Rooke is away on some business for Rupert, and will not be back for some time; Rupert thinks it may be a couple of months.

There is no one else that he could send to take charge of the party from home, and I don't like the idea of all those lassies coming out without an escort.

Even Lachlan and Sandy's Mary are ignorant of foreign languages and foreign ways.

But as soon as Rooke returns we can have them all out.

I dare say you will have some of your clansmen ready by then, and I think the poor girls, who may feel a bit strange in a new country like this, where the ways are so different from ours, will feel easier when they know that there are some of their own mankind near them.