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He saw her hesitate and flush, and recognized her trouble

"You can…call me Da," he said His voice was husky; he stopped and cleared his throat "If--if ye want to, I mean," he added diffidently

"Da," she said, and felt the smile bloom easily this time, unmarred by tears "Da Is that Gaelic?"

He shtly

"No It’s only…simple"

And suddenly it was all simple He held out his arms to her She stepped into the as she’d i about her as she had ever dared to hope

Everything after that seeue, Brianna was conscious of events es, sharp as stop-fraray eyes blinking in the sudden light, tiny and pale in the arroolass and fragrant wood The polished rumps of horses, and the jolt and creak of wooden wheels Her father’s voice, deep and warh on athat the ere a surprise for her h of deep joy that see ride down dusty roads, and sleeping with her head on her father’s shoulder, his free ar the unfa her face when he turned his head

Then the cool luxury of the big, breezy house, filled with the scent of beeswax and flowers A tall woaze that looked disconcertingly beyond her Long cool hands that touched her face and stroked her hair with abstract curiosity

"Lizzie," she said, and a pretty wo, "Jesuit bark," her black hands beautiful against the yellow porcelain of Lizzie’s face

Hands--so ic, with soft murmurs as they passed her from hand to hand She was stripped and bathed before she could protest, scented water poured over her, fired her scalp as lavender soap was sluiced froirl who dried her feet and sprinkled the barefoot over polished floors, to see her father’s eyes light at sight of her Food--cakes and trifles and jellies and scones--and hot, sweet tea that seeirl with a frown on her face, who seemed peculiarly familiar; her father called her Marsali Lizzie, washed and wrapped in a blanket, both frail hands round alike a steppedon flower neatered

Talk, and people co, and h her growing fog

"…Farquard Caus, Da, did ye see hiht, half puzzled, faintly indignant that someone else should call hireat distance, saying, "The poor child is asleep where she sits; I can hear her snoring Ulysses, take her up to bed"

And then strong arms that lifted her with no sense of strain, but not the candlewax smell of the black butler; the sawdust and linen scent of her father She gave up the struggle and fell asleep, her head on his chest

Fergus Fraser ht sound like a Scottish clansman; he looked like a French noble A French noble on his way to the guillotine, Brianna silently ahtly built, and not very tall, he sauntered into the dock, and turned to face the roo nose lifted an inch above the usual The shabby clothes, the unshaven jaw, and the large purple bruise over one eye subtracted nothing from his air of aristocratic disdain Even the curvedhand only added to his ih at sight of hiht She leaned across to Brianna to whisper to Ja thather back, and she subsided into her seat, glowering at bailiff and sheriff in turn

They had been lucky to procure seats; every space in the s andat the back of the room, kept in order only by the presence of the red-coated soldiers who guarded the doors Two more soldiers stood to attention at the front of the roo in the corner behind them

Brianna saw the officer catch Jan satisfaction crept over theIt made the small hairs rise on the back of her neck, but her father aze squarely, then turned away, indifferent

The Justice arrived and took his place, and the cerean Evidently, it was not intended to be a trial by jury, since no such body was present; only the Justice and his minions

Brianna hadbefore, though over breakfast she hadblack woman’s name was Phaedre, one of Jocasta’s slaves, and the tall ho sht, with the same small thrill of discovered kinship she had felt at Lallybroch The lovely blond Marsali was Fergus’s wife, and Fergus, of course, was the French orphan whom Ja

Mr Justice Conant, a tidy gentleed his coat, and called for the charges to be read These were, to wit, that one Fergus Claudel Fraser, resident of Rowan County, had on August 4 of this year of our Lord 1769, feloniously assaulted the person of one Hugh Berowne, a deputy sheriff of said county, and stolen from him Crown property, then lawfully in the deputy’s custody

The said Hugh, being called to the stand, proved to be a gangling fellow of some thirty years and a nervous disposition He twitched and sta that he had encountered the defendant on the Buffalo Trail Road, while he, Beroas in pursuit of his lawful duties He had been roughly abused by the defendant in the French tongue, and upon his endeavoring to leave, had been pursued by the defendant, who had apprehended him, struck him in the face, and taken away the property of the Crown in Berowne’s custody, to wit, one horse, with bridle and saddle