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"No, I didna fight," he said quietly "I gave my word--for your mother’s life" His eyes met hers squarely, neither ice nor sapphire now, but clear as water "I dinna regret it"

He took her by the shoulders, and eased her down onto the piled hay

"Do ye rest a bit, a leannan"

She lay down, but reached up to touch hiet?"

He paused for a moment, hand on her hair

"Aye, that’s true," he said softly "But it’s true, too, that it willna matter after a time"

"Won’t it?" She was too tired even to wonder what he ely reer inhabited her troublesoh to kill him?"

A clear cold draft fro all the aniht in sudden irritation and let out a low-throated mwaaah, not of distress so lance at the cow before turning back to her

"You’re a verra strong woman, a bheanachd," he said at last, very softly

"I’ You just proved I’m not--"

His hand on her shoulder stopped her

"That’s not what Iher hair, over and over

"She was ten when our mother died, Jenny was," he said at last "It was the day after the funeral when I ca on a stool, to be tall enough to stir the bowl on the table

"She earing my mother’s apron," he said softly, "folded up under the ars wrapped twice about her waist I could see she’d been weepin’, like I had, for her face was all stained and her eyes red But she just went on stirring, staring down into the bowl, and she said to me, ‘Go and wash, Jamie; I’ll have supper for you and Da directly’ "

His eyes closed altogether, and he sed once Then he opened the woh for what must be done, m’ annsachd--believe me"

He stood up then, and went to the cow It had risen to its feet and wason its tether He caught it by the tether rope, gentled it with hands and words,in concentration She saw him turn his head and look, to check his dirk, then turn back, eon in his way, like her mother From this odd plateau of remoteness, she could see how much her parents--so wildly different in temperament and manner--were alike in this one respect; that odd ability to le compassion with sheer ruthlessness

But they were different even in that, she thought; Claire could hold life and death together in her hands, and yet preserve herself, hold aloof; a doctor , for the sake of her patients, if not for her own sake Jamie would be ruthless toward himself, as much as--or more than--he would be to anyone else

He had thrown off his plaid; now he unfastened his shirt, with no haste but neither with any wasted motion He pulled the pale linen over his head and laid it neatly aside, returning to his watching post at the heifer’s tail, ready to assist

A long ripple ran down the cow’s rounded side, and the torchlight glimmered white on the tiny knot of a scar over his heart Uncover his nakdness? He would strip hiht it necessary And--a ht it necessary, he would do the same to her, without a moment’s hesitation

He had a hand at the base of the cow’s tail, speaking to it in Gaelic, soothing, encouraging She felt as though she could alht be well, or it ht not But whatever happened, Ja It was a comfort