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"Yes, you said it happened before When was that?"

He stirred briefly and settled, pressing back against roan

"Och! Damn, that hurts At the prison"

"Pain in the same place?"

"Aye"

I could feel a hard knot in the ht side, just below the kidney, and a bunching in the erector spinae, the long muscles near the spine From his description of the prior occurrence, I was fairly sure it was only severe muscle spasm For which the proper prescription aret ri aloud "I’ve got Mr Willoughby’s needles in my pouch, and--"

"Sassenach," he said, in ry I wilna put up wi’ being stabbed in the back by my oife Can ye not offer a bit of syhed, and slid an arainst his back I let estion, well below his navel

"Er…what sort of corasped my hand, to prevent further intrusions

"Not that," he said

"Might take your ly, and he tightened his grip

"I daresay," he said dryly "Well, I’ll tell ye, Sassenach; once we’ve got home, and I’ve a warht have a good bit of appeal As it is, the thought of--for Christ’s sake, have ye not the slightest idea how cold your hands are, wohed I could feel the quiver of his ownhis back

At last we lay silent, listening to the whisper of falling snow It was dark under the heh to be able to see patches of the oddly glowing snow-light through the screen of needles overhead Tiny flakes cah the open patches; I could see it in some places, as a thin cloud of white le as it struck my face

Jamie himself was no h as my eyes became accustomed to the ed between his shirt and his queued hair The queue itself lay cool and s my head only a bit, I could brush it with my lips

"What time do you think it is?" I asked I had no idea, myself; I had left the house well after dark, and spent what see for hi ti my real question "It’s just past the solstice, aye? It’s one of the longest nights of the year"

"Oh, lovely," I said, in dismay I wasn’t warm, by any means--I still couldn’t feel y was stealing over ue and cold I had visions of the two of us freezing peacefully together, curled up like hedgehogs in the leaves They did say it was a comfortable death, but that didn’twas getting slower and deeper

"Don’t go to sleep!" I said urgently, poking hiht to his side, recoiling "Why not?"

"We mustn’t sleep; we’ll freeze to death"

"No, on’t," he said crossly "It’s snowing outside; we’ll be covered over soon"

"I know that," I said, rather cross in ot to do with it?"

He tried to turn his head to look at me, but couldn’t, quite

"Snow’s cold if ye touch it," he explained, striving for patience, "but it keeps the cold out, aye? Like a blanket It’s a great deal warmer in a house that’s covered wi’ snow than one that’s standing clean in the wind How d’ye think bears e? They sleep in the winter, and they dinna freeze"

"They have layers of fat," I protested "I thought that kept the back with sorabbed me firmly by the bottoreat deliberation I pulled down his collar, stretchedswipe fro a sprinkle of snow fall froo of my bottom to scrub at the back of his neck

"That was a terrible thing to do!" he said, reproachful "And ," I said I nestled closer, feeling so to freeze to death, then?"

"No," he said "But I shouldna think it likely"