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"You’llpay," I replied harshly "You head will pound like hammers on anvils tomorrow And you probably won’t reed the knocker a dozen times on the colonel’s door before I heard any stir within The man who answered the door had his collar loosened and s spices I suspected the servants left in charge of the house tonight were having their own Dark Evening celebration He did not look inclined to end his festivities, even when I stepped aside and showed them a sodden Caulder on the doorstep

"Dr Amicas said to tell you to see him into his bed, but don’t let him sleep until you’ve put a couple of pints of warm beef broth down him He’s colder than he should be, and he’s drunk far toothis much all at once"

Just as I finished, Caulder leaned to one side and vomited down the steps The s man blanched He turned his head and bellowed, "Cates! Morray!" When two youngeret him into a waret a stableboy to come wash down the steps before that vile mess freezes on them And you! What is your na to leave I turned back reluctantly "My naht Caulder hoet him into this state"

The man didn’t appear to care "Nevare Burvelle," he said carefully and disapprovingly, as if my name were part of Caulder’s bad sed Caulder in, and he followed the the door behind him without so much as a thanks or a farewell

I went down the stairs carefully, avoiding the sliht caer and bleaker here The only sound was the crunching of my boots on the half-frozen snow When I reached Carneston House, a single feeble light greeted me by the door I entered to find the reat fireplace No one was at Sergeant Rufet’s desk I went up the stairs, blessing the lights that burned on each landing Our rooms were all in blackness "Spink!" I called, but there was no response He hadn’t returned, and so whatever

I foundfall to the floor, and clih and the layers of bitter disappointment fell over me like heavy blankets that did not warm me but only pressedfrohtmare to the next I was naked at the carnival and everyone knew that I had been culled from the Acadeed me sharply, and instead I wept like a little child I drealy of Rory and the Speck wolers ca and the smell of wine or beer on the with Caulder, I suspected it would be a long tiain I rolled over and finally fell into a deeper sleep, and with it, a vivid and carnal drea men have such dreams There is no shame in them My dream was heavy with sensuality and detail I tasted, I smelled, I heard, I touched, and I saw Every sense I possessed was inundated with the wohs and lazily traced the mottled patterns on the skin of her breasts Her nipples were dark and erect Her tongue was dark, too, and her breath smelled of flowers and earthy forest and tasted like sun-ripened fruit on a warulfed mine in female suppleness We mated as animals mate, without hesitation or inhibition

She wasbreasts I ed in her flesh, fascinated by the yielding folds and mounds of her Afterward, she heldme in her embrace She kissed me with a sensuality that surpassed all intimacy I’d ever dreamed Her hands held and caressed my shaved scalp and then clutched my tarred topknot of hair "You have crossed the line and you are asp Despite the holiday, the dru Briefly, the eroticisered in usted with myself as if my dreaht Despite that, I felt sha, let alone be aroused by it Around roaned and cursed, and we put our pillows over our heads No one got up I dropped back into a real sleep, and slept until true light caly rose to a coldI was better off than most of my comrades I was still tired and dejected, but at least I didn’t have a hangover Just before it was tiot dressed in ht before The tables in the mess hall were half empty Spink was one of the feho joined me there I had seen little of hione out for a walk in the crisp, cold day He was s as he sat down next to me I asked him quietly, "Epiny?"