"The claim here wasplayed out a week ago." He smiled with supreme satisfaction. "I'mgoing to enjoy thinking about that bastard breaking his back working that claimand getting no more than a pouch of gold dust for his trouble."
"I see." Ian paused."Then your gold mine was another failure like Jaylenburg?"
Ruel stiffened. "What doyou know about Jaylenburg?"
"Just that you staked aclaim, stayed there for six months, and moved on." Ian dipped the clothagain and wrung it out. "You've moved on a good deal. Australia,California, South Africa… "
"You seem veryknowledgeable."
"Not really. I paid ayoung man to find you, but he always managed to just miss you untilKrugerville." He shook his head as he laid the cloth on Ruel's forehead."You're not a boy any longer. You can't chase rainbows for the rest ofyour life."
"I've never chasedrainbows." Ruel smiled faintly. "I was always after the pot of goldat the end of the rainbow, never the rainbow itself."
"Gold." Ian pulled aface. "You always told me that you'd find your gold mine and become therichest man in Scotland."
"And I will."
"You ran away fromGlenclaren when you were only fifteen and haven't found it yet."
"How do you know?"
Ian glanced around the crudelyfurnished hut and then up at the cracks in the ceiling. "If you did,you've become more miserly than old Angus MacDonald."
Ruel found his smile widening."And how is the charming Maggie MacDonald? Did you ever wed?"
Ian shook his head. "Youknow Margaret has her duty to her father. She will not wed while he needs herby his sickbed."
"Still? Good God, at thisrate you won't be wed until you're both doddering on the grave."
"It will happen as Godwills." Ian changed the subject. "What is Cinnidar?"
Ruel stiffened, his gazeflying to Ian's face. "Cinnidar?"
"It seems to be on yourmind. You kept repeating it while you had the fever."
"Anything else?" ,
"No, just the one word...Cinnidar."
Ruel relaxed. "It's notimportant. Just a place I visited once."
"You've visited too manyplaces. It's time you came home and put down roots." He paused."Father's dead."
"I know. I got yourletter."
"You didn't answerit."
"There was no point. Hehad stopped being important to me years ago." He added, "So hadGlenclaren."
"And me?"
"YouwereGlenclaren."
"I cannot denythat." Ian smiled. "I love every pond, stone, and moth-eaten tapestryof the old place."
"Then go backthere."
Ian shook his head. "Notwithout you." He looked down at the floor, and the next words cameawkwardly. "It was not because I did not have love for you that I didn'tcome after you while Father was alive. I knew he was wrong and treated youbadly. It just seemed... difficult. I have always regretted that—"
