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He had at first been reluctant to do so, Mueller being nearly seventy, but rapidly changed his h it had been made of seasoned oakwood

The old man had turned on him like a cornered boar, whereupon Jamie had struck him first in the sto Mueller down and splitting his own knuckles on the old man’s teeth

With a word to Woolam--as a Quaker and thus opposed to violence--he had then seized Mueller by the legs and dragged the dazed far patiently in the wagon Hauling the old on and held hi pleasantly in Gered the flour--caimlet eye of the old man

Mueller had counted thenity, "Danke, on beside his bemused son, and driven away

Grey scratched at the re

"I see So he appeared to hold no ill will?"

I shook , then sed

"Not at all He was kindness itself to me, when I went to the farm to help with Petronella’s baby" My throat closed suddenly on the renewed realization that they were gone, and I choked on the bitter taste of the dandelion leaves, bile rising in my throat

"Here" Grey pushed the pot of ale across the table towardfor a moment the deeper bitterness of spirit I set the pot down and sat for abreeze from the , but the sun arm on the tabletop under my hands All the tiny joys of physical existence were still mine, and I was the e that they had been so abruptly taken from others--from those who had barely tasted the me, with an expression of deep sympathy

"You’d think it wouldn’t be such a shock," I said, needing suddenly to try to explain "They die here so easily The young ones, especially It isn’t as though I haven’t seen it before And there’s so seldo warm on my cheek, and was surprised to find it was a tear He reached into his sleeve, pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to me It wasn’t especially clean, but I didn’t mind

"I did sometimes wonder what he saw in you," he said, his tone deliberately light "Ja" I sniffed, and blew ht you dead," he pointed out "And while you are undoubtedly a handsome woman, it was never of your looks that he spoke"

To htly

"You have his courage," he said

That h, if only halfheartedly

"If you only knew," I said

He didn’t reply to that, but shtly over the knuckles of ht and warm

"He doesn’t hold back for fear of skinned knuckles," he said "Neither do you, I think"

"I can’t" I took a deep breath and wiped my nose; the tears had stopped "I’m a doctor"

"So you are," he said quietly, and paused "I have not thanked you forlike a disease All I can do is to…be there"

"A little more than that," he said dryly, and releasedto see quite clearly what Jamie saw in John Grey

The afternoon passed quietly Ian tossed and moaned, but by late afternoon, the rash was fully developed, and his fever see food, but perhaps I could induce hiht re time, and I stood up, with a

I opened the cabin door and stepped out, directly in front of Gerhard Mueller, as standing in the dooryard

Mueller’s eyes were a reddish brown, and see with an inner intensity They burned htly now, for the bruised frailty of the flesh surrounding them The deep-set eyes fixed on ain

Mueller had shrunk since I had last seen hie man, he was more bone than muscle now, cadaverous and ancient His eyes were fixed on mine, the only spark of life in a face like crumpled paper

"Herr Mueller," I said My voice sounded caleht es Euch?"

The oldbreeze ht knock him down I didn’t know if he had lost his n of horse or mule

He took a step toward me, and I took one back, involuntarily