After all the world-travelling Cat has been doing, she’s glad to be back home in good ol’ England even if the sight of Drury Lane in rubble still hurts. Better yet, she has finally cured Billy of his affections for her (a months long ship voyage and rambling carriage rides in close quarters can do that and Cat made herself as irritating as possible. What a relief to that story) and is ready to settle down. Even so, she can’t quite imagine herself as finding a conventional life which is what Syd offers her. But she can’t muster past her sisterly affection towards the boxing butcher and the fact that she constantly finds herself in trouble doesn’t lend itself to a quiet home with a gaggle of children.

However, all those questions have to wait when her former guardians comes with big news. He has potential information on her birth mother!

Cat has long wondered about her parents, painting fanciful tales of who they could be but the letter proves itself to be a disappointment. After seeing her mispublished writing attempts (from Den of Thieves if you remember), Mrs. Moir believes Cat is the long lost Maudie Stirling and promises to tell her the story if they send her monies for a passage. It’s most likely to be a trap by a greedy grifter, hoping to capitalize on her brief writerly fame but the seed has been planted. The letter may be a fake, but Cat can’t let the thought go because after all these years, there is potential to find out where she is from. So it’s time for her to set off alone to Scotland.

Well not entirely alone. She has a new companion, the Irish Bridget O’Reilly is accompanying her to leave her abusive brothers and keep her out of trouble. A good choice as prejudicial tensions between Irish and British rise, leading to fights and near fatal beatings on the daily.

The two venture to the loch, acting as workers at the new mill so Cat may get closer to the Moir family. There, she gets a piece of what am average working life is which draining compared to the lighter fare of the theatre but she does find some freedom teaching younger kids at mill schools. She also faces her fair share of prejudice as a Sassenach (English) and internal difficulties with her fear of getting closer to the truth that may not be as happy as she wishes. How could it as her mother whichever way you look at it, abandoned her on the doorstep in the middle of a cold Januarary night.

I can’t say too much as Cat’s origins are revealed halfway through and then things happen. Very spoilery things. But I do enjoy how Golding weaves the themes of family here. The importance of knowing one’s story is balanced by Cat’s realization that the stories she tells herself aren’t always true. For all her feelings of abandonment, she is not as alone as she believed herself to be as she thinks of all her friends and allies like Syd, Frank, Lizzie, Bridget, Mr. Sheridan and even Billy. This is an important point she will come to again when she comes face to face with her own kin of which immediate recognition and love towards one another do not ensue.

A highway robbery does. Oh yes, I said robbery. Cat always does manage to get into trouble between a rock and a hard place.

It’s a fine adventure and conclusion to the series as it brings some themes in full circle while leaving enough potential for Cat’s future and other adventures to come for readers to imagine.

Now the last excerpt from some of the critics!

“A hairum-scarum, ramstam lassie, May she flourish like a lily, Now bonilie!” -Robert Burns, Poet

“An unwanted incursion into my territory-get back down south, Miss Royal!” -Sir Walter Scott, Poet and Novelist

“A total counterfeit from start to finish”- William Henry Ireland, Forger Discoverer of New Plays by Shakespeare

“Her prose runs as smoothly as one of my own macadamized roads”-John Loudon McAdam, Scottish Inventor

“Her Scottish tale needs no overture- on second thoughts, perhaps I should write one?”- Felix Mendelsson, Composer