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Sabrina clasped her hands together, clearly frustrated. “But a warning of what? The Clearances? I confess I’m not as informed as I should be on that issue.”
“A number of landowners have been seeking to increase the profits from their land,” Nick explained. “They do so by evicting longstanding tenants and crofters, turning the land over to sheep or cattle farming.”
She frowned. “Are the tenants compensated?”
“Generally not.”
“Then what happens to them?”
Nick hesitated.
“They’re tossed from their homes, left to fend for themselves,” Ainsley said grimly.
Royal sighed. “Blunt as always, my love.”
“I fail to see the point in sugarcoating it. It’s a horrendous, shameful situation.”
Sabrina sucked in a quavering breath. “Is my father engaging in those sorts of practices?”
Graeme flashed his brother a warning look.
“I’m not familiar with every situation where Clearances are occurring,” Nick gently replied. “But I’ve heard some talk of such regarding your father’s estates.”
His brother knewexactlywhere things stood with Musgrave’s estates. Nick always knew these sorts of things. He was trying to soften the blow for the poor girl.
Sabrina looked ill. “I . . . I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s not your fault, lass,” Graeme said gruffly. “Your da certainly isn’t the only one doing it.”
“But your family isn’t. Not the Kendricks.”
“No.”
For a few seconds, she appeared shattered. Then she unclasped her hands, smoothed down her skirts, and straightened her spine. “While I’m not trying to minimize the situation, I suspect my father is unaware of how things stand. He has very little to do with Lochnagar Manor, which has been the case for years. It’s always been overseen by his business manager in Edinburgh, and by an estate steward.”
“Not an uncommon situation with absentee landlords,” Nick agreed.
If Musgrave didn’t know his own business, it only confirmed what a nodnock he was, as far as Graeme was concerned.
“What does this have to do with Sabrina?” Vicky asked. “And smugglers? I don’t really understand that bit.”
“That’s what probably made her the target,” Graeme said. “Old Bill was annoyingly vague, but I suspect one of Musgrave’s tenant families has been running a smuggling rig. Apparently, they were evicted along with the rest of the crofters. That, obviously, did not sit well with the smugglers. But I’ll need to look into it more to get a true sense of it.”
Royal shook his head. “It must have been a hell of a rig, if they’re bent on murder.”
“Mayhap it’s not murder,” Angus said. “Mayhap it’s ransom they’re after. Kidnappin’, not killin’ .”
Graeme thought about it. “That makes sense, Grandda. More than this ridiculous assassination plot I’ve been chasing like a dog after its tail.”
“Assassination?” Sabrina asked in a faint voice.
“We thought the king might be under threat,” Graeme explained. “That’s why I came north in the first place.”
After processing that bit of information, she shook her head. “That still doesn’t explain why . . . Oh, I see. My father was supposed to come north with the king, not me.”
“Aye, and when you showed up instead, you became the target.”
“But how would a bunch of silly old smugglers even know Lord Musgrave was supposed to come north?” Ainsley asked, waving her arms.
