Just as Anna and her children are direct descendants of the Laird of Abercairny mentioned in this novel （and by a happy twist of genealogy, of Captain Thomas Gordon）， Alex Graeme is descended from the Black Pate through his grandson Patrick （Maggie’s father）。
Alex, award-winning owner of Unique Devon Tours, thoughtfully provided me with his own family history notes and throughout the writing of this novel has stood ready to supply me with any information I might need about the Graemes.
Alison Lindsay, head of the Legal and Historical Search Rooms at the National Records of Scotland, has already been mentioned in my previous note, About the Characters, but deserves to be mentioned twice for her continuing support and friendship and for her ability to always and inevitably find the single reference I despaired of ever finding. I will owe her dinner till the end of time.
To all the staff and volunteers at Gladstone’s Land, but most particularly to Anna Brereton, visitor services manager there, my thanks for making all my stays within the upstairs flat seem more like homecomings, and for the time and effort taken to show me behind the scenes so I could craft my scenes.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Nigel Nairne and Allan Somerville, who, fortunately for me, were both working as senior castle guides at Edinburgh Castle （although Allan, after more than thirty years of service, recently retired） on the day I wandered up to them and asked if they knew where, precisely, Robin Moray would have been held prisoner. They not only shared their valuable time and their knowledge of the castle’s history, but let me stand in Robin’s footsteps and see briefly through his eyes. A rare gift, for a writer.
To Lara Haggerty, thirty-first Keeper of Books at the incredible Library of Innerpeffray—established nearly three centuries ago as Scotland’s first free public lending library—my thanks for sharing some of the books, including the atlas, that made their way into this story and for letting me hold history in my hands in the shape of the little Bible that was carried by the great Marquis of Montrose, still with his jottings in the margins. It’s a moment that I never will forget.
My thanks to Sandy Robb, for helping to set me on the path to Duddingston.
Appreciation and a drink are owed to Ian Rankin, who, among his many kindnesses, gave me the visual details I needed for my winter scenes at Duddingston, including the swan that was trapped in the ice.
Having been, for the best part of my life, one of those people found lining the walls on most social occasions, it has been both a quiet surprise and a pleasure to find myself part of a writing group in middle age, and my friends Elizabeth Boyle, Kathy Chung, Eileen Cook, Crystal Hunt, Mary Robinette Kowal, Liza Palmer, and Nephele Tempest have been, and continue to be, a constant support.
To my agents, Felicity Blunt and Shawna McCarthy, thank you for always believing in me.
The editing of this book was very much a team effort.
Thanks to Clare Hey at Simon & Schuster UK, Laurie Grassi at Simon & Schuster Canada, and Deb Werksman at Sourcebooks for their combined work in making this novel the best it could be.
Thanks to Heather Hall at Sourcebooks and Gretchen Stelter for their meticulous copyediting, to Jeff Miller of Faceout Studios and Heather VenHuizen of Sourcebooks for the beautiful cover, to Hannah Strassburger of Sourcebooks for designing the Graeme family tree, and to the sales team, publicists, and all the team at Sourcebooks who work tirelessly behind the scenes to bring my books to life. Your work may not always be seen, but it is very much appreciated.
To the booksellers, a special thank-you from the little girl in me who helped my mother in her bookstore and is always grateful for the work you do on my behalf.
And thank you so much to all the librarians who, with reviewers, bloggers, and so many others, help connect my stories to their readers.
To those who gave me help whose names I didn’t think to ask, and those who helped but whom I have forgotten to acknowledge here, please know I’m in your debt.
Finally, to my own family—my mother who always reads the stories first and helps to shape them, my father who with this one helped me find my voice for Adam, and my husband and my children who endure my living in another age for two years at a time—I give my thanks, for all their love and patient understanding.
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Susanna Kearsley is a former museum curator who loves restoring the lost voices of real people to the page, known for interweaving historical intrigue with romantic adventure in twin-stranded storylines. Her books, published in translation in more than twenty countries, have won the Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize, RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards, and National Readers’ Choice Awards and have finaled for the UK’s Romantic Novel of the Year and the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. She lives in Canada, by the shores of Lake Ontario.