The Rogues by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris Page B

stared down into our bowls, but I could see Lachlan’s eyes flicking toward me. My belly began to twist into a tight knot. If Ishbel knew I was behind it, if she thought I was getting the family into trouble, I’d be living on thistles and silence for a week.
    Ishbel’s question hung over us like a sharpened ax dangling from a thread as she returned to the table and sat down again.
    Finally Da said, “It was Alan Dunbar who stirred things up.”
    I let out a silent breath.
    Cocking an eyebrow, Ishbel asked, “And what was that rogue doing at a meeting of decent folk?”
    â€œHe came to sell whisky,” said Lachlan brightly. Then he fell silent.
    â€œBy the sound of it, ye must all have drunk yer fill.”
    â€œNo one bought a drop of his brew,” said Da.
    â€œThen why have ye taken up this mad scheme?”
    Into the new silence that greeted her question, I finally threw an answer. “His words affected us strongly. Better than any brew.”
    â€œ His words !” Ishbel repeated mockingly. “And is Alan Dunbar a minister that ye should listen so closely to him? He poaches off the laird’s land and worse besides.”
    â€œHe’s bold,” said Lachlan, “and takes his lead from nae man. I heard he once stole a whole herd of a neighboring laird’s cattle all by himself, took them all the way to Edinburgh. He sold them at the market before the sheriff’s men could catch him.”
    I could see from Ishbel’s stern expression that was the wrong thing to say, and I decided to leap to Dunbar’s defense. “I heard he killed twenty Frenchmen at the Battle of Waterloo,” I said quickly, “and took a gold coin from the emperor Napoleon himself!”
    â€œAye, it’s easy to believe he was killing and thieving even then,” said Ishbel, changing my words.
    â€œIt’s all rumors, Ishbel,” Da said quietly, looking steadily at her. “And nobody should be condemned because of rumor.”
    Ishbel fell silent, and her brow wrinkled. Next her eyes filled with tears, and she stood up again, going over to stir what was left of the stew with a shaking hand.
    Da meant the rumors that had spread through the village about him and Ishbel, of course, rumors that they lived as man and wife without being married in the kirk. Lachlan and I knew they slept apart and sometimes didn’t even speak to each other for days. We knew that any soft words between them were so rare as to be small miracles. So if those rumors weren’t true, maybe the things said about Alan Dunbar weren’t true either. At least I thought that was what Da meant. But I hoped Dunbar really did have Napoleon’s coin. I would dearly love to see it.
    Ishbel turned back, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I canna see that ye’ll get justice from theft.”
    â€œIt’s nae theft,” said Da. “We’re taking the sheep direct to the laird’s house. And asking him to remember what bonds are between a laird and his kin.”
    â€œAnd if ye’re caught before ye arrive there? Nae matter what ye mean to do, it’s the likeness of what yer doing ye’ll be hanged for.”
    Da looked down and said to his bowl, “What would ye have us do, Ishbel?”
    â€œI understand now, even if ye dinna, that times are changing,” she said slowly. “This poor country life is doomed. When there’s a flood coming, ye have to move to higher ground. It’s that or be drowned.”
    Da looked up and said quietly, “Ye want me to leave this land my family has lived on for generations?”
    She nodded, gazing straight into his eyes. “Yes, Murdo. Leave their graves behind before ye join them.”
    I held my breath, and I could hear Lachlan doing the same. The fire in the hearth too seemed to stop burning for the moment.
    â€œYe speak easily of abandoning graves when ye have nane to leave,” Da