“Sing something you believe in,” she said after they had reached the end of the third song.
Jamie smiled. “A good idea,” he said. “I’m fed up with all that.” He reached into his music bag and took out a couple of sheets of music, which he handed to Isabel.
“Jacobite!” exclaimed Isabel. “ ‘Derwentwater’s Farewell.’
What’s this all about?”
“It’s a lament,” said Jamie. “It’s been dredged up out of 2 6 0
A l e x a n d e r M c C a l l S m i t h Hogg’s Jacobite Relics. It’s all about poor Lord Derwentwater, who was executed for joining the rebellion. It’s all about the things that he’ll miss. It’s very sad.”
“So I see,” said Isabel, glancing at the words. “And this is his speech here—printed at the end?”
“Yes,” said Jamie. “I find that particularly moving. He delivered it a few minutes before they put him to death. He was a loyal friend to James the Third. They had been boys together at the Palace of St. Germain.”
“A loyal friend,” mused Isabel, staring at the music. “That greatest of goods—friendship.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” said Jamie. He leant forward and pointed to a passage in the printed speech. “Look at what he says here. Near the end—minutes from death. He says, I am in perfect charity with all the world. ”
Isabel was silent. I am in perfect charity with all the world, she thought. I am in perfect charity with all the world. Resolution.
“And over here,” said Jamie. “Look. He says, I freely forgive such as ungenerously reported false things of me. Then he goes to his death.”
“They acted with such dignity,” said Isabel. “Not all of them perhaps, but so many. Look at Mary, Queen of Scots. What a different world.”
“Yes,” said Jamie. “It was. But we’re in this one. Let’s begin.”
He sang the lament and at the end of it Isabel rose from her piano seat and closed the cover of the keyboard. “Fish stew,” she said. “And another glass of this.”
At the table, the candle lit, they used the French bread to soak up the fish stew at the edge of their plates. Then Jamie, who was facing the window, suddenly became still. “Out there,”
he whispered. “Just outside the window.”
F R I E N D S, L OV E R S, C H O C O L AT E
2 6 1
Isabel turned in her seat. She did so slowly, because she had guessed what it was, who it was, and did not want a sudden movement to scare him off.
Brother Fox looked in. He saw two people. He saw them raise their glasses of wine to him, liquid that for him was suspended in the air, as if by a miracle.
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.
This novel is the second in The Sunday Philosophy Club series. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and was a law professor at the University of Botswana and at Edinburgh University. He lives in Scotland.
Document Outline
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three