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Jackie scoffed. “Longer than that. My da was doin’ it for years, while old Chattan was alive.”
Old Chattan was obviously Sir Robert Chattan, Sabrina’s grandfather. “And Chattan didn’t mind?”
“My da kept it small. Supplied the estate and the pub. Barely made a penny on it, the barmy old coot. Didna want to offend Chattan or cause any trouble with the law.”
“Not you, though.”
“Wasna goin’ to have Chattan lordin’ it over me.” He flashed an ugly grin. “Fortunately, the old fool kicked off shortly after my da.”
“And then Mr. Hugo showed up. That must have made things easier.”
“Aye. Musgrave didn’t give a damn about the place. But Hugo.” Jackie tapped the side of his nose. “He was a canny one. He knew where the real money was.”
“What about the old business manager, the one in Edinburgh? Was he in on it, too?”
Jackie rolled his eyes. “That old loony? As long as Hugo kept the rents comin’ in, he didna care.”
Sabrina had been right. Musgrave’s disregard for Lochnagar, benign or not, had caused a great deal of misery.
“But something changed.”
Jackie poured another dram. “That twit of a manager in Edinburgh finally got suspicious when my family wasna evicted, so he up and fired poor Hugo. He said Hugo wasn’t enforcin’ the Clearances like Musgrave wanted, and if he found any dirty dealings, he’d bring in the law. Hugo disappeared right quick after that.”
“As did Mr. Francis, eventually,” Graeme dryly replied.
Jackie laughed. “Och, that dandy prat. Thought to get rid of us, he did.”
“Well, you were evicted.”
“Poncy fool even threatened us. Francis said he would complain to Musgrave if we tried to use Lochnagar lands. Said Musgrave was an important man.” Jackie snorted. “And close to the king, as if we give a shite about that.”
“So, you threatened Francis and scared him off.”
“Oh, aye,” Magnus said, who’d just clomped back in to retrieve another cask. “Told him we’d gut him and throw him into the loch. Silly bugger believed us.”
Jackie snorted out another laugh.
“But that wasn’t enough. You needed to scare Musgrave off, too. That’s why you started those rumors of a plot against him.”
“Aye.”
Graeme couldn’t help a bit of professional curiosity. “How did you get the rumors started?”
“Used our contacts on the smuggling routes. We run our stuff into Argyll, Inverness, even Edinburgh. Easy enough to drop a word here and there, and then it spreads.”
“You made it sound like it was about the Clearances, not smuggling.”
“Lots of people angry over the Clearances, so it made sense.” Jackie shot Graeme a hard look. “Can ye blame them?”
“No. But it was never about that.”
Jackie shrugged.
“And what about the threats to the king? Was that another distraction?”
Dickie, who was dragging a cask across the floor, flashed a grin. “Och, we was just larkin’ about with that one. Havin’ a bit of fun.”
Graeme glared at him. “You spread rumors about killing the king, just for fun?”
