CHAPTER ONE
1822“Thank God we are in calm waters!”
Lord Hinchley poured himself a glass of brandy and drank it in one draught.
“You have been fortunate,” his companion replied, “I have known the sea to be far worse than it has been on this voyage.”
“Then the Lord knows that I will not come to this outlandish spot again! As it is, I am fully prepared to believe it is the Devil’s country, peopled only by barbarians!”
“A popular English misconception about Scotland!” the Duke of Strathnarn said cynically.
Lord Hinchley threw himself down in a chair which was no longer swinging from side to side in the comfortable Saloon of the ship in which they had been buffeted about in an unpleasantly rough North Sea for the last seven days.
“If you ask me,” he said confidentially, “you were extreme
