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"Hush" He laid his hand on mine and squeezed hard His eyes held

"I am already part of it," he said quietly "It is ht; I ao--to see, at least To be there" He hesitated then, as though he ain and letwith you" I spoke quite calmly, with that eerie sense of detach disaster

His wide mouth twitched briefly

"I did expect ye would, Sassenach Go and fetch your wee box, aye? I’ll have the horses brought round"

I didn’t wait to hear Mr Campbell’s expostulations, but fled toward the stillroo on the tiles like the beat of an anxious heart

Wehis horse in the shade of a chestnut tree He had been waiting for us; he stepped out of the shadows at the sound of our hoofbeats He nodded to Ca

"Did you not tell him, Campbell?" he said, and turned the frown on Jamie "It will be no affair for a woman, Mr Fraser"

"Ye called it a e in his voice "My wife is ban-lighiche; she has seen i’ o with ether, but he didn’t argue further He turned abruptly and swung into his saddle

"Acquaint us, MacNeill, with the history of this unfortunate affair" Caed his ing between MacNeill and Jamie "Mr Fraser is newly come, as you know, and your lad said only to me that it was bloodshed I have no particulars"

MacNeill’s burly shoulders rose slightly, shrugging toward the iron-gray pigtail that bisected his collar His hat was jah he had used a carpenter’s level to even it A square, blunt man, MacNeill, in words as well as appearance

Told in brief bursts as we trotted, it was a simple story The sawmill’s overseer, Byrnes, had had an altercation with one of the turpentine slaves This e slash-knife appropriate to his occupation, had atte his ai the overseer of an ear

"Barked hiri and a wee bit o’ the side of his face, as well Not that it will ha’ ilanced toward Jamie, who lifted one eyebrow in response Evidently Byrnes was no favorite with the local planters

The overseer had shrieked for help, and with the assistance of two custo his assailant The wound stanched and the slave locked in a shed, young Donald MacNeill--who had come to have a saw blade set and found himself unexpectedly in the midst of drama--had been dispatched at once to spread the word to the plantation owners nearby

"You’ll not know," Ca in his saddle to speak to Jamie "When a slave must be executed, the slaves froht to watch; a deterrent, aye? against future ill-considered action"

"Indeed," Jamie said politely "I believe that was the Crown’s notion in executingVerra effective, too; all my relations have been quite well behaved since"

I had lived long enough a Scots to appreciate the effects of that little jab Jarandson of the Old Fox did no h regard

MacNeill had got the ht; the back of his neck flushed turkey-red, but Farquard Cah before turning round

"Which slave is it, d’ye know?" he asked the olderDonald didna say But ye ken as well as I do; it’ll be that bugger Rufus"

Cament

"Jo will be sore pained to hear it," he retfully

"It’s her ain fault," MacNeill said, brutally thwacking a horsefly that had settled on his leg above the boot "Yon Byrnes isna fit to h; so’ve you"

"Aye, but Hector hired the man, not Jo," Campbell protested mildly "And she couldna well dise the place herself?"