The Black Dwarf Chapter Seven

In which the solitary hermit, Elshie, endures the loss of his cherished goat through the unwitting carelessness of Hobbie Elliot, a young farmer soon to be married, while a darker plot unfurls with the abduction of Grace Armstrong amidst the tumult of reivers and frontier violence. Hobbie returns to find his homestead in ashes and his family stricken, yet rallying amidst neighbours and kinsfolk to seek redress and rescue, tempered by the sober counsel of faith and endurance.