Vanished Days

Autumn 1707 finds Scotland on the edge of upheaval. Across the country, from the Highland glens to the Borders, people who have long been at odds are uniting to oppose the recent Union with England. Meanwhile, France is readying a force to restore the exiled Jacobite king to the Scottish throne, and Edinburgh is a city of unrest and peril.

Queen Anne's commissioners, hoping to calm matters, have begun distributing money from London to cover the unpaid wages and lost funds of Scots who sailed on the Darien expedition eight years earlier. That failed overseas venture had left the nation close to financial ruin. When the young widow of a Darien seaman steps forward to claim her husband's pay, her request is disputed. One of the men appointed to examine it has only a few days to decide whether she is telling the truth or whether his own feelings are clouding his judgment. The novel blends adventure, hardship, romance, and a hopeful outlook.

This book is both a prequel and a companion to The Winter Sea, and some of its events unfold alongside events in that earlier novel. It reaches back to the 1680s and introduces the Moray and Graeme families.