbox."
Aunt Blair gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth.
"The wickedness of her! I'd never have believed it!"
"The strongbox? We're ruined!" muttered Ritchie.
"I didn't want to give it to her," Martha said, frowning. "I don't like Annie. You said I had to like her, but she's not nice, Mammy. Not to me. I found the key before she did, and I put it in my pocket and pretended to go on looking for it. And then that man came, the horrible one, and he called her, and said he'd send her off to Sorn Castle with an escort on a horse, and she should wait for him there, and she just snatched up the silver spoon and ran out to him. I was so scared. I hid