‘I will swear on anything you want, George.’
He looked around the room, at the painted walls, the intricate tapestries. ‘Have you any idea how difficult it would be to withdraw now? The clans are marching, the standards are on the move, we’re expected to ride south and join battle.’ Now George came right up close to me, his eyes scanning my face. ‘You are certain, are you, aye? That our forces loyal to James cannot win?’
‘Yes. You can’t win. All that happens is a rather sad and pathetic loss of life and then the loss of everything else. I’veseenit, George. I’velivedwith the repercussions.’ Hope made my voice forceful. ‘Don’t ride out tomorrow. I’m not saying you have to fight for King George, but if you just don’t take sides… we’re hoping everything will work out all right and we can go home.’
George turned and went to the window, staring out across the castle headland. I could see only his back view. His hair was tied back by a black velvet ribbon at the nape of his neck and his shirt was all ruffles and lace. It ought to have looked feminine, but there was something very stoic and male about his broad shoulders and straight back. ‘But there’s the family name to uphold. Our principles, our belief that King George will not do what’s right for Scotland.’ He turned around. ‘Can you tell me that he will?’
Now I really began to wish again that I’d listened to Dad’s stories. ‘Scotland gets its own parliament,’ I said, slightly weakly. ‘Eventually. Has it lost it yet?’
I got a sardonic smile now. ‘Aye. The Act of Union.’ Now George looked as though he wanted to spit, but didn’t like to in the presence of a lady, even a lady wearing boots and an expression of hopeful irritation. ‘But we regain our ability to govern ourselves? Without the English trying to starve us out?’
‘Yes.’ Bearing in mind that he was edging towards listening to me, I didn’t feel that it was in my interests to admit that they’d have to wait a few hundred years to get their parliament back. ‘Come on, George, you can’t want to see your men die and your family losing everything! However strong your principles are, that’s just madness! What will happen to your children if you get killed?’
George blinked at me. ‘Jamie will take over the care of them,’ he said. ‘I have no brothers of my own. Jamie would become their guardian and care for their inheritance. He will stay away from the battleground to ensure his safety, should anything happen to me.’
‘What are their names?’ I asked, gently.
George smiled again, a smile with memory tugging at its corners. ‘My eldest is Anne, for my sister,’ he said. ‘My wee one is Isobel, for her mother. You have given me hope for more, for boys to inherit, and the first of these would be Lennox, should we be so blessed.’
I felt myself starting to smile. Lennox. A name that travelled down through the years. ‘Well, that’s… nice,’ I said, a bit feebly.
A long finger reached out as though to touch my face. Of course, it went right through and George snatched his hand back. ‘You look so real,’ he breathed. ‘So solid, and yet… I don’t understand.’ My lungs still weren’t sure whether I could start breathing again or not so when he nodded slowly, all the air came out in a rush that sounded like a sigh. ‘Show me what you promised,’ George said. ‘Tell me how I may make my fortune and keep my castle.’
It was as though my whole body had restarted. Breathing, heartbeat, everything resumed normal functions although my legs felt weak with relief. ‘Give me some paper, a pen and some ink,’ I said.
18
When, wobbly-legged with relief and with my head aching, I returned from the office, the others were grouped together by the main door. Outside small flakes of snow whirled, visible only in the slice of firelight that escaped.
‘Well? How did it go?’ Lachlan took my arm as I arrived back with them.
‘I…’ I had to stop and breathe. ‘I think I just caused the Industrial Revolution.’
Three faces simultaneously slackened with disbelief.
‘You didwhat?’ Mal covered his face with his hands.
‘I panicked, all right? I had to give him something, something to make his fortune and make battle not look such a great option. So…’ I took another deep breath. ‘I gave him the Bessemer process.’
Another simultaneous expression, but this one was bafflement.
‘It was all I had to hand! I’ve been drawing it on whiteboards for the last ten years, and showing YouTube videos on it for almost as long. I can do it in my sleep.’
‘And what is the Bessemer process?’ Lachlan asked.
‘It’s the method for producing steel, where you blow air over iron to melt out impurities and then add carbon.’ I gabbled the explanation. ‘It’s how they made cannon that didn’t explode in their faces, and railways and bridges. Before that they were using iron, which is brittle…’ I’d slipped into ‘teacher speak’ and had to force myself to stop. ‘You must have done it for GCSE. Honestly, I don’t know why I bother to teach it if everyone forgets as soon as they leave school!’
‘Because we never saw it having much impact in our daily lives post-sixteen,’ Mal said. ‘I did not need total recall of steel-manufacturing processes to get a degree in early Scottish archaeological sites or to work in Ralph Lauren.’
‘You can look it up.’ I was still speaking too fast.
The other three looked at one another, their faces still frozen into various expressions of incomprehension. ‘Not right now, we can’t,’ Mal said.
‘It’s not due to be invented for another hundred and some odd years,’ I went on. ‘So I’ve told George to find someone who can build the equipment and understand the notes and diagrams I gave him, and who won’t give away the secret. It should buy him a monopoly on cheap steel, at least until Mr Bessemer goes public with it in eighteen fifty-something.’
‘And… and he’s agreed?’ Kaylinn asked, as though she could not believe it.‘Seriously?’
I shrugged. ‘Once I told him what it was, he was full of good ideas and it seems to have made going into battle sound a lot less appealing.’
