"I fear I've come a long way to make a verra bad first impression," said the man gruffly. He looked around him, and started visibly at the sight of Nathaniel. "You'll be Daniel Bonner's son, Nathaniel?"

When this was confirmed, Moncrieff held out a hand. "I hope ye'll pardon the intrusion, so late and all. But I was anxious to make yer acquaintance."

"Maybe we should set at the table," Nathaniel suggested. "Before we get to the reason for your visit. I don't know about you, but I haven't eaten all day."

* * *

Elizabeth could not quite stop examining the stranger from Scotland, or wondering why a man of some means and education would have spent a year looking for Hawkeye. He had started in New—York and worked his way upriver, looking for clues but finding none until he came into the Albany area just three months past. Elizabeth had a difficult time curbing her curiosity while the men ate, filling themselves with huge amounts of bread, leftover stew, Anna's Christmas doughnuts, and the apple pie Elizabeth had made as a small present for Nathaniel. He winked at her over his spoon, and she rubbed her hand along the long line of his back as she went by.

They wanted Robbie's news of Hawkeye, but Nathaniel had already silenced Hannah's questions on this with a small shake of the head: not in front of the stranger. Not until they knew his purpose. Moncrieff, on the other hand, could have talked but seemed content to eat. He was of middle height with a narrowness to him, from forehead to shoulders, but with strong hands and dark eyes that were both keen and intelligent. Once, Elizabeth thought, he had been a very handsome youth: even now there was something about the way he held himself that set him apart.

Moncrieff seemed to have recovered fully from his earlier difficulties. Enough, at any rate, to ask about ale and to look both surprised and disappointed to find there was none. Elizabeth filled his cup with cider as quickly as he could empty it, in the hope of giving him reason to go out of doors so that they might have a few minutes alone.

In the meantime they gave Robbie news of the village, and the things that had passed over the summer and fall. Moncrieff listened as closely as Robbie did, but his commentary was limited to an occasional raised brow.

"Had I known, Nathaniel, I wad hae stayed. Ye've had a hard time o' it."

"We would have been glad of your help," Nathaniel conceded with a grim smile. "But we managed."

"Aye, ye always do." He cast a shy glance at Elizabeth's shape, and smiled. "There's guid news, too, for which tae be thankful on the Yule."

"That there is," Nathaniel agreed, following the line of his gaze.

"Wait!" Hannah cried, jumping up so suddenly that she sent her empty cup clattering to the floor. And then she disappeared into the shadows underneath her sleeping loft, to appear again with her hands behind her back. She ran back to Robbie, and stood before him with a tremendous smile.

"Wha' have ye got there, lassie? A surprise?"

"Aye, a surrrrprise," she agreed, happily mimicking his burr. "Close your eyes and don't touch, please."

After a bit of teasing, he complied. Hannah produced one of the pairs of spectacles purchased in Albany, and with a conspiratorial grin in Elizabeth's direction, she slipped them carefully onto Robbie's face, hooked them gently behind his ears, and stood back with a triumphant cry.

Robbie touched his fingers carefully to the metal frames.

"Open your eyes!" Hannah demanded, thrusting a book into his chest.

The blue of his eyes blazed sharply, magnified by glass and perhaps by a little dampness. Elizabeth blinked hard, herself, seeing the look on his face.

Robbie lifted the book up and opened it.

"Holy Mary," he said reverently. "They work."

There was laughter all around, but Robbie kept his gaze fixed on the book in his hands, turning the pages with one great splayed thumb as if he thought that the clarity of the words, black on white, might turn out to be a trick of his mind.

"I dinna ken how tae thank ye for a generous act such as this," he said, looking up finally. Gently he took the spectacles from his face and held them on his open palm like a treasure.

"No thanks needed," Nathaniel said. "Not between us."

"Now you can read to us," Liam said hopefully, brushing the matted red hair out of his eyes and stifling a yawn.

"But not tonight," amended Elizabeth.

Moncrieff had been watching the conversation with some interest, but he stood now, clearing his throat quietly to get their attention.

"I ken it's late," he said. "But if I could have just a half hour o' your time, Mr. Bonner, I would be thankful. I've been a year looking for you, and it will be difficult to sleep if I dinna first say a few words. But if you'll excuse me for just a moment

And with the resigned look of anyone who had to leave the warm cabin for the realities of the Necessary, Moncrieff finally went off to relieve himself of the effects of Elizabeth's generosity with the cider.

Hannah fell on Robbie like a plague, fairly climbing up his arm in her curiosity.

"Where's my grandfather?" she demanded, without niceties. "And when he is coming home?"

Robbie laughed, shaking her off like a wet leaf. "When last I saw him he was in guid health, and he bid me tell ye that when next I came tae call. He doesna ken that Kirby's deid—" He nodded to Liam, in acknowledgment of his loss. "And that there's no sheriff tae put him back in gaol. Elizabeth, yer fait her is no' o' a mind tae see Hawkeye's sentence completed? Well, then. I suspect he wad be here his el if he kent that. But he's in Montreal, or should soon be."