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"Once a rown and has a wife to do for him, and a lad of his own to s any the turn of a heel before handing , "but even wee laddies ken how, Auntie"

I cast an eye at my current project, some ten inches of a wooly shahich lay in a small crumpled heap at the botto for me was still a pitched battle with knotted thread and slippery needles, not the soothing, drea away in their big hands by the fire, coht, I thought I wasn’t up to it So up the balls of yarn That I could do I laid aside a half-finished pair of stockings Ja for himself--striped, the show-off--and pulled out a heavy skein of fresh-dyed blue wool, still redolent with the heavy scents of its dyeing

Normally I liked the smell of fresh yarn, with its faint oily whiff of sheep, the earthy sar used to set the dye Tonight it see, added as it was to woodsmoke and candle wax, to the close, acrid sled scent of sweaty sheets and used chaether in the room’s stale air

I let the skein lie onso e myself with cool water, then slip nakd between the clean linen sheets of h the openacross my face while I floated into oblivion

But there was a sweating English in the other, to say nothing of a teenage boy as obviously in for a hard night The sheets had not been washed in days, and when they were, it would be a backbreaking business of boiling, lifting and wringing My bed for the night--assuot to sleep in it--would be a pallet made of a folded quilt, with ht

Nursing is hard work, and all of a sudden I was bloody tired of it For a o away I openedat Lord John with resenth, as I looked at hi soht have been only a trick of the fire, but his face seerief, eyes shadoith dark loss

At once I felt ashamed of my ill temper Granted, I hadn’t wanted him here I was annoyed at his intrusion into ation his illness had placed uponof Williao, soon Jamie would be home, Ian would recover, and I would have back my peace, my happiness, and my clean sheets What had happened to hiht have regarded her It had taken courage ofWilliam here, and to send him off with Ja caught the ot up to put the kettle on A nice cup of tea all round seehtened up from the hearth, I saw Lord John turn his head, hts

"Tea," I said, ehts I ation toward the kettle

He smiled faintly and nodded

"I thank you, Mrs Fraser"

I took down the tea box fro the sugar bowl as an afterthought; no ot the tea made, I sat down near the bed to drink it We sipped in silence for a fewbetween us

At last, I set down my cup and cleared my throat

"I’m sorry; I had meant to offer you my condolences on the loss of your wife," I said, rather formally

He looked surprised for amy formality

"It is a coincidence that you should say so at theof her"

Used as I was to having other people take one look at , it was oddly gratifying to be able to do it to soreatly--your wife?" I felt a bit hesitant about asking, but he didn’t seeht that he had been asking it hihtfully

"I don’t really know," he said He glanced at ?"

"I couldn’t say," I said, a little tartly "Surely you’d know better than I whether you had feelings for her or not"

"I did, yes" He let his head fall back on the pillow, his thick fair hair loose about his shoulders "Or I do, perhaps That’s why I came, do you see?"

"No, I can’t say that I do"

I heard Ian cough, and rose to look, but he had only turned over in his sleep; he lay on his sto from the trundle bed I picked up his hand--it was still hot, but not dangerously so--and put it on the pillow near his face His hair had fallen in his eyes; I brushed it gently back

"You are very good with him; have you children of your own?"

Startled, I looked up to see Lord John watching hter," I said

His eyes widened

"We?" he said sharply "The girl is Jairl,’ " I said, unreasonably irritated "Her naies," he said, rather stiffly

"I meant no offense," he added a moment later, in a softer tone "I was surprised"

I looked at him directly I was too tired to be tactful

"And a bit jealous, perhaps?"

He had a diplo on behind that facade of handsoh, and he let the ed with grudging hu that we have in coh I shouldn’t have been It’s always discoht safely hidden are in fact sitting out in the open for anyone to look at

"Don’t tell me you didn’t think of that when you decided to come here" The tea was finished; I set the cup aside and took up ain

He studied ht of it, yes," he said finally He let his head fall back on the pillow, eyes fixed on the low beah--to consider that IWilliam here, I would ask you to believe that such offense was not "