About this story
Elder Caird wants sermons harder than mercy; a tenant has vanished after refusing to name a neighbor's secret rites; and on the road you meet Katrine Yester, the exiled laird's niece, who tells you to watch where the righteous man refuses to look. When drums sound from the wood that night, Katrine returns barehanded and ash-streaked: she followed Caird there, and he was not praying.
How it opens
Eight packhorses brought your books to a damp manse between kirk and burn.
Isobel VeitchMr Sempill, Woodilee called a minister, not an Edinburgh library.
You had known the glen as a boy, before war divided every household by covenant.
Mungo MuirheadPreach firmly, David. A young voice invites older sins to test it.
Mungo MuirheadDoctrine must be certain even when local patience asks for delay.
Ephraim CairdWoodilee chose you freely and expects no softness toward error.