"There are men like Mr. MacKay everywhere," said the Hakim. "But there are also men like your father, and women like Mrs. Freeman and your stepmother. Like the woman you will be one day."

He was trying to comfort her, but the truth was simple. She said, "I am afraid of Scotland."

Hakim Ibrahim picked up the plate of opium, covered it with a cloth, and they went back to the surgery, where Mungo waited.

Dearest Many-Doves,

I write this letter in the trust that we will encounter a packet bound for Boston or New-York in the next day or so. By my calculations it is now the second week of June. God grant that it may reach you by September. I would wish for nothing more than to deliver it to you myself, but I fear it will be many months before we are safely home again.

From Runs-from-Bears you will have learned that the children were taken from us in Québec. Let me reassure you first that we were reunited with them within days, and that they suffered no permanent harm. Nathaniel, Squirrel, Daniel, Lily, Curiosity, and I are together now on the Isis, and we remain all in good health. It is a matter of great concern to us that we cannot give you word of Hawkeye and Robbie, but they follow us on the Jackdaw, and we have not seen that ship in more than a week.

This evening we came within sight of the Isle of Man; I expect we shall be in Scotland tomorrow morning. We are unsure of what is to happen next, except that we shall soon see the Earl of Carryck, who has caused us to come so far against our will. I pray that the earl proves a more reasonable and honest man than his emissaries Mr. Moncrieff and Captain Pickering have been. Nathaniel still hopes that an opportunity will present itself to turn about immediately and sail for home, but how that might be achieved is unclear.

Daniel and Lily thrive, as does Squirrel, who has been kept busy by studying with the ship's surgeon. Nathaniel rarely sleeps, now that we are within sight of land; Curiosity seems to do little else. We think of you every day and pray that you are all in good health, and that Blue-Jay continues to thrive. Nathaniel bids me tell you all that he has seen the Panther in the Sky, and it was running toward home. A good omen.

Please share this letter with my father and those friends who inquire after us.

Elizabeth Middleton Bonner

10th day of June in the Year 1794

Aboard the Isis

My dearest husband Galileo Freeman,

This ship will come to rest soon. I ask the Lord what he has got on his mind for us in a country as homely and wet as this Scotland I see outside the window, but he don't talk much to me these days.

Think of this when you worry about me: Nathaniel Bonner is the same good man he has always been, and if there is a way in this world to get me home to you he will find it. Otherwise I go to my reward thanking the Lord for the good husband he sent my way all those years ago, and for the fine children he put into my care.

Your loving wife

Curiosity Freeman

writ by her own poor hand this 11th day of June, 1794

on board the Isis

My grandmother Falling-Day,

Elizabeth says I might write to you in our own tongue but there is not enough time for us to puzzle out the sounds on paper. These letters must go to the packet Marianne. She is bound for New-York on the evening tide. A courier will bring them up the Great River to Paradise and Runs-from-Bears or Otter will carry them to Lake in the Clouds. Many-Doves will read these words out loud before the fire, and you will all be together when you hear them.

We are well in body. My brother and sister are strong and healthy. But I am worried for Curiosity, whose spirits are very low, and for my father, who walks the ship staring at the shore, and for Bone-in-Her-Back, who is so distracted that she forgets to eat, and most of all for my Grandfather Hawk-Eye and for Robbie, who are behind us on another ship that hides itself in the fog.

I have many stories to tell of this journey. I have learned much. Yesterday a boy called Mungo died of a swelling that turned his belly as hard and hot as a boiling stone. He passed into the shadowlands quietly. I have seen others cured of strange illnesses and wounds. With a thin metal stick the doctor called Hakim reached into a sailor's body and crushed a stone that was blocking his water. He screamed so loud that he broke his voice but he is alive and will mend, now. The Hakim has given me medicines from his homeland to bring to you.

Scotland is wet and brown and green and yellow, but there are no trees only hills covered with rough grass and brush called heather that the sailors laugh and weep to see. They have been longer from their homes than I have been from mine, but I know what is in their hearts. I would be very glad to see the fir with the broken top that stands outside my window. Bone-in-Her-Back says that there are trees here, but not many. They burned most of them long ago, and now they burn black rock they dig out of the ground, or even the ground itself, cut into squares. I do not wonder that my father's mother left this place.

Last night a woman called Mrs. MacKay disappeared. The sailors have searched every corner of the ship many times but she is nowhere to be found among the living. She mourned a lost child, and I think she has gone to find it.

My father says that we will finish our business here and sail for home soon. I know he wishes this to be true, and so do I.

Your Granddaughter called Squirrel

Dear Liam,

This ship has come to rest in a wide water called a firth with England on one side and Scotland on the other. Scotland is where my Grandmother Cora was born, and perhaps my grandfather's people, but it is a very strange and lonely kind of place. We were brought here against our wishes, and will stay only until we can find another ship to bring us home.