Page 68 of Torin and the Princess

Cooper continued, “There doesn’t seem to be much about Muthill… a mention on this blog, but in passing. Hmmm….” He kept reading. “What was the other place you mentioned?”

Torin gestured to the laptop as if he had just noticed it. “What is it…?”

“A laptop, a computer, it looks up information.”

Torin looked very confused but said, “We rested overnight in Moulin.”

Cooper typed.

Torin leaned to look at the screen. His face screwed up. He added, “M’home is Castle Glume.”

“That’s good…” Cooper typed, “Because nothing much about Moulin and Muthill.”

He added, “Now I’m searching for Castle Gloom.”

Then he turned the screen.

Jen and I both leaned closer to look. There was a name at the top of the website, Campbell Castle, and a photograph of a ruin.

Torin’s face darkened.

I said, “Are you sure this is the same place?”

“Formerly called Castle Gloom, situated above the town of Dollar, Clackmannanshire?—”

Torin said, “Aye, tis the same place. Tis a ruin... what happened tae it?”

Cooper’s eyes scanned the page. “Looks like, in July 1654, Royalist rebels attacked and burned Castle Campbell over two nights.”

I said, “Wow, that happened three hundred and fifty years ago.”

Torin looked down at his empty ice cream bowl. “That is long after m’life, almost a hundred years past.” He exhaled. “Tis unsettling.”

Cooper turned the screen away. “Okay, here’s a question: someone fairly famous visited your home in 1556, two years before you?—”

Torin said, “Famous, what dost ye mean?”

“Someone important. Someone who would be historically significant.”

Torin nodded. “Ah, yes, that would be the journeyin’ poet, Gavin Duggie, then. Och, he enthralled us with a ballad about…” His words trailed off as he watched Cooper.

He asked, earnestly, “Is he not who ye mean? Everyone agreed he was the best journeyin’ poet who visited the castle in years.”

“No, I meant John Knox.”

“Knox, thepreacher? Aye, he came around that time, m’laird the Earl invited him. I found him tae be like a rooster in a flock of grouse. His sermon was loud and impressive and the Earl is a great admirer, but nae one else seemed tae care about it much. Knox is famous?”

Cooper closed the laptop. “Yep, very famous.”

Torin looked back at his empty bowl. “Maybe I daena understand the meanin’ of it.”

I said, “Torin, do you want more ice cream?”

“Nae.” He stood, almost knocking his chair over, holding his stomach. “I think the bana dinna agree with the beers.”

I said, “You can use the bathroom if you…”

He headed for the door, holding onto the wall for balance. “Och nae, I over gorged m’self on the sweet fare. Tis fine, Mistress Lexi, I will retire and be well when I need tae get up for guard duty.”

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