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Wonders sprang up byand shiny as jellies, shi over the water, jewels i in mist

I felt dazed with abundance, ravished by beauty Jamie’s face bore the drea, but does not wish to wake Paradoxically, the better I felt, the worse I felt, too; desperately happy--and desperately afraid This was his place, and surely he felt it as well as I

In early afternoon we stopped to rest and drink froround beneath the reen leaves, aht a sudden telltale flash of red

"Wild strawberries!" I said with delight

The berries were dark red and tiny, about the size of my thumb joint By the standards of modern horticulture, they would have been too tart, nearly bitter, but eaten with aof half-cooked cold bear ers, they were delicious--fresh explosions of flavor in athered handfuls infor stains--as a little strawberry juice aes and siers were sticky and pungent with juice, my stomach was coh it had been sandpapered, from the tartly acid taste of the berries Still, I couldn’t resist reaching for just one ainst a sycaainst the dazzle of afternoon sun The little clearing held light like a cup, still and limpid

"What d’ye think of this place, Sassenach?" he asked

"I think it’s beautiful Don’t you?"

He nodded, looking down between the trees, where a gentle slope full of wild hay and tied the distant river

"I a," Ja here in the wood That meadow below--" He waved a hand toward the scrirassy slope "It would do for a few beasts at first, and then the land nearer the river ht be cleared and put in crops The rise of the land here is good for drainage And here, see…" Caught by visions, he rose to his feet, pointing

I looked carefully; to me, the place seerassy coves through which we had wandered for the last couple of days But to Jamie, with his far up like fairy mushroo out all over him, like porcupine quills My heart felt like lead in ht settle here, then? Take the Governor’s offer?"

He looked at ht," he said "If--"

He broke off and looked sideways at me Sun-reddened as he was, I couldn’t tell whether he was flushed with sun or shyness

"D’ye believe in signs at all, Sassenach?"

"What sorts of signs?" I asked guardedly

In answer, he bent, plucked a sprig froreen leaves like small round Chinese fans, a pure white flower on a slender stem, and on another a half-ripe berry, its shoulders pale with shade, blushing crimson at the tip

"This It’s ours, d’ye see?" he said

"Ours?"

"The Frasers’, I ently prodded the berry "Strawberries ha’ always been the emblem of the clan--it’s what the narave;re ca William that was--and took hold of land in the ScottishWilliam that was Williahland clans, the Frasers had still a distinguished heritage

"Warriors from the start, were you?"

"And far into a s, but I kneell enough that the thought must lie in his mind as well There was no em or luck The clans had been shtered in battle or ht in his plaid, the dark steel of a Highland dirk by his side Warrior and farmer both And if the soil beneath his feet was not that of Scotland, it was free air that he breathed--and acopper strands to the su disrew the them?"

"Either or both," he said dryly, "or it was hed, and he hunkered down besidehis plaid

"It’s a rare plant," he said, touching the sprig in ether at the one tie--and the green leaves are for constancy"

My throat felt tight as I looked at hiht ers around the tiny stem

"And the fruit is the shape of a heart," he said softly, and bent to kiss ood excuse for the one that oozed free He dabbed it away, then stood up and pulled his belt loose, letting the plaid fall in folds around his feet Then he stripped off shirt and breeks and smiled down at me, nakd

"There’s no one here," he said "No one but us"