The Scottish Highlands were ruled for generations by trust, family bonds, love of the land, and the honor of the local laird. When death took the laird of Glendoun, Thomas McRoy, his half brother, inherited the lands. Looking to make a profit from poor soil, Thomas leased the land to the English for their sheep and forcefully evicted the tenant farmers. Roddy Macallan, young and romantically inclined, refuses to leave when his family’s cottage burns. Instead, he joins forces with Alan Dunbar, dubbed “The Rogue,” to stymie the laird and his minions. The Highland Clearances, which took place dur ing the eighteenth century, remain one of the most dishonorable periods in Scottish history. The Rogues is the fourth book in Yolen and Harris’s Stuart Quartet : Queen’s Own Fool (2000), Girl in a Cage (2002), and Prince across the Water (2004) . lmp