the long trudge back up the slope toward the farm. I saw Ritchie ahead. He was talking to Davie Barbour, and his hand was on Davie's shoulder, as if to comfort him.
Something's happened, I thought, my heart sinking, and I hurried up to the farm.
My aunt's raised voice came out of the kitchen door as I hurried in.
"Dorcas, the poor soul! And the children! Ritchie, if they've done such a thing to Mr. Barbour, whatever will they do to your father?"
"They've executed Mr. Barbour," Ritchie told me quietly. "Hanged him. For being a rebel and a traitor because he refused to take the Test."
"What Test? What's the Test?"
"Don't you know? The oath of allegiance. They make you swear that the king is the head and ruler of the church, and you have to say 'God save the king.' You used to have to pay a fine if you wouldn't say it, but now the penalty is death."
"You mean they hanged Mr. Barbour just because he wouldn't say all that?"
I could hardly believe it.
"And they'll hang your uncle too, you'll see," Aunt Blair said bitterly.
"Mother, you don't know that." Ritchie touched her gently on the shoulder. "Mr. Barbour was executed in Glasgow, where they've all gone mad with rage against us. They might not be so severe in Edinburgh."
She stared at him, misery in her face, and said at last, "It's not knowing that's the worst. It's the dread of waiting for news."
***
Things had been bad at Ladymuir before we'd heard of the death of Mr. Barbour, but a grimmer depression descended afterward. I missed the company of Grizel, who had been sent back to her family to save on wages and food. Her absence meant more work for me, but even though I did my best and never rested from morning till night, I couldn't please my aunt. She found fault constantly, and her eyes seemed to follow each mouthful that I took at our meager mealtimes as if she resented the food that her children might have had.
Ritchie rode out early one morning and came back looking pleased with himself. He strode into the kitchen and put a clinking pouch of coins on the table in front of his mother.
"From the Laird of Duchal," he said proudly. "I asked him to lend us the money for the rest of the fine, and he gave me a bit more too for Father. You need money when you're a prisoner, he said, if you want to eat enough to keep body and soul together."
"You borrowed this money from the laird?" Aunt Blair said anxiously. "Ritchie, how are we ever to pay him back?"
"We will. After the harvest. It's what Father said to do." I heard a new note of authority in Ritchie's voice. He was the man of the house now and was taking charge. "Anyway, the laird's in no hurry. He's a good man of the Covenant himself. He spoke so admiringly of Father. You'd have been proud to hear him. The real question is, if Father needs this money, how are we to get it to him?"
Aunt Blair shook her head so vigorously that Andrew, who was in her arms, set up a wail.
"No, Ritchie," she snapped. "You're not to go to Edinburgh. You'd be arrested before you were well on the road out of Kilmacolm."
Ritchie nodded.
"I know. But we'll have to do something, Mother. We have to get this money to him somehow."
I knew at that instant what I had to do, and the thought was so frightening that it made me shiver.
I would go to Edinburgh. I would take the laird's money, find my uncle, and give it to him. I'd discover if there had been a trial and if he was in prison or awaiting execution. I'd use any trick to free him. And I'd bring him safely home to Kilmacolm.
I went out into the yard, thinking furiously.
I could be a boy again, like on the drove. No, that wouldn't do. I was too noticeably a young woman now, and, anyway, a boy was more likely to be stopped and questioned. I could pretend to be a servant girl, like Grizel, making her way home after losing her position.
I was still furiously thinking when I went to bed that night, and I lay for a long time, trying out one fantastic plan after another, while the little girls slept snuggled close up beside me, snuffling in their dreams.
Chapter 25
Weeks went by, turning into months, and all