The Raven's Moon by Susan King

does."
    "Lady Anna keeps you both honest," Rowan corrected.
    Sandie chuckled. "She's reformed me and Auld Jock, though it took years. And yourself, in that English prison?"
    Rowan shrugged. "I was kept in fine quarters. I read some excellent books."
    Sandie burst out laughing, throwing back his head in delight. "Books! Your younger brother should try that, eh, to cure his mischief. Books! I ne'er read one in my life. Cannot do it, see. But when I was imprisoned in Carlisle for thinnin' out the English herds, another prisoner taught me the letters in my name, at least."
    "Aye. Now, what is this business with my brother?"
    "You've heard some o' that sorry tale? And you heard of Maggie's death in childbed," he added.
    Rowan nodded, once, sharply, and could not speak.
    "If you still carry a grudge against Alec, you've a right to it, hey. I told him so myself. 'The Black Laird will take you to account now for stealing that lass,' I says to him, but—"
    "And what is this about spies?"
    "—but Alec did not seem to fear seeing you, though he should," Sandie continued. Rowan remembered his cousin's long-winded penchant for expressing himself. "Spies. Hmph. Well, as I understand, Alec rode out to fetch Iain Macrae, who lives south o' the Lincraig Hill—"
    "A Highlander?"
    "A young Highlandman who wed Devil Davy Armstrong's daughter. He pays rent to you, which your grand-sire takes in. Macrae has been a bonny friend to us, but now Simon Kerr has put him in a dungeon for some deed." He shook his head. "Alec and Macrae rode out after a gang that's been foraying near here. Those tricksters had shifted your own cattle from the south pastures. Heckie Elliot—"
    "Heckie's Bairns," Rowan said, half to himself.
    "You're muckle well informed for a man just arrived."
    "I met Mairi Macrae, Iain's sister," Rowan said. "And Devil Davy's lad."
    "Devil's Christie," Sandie said, nodding. "And Macrae's own sister—now there's a bonny lass to rest a weary eye." Sandie grinned. "If I were younger I'd court her myself. Sweet as honey, that one."
    "Aye," Rowan said dryly, touching his fingers to his head wound. "Go on. Alec and Iain rode out."
    "To reclaim cattle snatched from Blackdrummond land."
    "Hot trod?"
    "Well, nae quite a hot trod in the legal manner, wi' a burning peat on a lance, and a troop o' warden's men. Just the two men after the reivers."
    "I thought Alec had more sense than that. Go on."
    "The next day Simon Kerr rode here to say that Iain was taken and Alec had fled, a broken man. An outlaw. Spies, says Kerr, both of 'em." He spat. "Spies! Simon Kerr is a brute—"
    "Sandie," Rowan said patiently. "Alec went where?"
    "Into the hills. Kerr said Iain had Spanish gold among his booty. The English want him, see, to hang him now. And that's all we ken o' the matter," Sandie finished, folding his great arms over his chest.
    "What do you think happened?"
    "They reived gear off naughty English papist spies, and they snatched something by mistake. Why else would they have a Spanish load with them? What good would that be? Cattle and sheep, aye, and steel back-and-breasts, a wheel-lock or two, good gear to take. But Spanish gold is poison in Scotland."
    "Poison pays well when 'tis melted down. The Scottish council and the English government are looking for Scottish agents in league with Spain." He nodded to Sandie. "Thank you for the news. I'll go up now."
    "Knock loud at the yett. Your grandparents can hear as keen as dogs, but that lazy serving lass is half deaf."
    * * *
    Ivy vines climbed the barnekin wall, framing two massive gates. The outer one of crisscrossed iron and an inner door of stout, iron-studded oak stood wide open.
    Rowan saw his grandfather waiting in the shadowed entry. He stepped forward, sunlight glinting over his silvery hair and his lean face. Rowan saw that his grandfather had changed little. Thinner and older, but still whip-hard and stern.
    Jock Scott lifted an eyebrow as he surveyed his grandson's bruised, bearded