A winter wrath and grief, an icy, scintillant, arctic passion, marked two there, the laird of Glenfernie and the elder of the kirk.

Gilian's grief stood head-high with theirs, but their anger, the old man's disdaining and the young man's jealousy, was far from her.

In Jarvis Barrow's hand was the paper, taken from Elspeth, given him by Glenfernie.

He turned upon the cripple.

"Wha, then?
Wha, then?
Speak out!" He had that power of command that forced an answer.