She moved into the shade of a dogwood tree. “Royalty, then.”
“For the king of Lanarkshire, aye—one of the tobacco lords.”
The magic vanished. Tobacco lords were synonymous with the vilest epithet, not only to the Catesbys but to all Virginia. These unscrupulous, voracious men across the water were enemies of the Tidewater like the French and Indians to the frontier.
Juliet was hard-pressed to keep the scorn from her tone. “I suppose this king of Lanarkshire has a name.”
“That he does.” Was it her imagination, or did his words hold sharp respect? “Mr. Leith Buchanan of Glasgow.”
Forgetting herself, Juliet stared at him. NottheBuchanan of Inglis, Turnbull, and Buchanan, the foremost tobacco lords in Glasgow? The very men responsible for the Catesbys’ misfortune.
Hunter continued as if oblivious to her disquiet. “Though Buchanan is all steel and whipcord, he has a prince’s penchant for gardens.”
She fell silent at this tribute to the villain in her mind—an old, wrinkled Glaswegian stacking coins in his countinghouse from dawn till dusk, devising myriad ways to mire the Tidewater planters in more debt, even ruination.
“’Tis said a man is judged by his acreage and gardeners. Buchanan employed two and sixty gardeners in my tenure.”
Juliet all but gasped. “At one time?” Two and sixty gardeners to their three. And they could hardly afford one, yet Father insisted they pretend otherwise.
“Our bedding plant list at Ardraigh Hall was nigh on sixty thousand plants from all o’er Britain and the continent, not including shrubs and trees and the like.”
“I suppose this man has more than one orangery.”
“Just one near the main house, but it’s massive. These wealthy Scots merchants are fond of gardens. And kirks.”
“Kirks?”
“Churches.”
She turned speechless and breathless all at once. Did these tobacco lords mean to atone for their sins by erecting places of worship when they themselves worshiped mammon? She bit her lip to keep from saying so.
“Granted, these lords o’er the Atlantic commission such to display their wealth and power. But one can pray that in time their hearts turn to the One who alone is worthy of worship, aye?”
With a nod, Juliet bade him farewell and took her daybook back into the house, more troubled than when she’d first gone into the garden.
4
In a word, ’tis the cleanest and beautifullest, and best built city in Britain, London excepted.
Daniel Defoe
GLASGOW
Turning east, Leith left the heart of Glasgow by taking High Street up to the Drygate, which led to the steep, serpentine Carntyne Lone road. Eclipse, his newest stallion, was a bit flighty freed from the stable. Leith spoke slow and low to calm him, using less leg to lead him, and the horse soon rewarded him with a lowered head and huffed breath.
Niall rode alongside on a more placid mount, wanting to see the twins after a fortnight’s business in their Edinburgh offices. Leith’s youngest brother had been especially attentive since Havilah’s passing, spending far more time with the twins than Leith did. So much time that Leith’s pleasure in it turned to guilt. Somehow Niall managed to attend to business, acquire more art to adorn his new estate, and make time for family with a balance that eluded the rest of them.
“Did I tell you about my latest hoped-for acquisition?”
Leith slowed his gait. “Through your agent, James Christie?”
“Aye. Walpole’s collection of the Old Masters. But alas, I may lose to the empress of Russia.”
Leith stanched a chuckle, and talk turned to decidedly more banal matters.
“A fair day after so much rain,” Niall mused. “I’d rather go twice the distance in such weather.”
A few miles’ ride was enough to clear one’s head and earn the approach to Ardraigh Hall’s gatehouse. With its dressed stone and arched Gothic windows, the structure was smothered in so many scarlet roses they obscured the tidy white door. Passing beyond the lushness that was sultry as a lass’s embrace, Leith looked uphill to where Ardraigh Hall sat, August sunlight gilding it like a gemstone. Home, nay. This country house outside the chaos and competition of Glasgow held too many dark memories to be a haven.
