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The singer’s voice cracked painfully on "voice, fiddle, and flute," but he sang stoutly on, despite the laughter from his audience I smiled wryly to myself as he hit the final couplet,

" ‘And, besides, I’ll instruct you like me to entwine,

The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s vine!’ "

I liftedthe er’s last lines

"Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the ho for the men to come out

2

IN WHICH WE MEET A GHOST

Ten, eleven, twelve…and two, and six…one pound, eight shillings, sixpence, two farthings!" Fergus dropped the last coin ceres, and handed it to Jamie "And three buttons," he added, "but I have kept those," and patted the side of his coat

"Ye’ve settled with the landlord for our

"Yes," I assured hius collected"

Fergus sht from the tavern’s

"We have the necessary money for the burial, then," he said "Will we take Monsieur Hayes to the priest now, or wait tillsilent at the edge of the inn yard

"I shouldna think the priest will be awake at this hour," he said, with a glance at the rising moon "Still--"

"I’d just as soon not take hietically to the wagon "But if we’re going to sleep out in the woods, the…er…scent…" It wasn’t overpowering, but once away from the smoky reek of the tavern, a distinct odor was noticeable in the vicinity of the wagon It hadn’t been a gentle death, and it had been a hot day

"Auntie Claire is right," Ian said, brushing his knuckles inconspicuously under his nose "We dinna want to be attracting wild ani Gavin here, surely!" Duncan protested, scandalized at the thought "What, leave hi wrapped in swaddling clothes?" He swayed alar his always precarious balance

I saw Ja white on the knife-edged bridge of his nose

"No," he said "We willna be leaving hi fro his decision, thrust it into his coat

"We’ll bury hi into the stable yonder and see can ye buy a spade verra cheap?"

The short journey to the church through the quiet streets of Charleston was soe,theportions of his la occasional encourage hoarsely and clutching one animal by its headstall, while Ian held the other to prevent bolting Fergus and I brought up the rear in staid respectability, Fergus holding his newly purchased shovel at port-ar dire predictions as to the likelihood of us all spending the night in gaol for disturbing the peace of Charleston

As it was, the church stood by itself in a quiet street, soood, in ter notice, but it did low of torch or candle to pierce the blackness

Greatin the heat, and a border of pines, ht to block all traces ofthe churchyard itself black as a…well, as a crypt

Walking through the air felt like pushing aside curtains of black velvet, perfumed with an incense of turpentine froent s could have been farther fro southern at under the dark brick walls, and I could have wished not to recall Jamie’s story of the tannasq quite so vividly

"We’ll find a place Do you stay and hold the horses, Duncan" Jaon’s seat and took me by the arm