Night of the Highland Dragon

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Authors: Isabel Cooper
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sitting at the kitchen table having tea with Mrs. Lennox.
    â€œI hope you’ll forgive the intrusion,” he said after Judith had waved them all back to their seats. “I have so many memories, and I felt myself rather in the way at home. I hope I’ll not be any such thing here. I told Mrs. Frasier to box my ears and pack me off if I was,” he added with a smile toward the cook.
    Mrs. Frasier, kneading bread dough, looked over her shoulder and chuckled obligingly. “You’re a bit big for it now, lad.”
    â€œIf they don’t mind having you here, I can’t imagine I would,” said Judith. “Nothing unusual today, Mrs. Frasier,” she added, leaving the menu near the cook, though out of the way of stray flour. “I hope everything’s well at your house.”
    â€œOh yes, quite,” said Ross. “Mother and Gillian send their regards, of course. An extra body does get underfoot in a place like that when it rains. I never noticed it growing up.”
    â€œAye, everything’s smaller when you come back home,” said Judith.
    â€œI wouldn’t have thought that in your case,” Ross said.
    She shrugged. “The castle’s larger than most buildings, but Loch Arach’s smaller than most towns. It rather balances out. Although,” she said, changing the subject before anyone could ask questions about where she’d been, “it did seem a bit oversized just after my brothers left.”
    â€œAye, and quiet,” said Mrs. Lennox, shaking her head. “It was grand to hear a child’s voice about the place. Though, if you dinna’ mind me saying, m’lady, I’ll not entirely miss Master Colin doing chemical experiments in the middle of the night.”
    â€œColin’s always been too enthusiastic about his hobbies for anyone’s tastes,” said Judith as Ross’s eyes widened. “Except Regina’s, I gather. But if you have the patience for motorcars, Colin might be tame and predictable by comparison.”
    â€œWhat kind of chemical experiments?” Ross asked.
    â€œOch, who can tell? Goin’s-on that went bang and had the whole downstairs hallway smelling of smoke. We’re lucky the castle didna’ fall in around our heads.”
    â€œOh, I think this place has been through worse in its day,” said Judith. The experiments in question hadn’t dealt with chemistry as most people understood it, but neither Ross nor Mrs. Frasier had any reason to suspect otherwise. Every family these days had an amateur scientist or two in it, she’d heard. “And you have to be fair. To Colin, ten o’clock is hardly the middle of the night.”
    â€œHmm!” said Mrs. Lennox, unimpressed. “City hours. Meaning no disrespect, of course.”
    â€œOf course,” said Judith. “I promise, the castle still stands as it always did.”
    â€œI’d be grateful for a look,” Ross said and coughed. “That is to say, I’m sure it’s changed since I was growing up, and I know I didn’t see everything, but while I’m here… You wouldn’t have to give me a walking tour or anything—”
    The words “walking tour” kept Judith from staring in shock. Down in England, she remembered, it was common enough for people to go and walk about great houses, particularly if they were large and old. It had happened in Jane Austen’s books, hadn’t it? If that was the standard Ross was used to, no wonder he’d asked.
    â€œNot in much shape for visitors today, I think,” she said. “I’ve still got to get the roof fixed, and there are a couple bad spots in some of the floors—I wouldn’t want you breaking your leg. We have everyone into the great hall for the harvest fair though, remember? If you’d like to look about then, I’ll even see if I can find you a guide who knows some of the more interesting

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