"Your ancesters ..."

(Your ancestors are from the border area too. They must have had a castle or two of their own, other than that musty old tor. Though I must admit that our stay there was interesting. That was the first night that we snuggled together, and I must admit that I liked it."

Breaking the connection Carol went back to eating her morning meal. She did spare a second or two to cast a glance at James to see his reaction to her thoughts.

James nodded, though his eyebrows climbed noticeably at her closing statement. She had liked it, had she? He smiled, softly. Reestablishing the connection with her, he answered.

(Dear Heart, of course we will go where you want. We already have visited several of my family's places. The only one I still have a great desire to see is the site where Mangerton once stood, the proud home of the Armstrong Lairds for over five hundred years until James VI had it sundered stone from stone.)

James' face darkened a bit as he thought of that. (They had no right! English men on Scottish soil, destroying the home and livelihood of honest men!) Still, he himself wondered at the intensity of his emotions concerning an even that had occurred more than five centuries past. He found himself especially surprised that he would be so emphatic about something that concerned a family offshoot from his own line that had occurred about a millennium before. Was there more in his pedigree that bound him more closely to the Armstrongs? That was an interesting thought.

(Dad always said that there was more to Mangerton than just a pele tower. But he never was able to come here to see for himself, poor guy. He will be insulted and angry if I don't do a bit of searching for him while we are here. And I would not like him to take a dislike to you for such a reason ...) His thought trailed off in a much more gentle smile.