Hearts and the Highway

Summary

Moonlit heather on the Highland verge, a reluctant conspirator—Clanranald—dragged by ancestral duty into a candle-lit cellar where whispers of regicide coil like peat-smoke. Ink still wet on parchment, James II’s quill scratches a death sentence; the parchment is folded, sealed with black wax, entrusted to Sir Harry Richmond’s gloved palm. Enter Lady Katherine: silk gown swapped for midnight velvet, tricorne cocked, eyes blazing with filial fury. She leaps from the mist, pistols crossed, sabre whispering from its scabbard; the king’s courier topples, the warrant flutters skyward, and steel kisses her collarbone—crimson blooming on linen. Fire devours the document, sparks ascending like Jacobite comets. Wounded yet triumphant, she confronts Sir Harry, whose loyalties buckle beneath the weight of her audacity; a promise is forged in the crucible of that embered paper, the fate of Clanranald now balanced on the pivot of a guardsman’s conscience.

Synopsis

The Earl of Clanranald, obliged against his will to attend a meeting of conspirators against King James (II) of England, is arrested. His death warrant is signed by the King and dispatched to Edinburgh by Sir Harry Richmond of the King's Bodyguard. Lady Katherine, the Earl's daughter, dresses up as a highwayman meets and later holds up the King's messenger. She receives a sword wound in her shoulder, but secures the warrant and burns it. Upon hearing her story, Sir Harry promises to do all in his power to secure the release of Lady Katherine's father.