Page 61 of Lady Len and the Mysterious Mac

What indeed?

“Our coffers are not so full as they should be, but we may be able to help purchase a handful of sheep.”

Angus’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he nodded. “It’s a start.”

“It’s the barley that’s ruined the soil. You might as well be planting in stone. Or planting stones themselves.”

“The barley?” Angus looked doubtful, but Si had to try and explain it again.

“Every plant requires certain minerals to grow. Planting the same thing, year after year, it leaches all the minerals from the soil until there’s nothing left.”

His companion’s brow was creased in concentration, but Angus was listening. “You learned all that in Aberdeen?”

“Aye.”

“Must we leave Ross?”

Si shook his head. “The solution is to rotate the crops. Plant beans one year and oats the next. They’ll take different minerals and replenish what’s been lost.”

“I suppose grazing for a season would help as well?”

“Exactly!” It was delightful watching the other man catch on instead of having to go another round defending the science.

“Sort of like changing up a cow’s diet when she won’t milk?”

It was a brilliant analogy, such a simple and obvious answer to the old crofter’s challenge about cows and whisky. “Exactly,” Si agreed again.

Angus nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a change. So. They willnae like it.”

“No.” They would hate it, and there were none so hard-headed as the MacKenzies of Ross-shire.

“Perhaps if the Kintail provided incentive. Gifts of seed or debts forgiven free and clear.”

Si liked the way Angus’s mind worked through the problem out loud, unabashed and unapologetic.

“Do you think that would be enough to convince them to try?”

“Some. Others’ll need to see the outcome for themselves before they’ll change.”

Si nodded. Some would be better than nothing to start, and surely Angus could persuade them more easily than he. “D’you want a job?”

Now Angus looked away, ashamed, as though Si were having a laugh at his expense.

“I have a job, milord,” he said softly but clearly. Angus MacKenzie didn’t mince words or speak with a mouth full of stones. “I’m a farmer. And a carpenter to pick up the slack.”

“I ken what you are, but if I’m to be laird, I’ll need my own steward. One who knows the people, the land.”

“Blair MacKenzie will take over for his father. Everyone says so.”

“Not at Leod, he won’t,” Si answered darkly.

Angus sighed and pulled his horse to a stop, turning to face Si head on. “You’re serious?”

“Quite.”

“I’m flattered, milord. But if I’ve presented myself as more educated than I am—you want someone who understands—”

“I want,” Si interrupted him, “someone honest. Someone who understands what it is to be a crofter. Someone with good instincts who’s not afraid to speak his mind, particularly to me, or where injustice is concerned. The rest can be learned.”