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We had left the ruby with Brianna, just in case we did not return--the possibility had to be faced There was no telling whether Geillis Duncan had been right or wrong in her theories regarding the use of geed me fiercely and kissed o Nor had I wanted to stay I was torn between them once more; between the necessity to stay and look after Brianna, and the equally urgent necessity to go with Jao," Brianna had said firmly "I’ll be fine; you said yourself I’ tilanced at her father’s back; he stood in the stableyard, supervising the loading of the horses and o, Maer" There was an uncomfortable emphasis on the you, and I hoped very much that Jamie couldn’t hear her

"Surely you don’t think Jamie would--"

"I don’t know," she interrupted "I don’t knohat he’d do" Her jaas set in a way I recognized all too well Argument was futile, but I tried anyway

"Well, I know," I said fir And even if it weren’t you, he’d do everything he possibly could to get Roger back His sense of honor--" Her face shut up like a trap, and I realized my mistake

"His honor," she said flatly "That’s whatas ither head against the wind

"Brianna!" I said, but she only hunched her shoulders, pulling the shawl tight around them

"Auntie Claire? We’re ready now" Ian had appeared nearby, glancing from me to Brianna, his face troubled I looked fro to leave her like this

"Bree?" I said again

Then she had turned back in a flurry of wool and eainst mine

"Come back!" she whispered "Oh, Mama--come back safe!"

"I can’t leave you, Bree, I can’t!" I held her tight, all strong bone and tender flesh, the child I had left, the child I had regained--and the woht, alone

"You have to go," she whispered The lanced overhi him back"

She kissedon the brick path

Jah the stor after her, his face expressionless

"You can’t leave her like this," I said I wiped o after her Please, go and say goodbye, at least"

He stood still for ato pretend he hadn’t heard me But then he turned and walked slowly down the path The first drops of rain were beginning to fall, splatting on the dusty brick, and the wind belled his cloak as he went

"Auntie?" Ian’s hand was under ive me a hand under my foot to mount Within a fewat nal to Ian, ridden out of the stableyard without looking back I had looked back, but there was no sign of Brianna

Night had long since fallen, and Janaweto and the sachee I looked up whenever anyone cah, the hide flap over the doorway lifted, and Ian caure behind hi, and stepped aside to showround face of the slavewoman Pollyanne

Or rather, the ex-slave For here, of course, she was free She sat down besidelike a jack-o’-lantern, and turned back the deerskin mantle she wore to show me the little boy in the crook of her ar as her own

With Ian as interpreter, her own bits of English and Gaelic, and the odd bit of fee, ere soon deep in conversation She had, as Myers surmised, been welcomed by the Tuscarorans and adopted into the tribe, where her skills at healing were valued She had taken as husband a man who had been ed in the measles epidemic, and had presented him with this new addition to the fahted that she had found both freedoratulated her warmly I was reassured, too; if the Tuscarorans had treated her so kindly, perhaps Roger had not fared as badly as I feared

A thought struck me, and I pulled Nayawenne’s amulet from the neck of my buckskin shirt

"Ian--will you ask if she knoho I should give this to?"

He spoke to her in Tuscaroran, and she leaned forward, fingering the amulet curiously as he spoke At last she shook her head and sat back, replying in her curious deep voice

"She says they will not want it, Auntie," Ian translated "It is the erous It should have been buried with the person to whoed; no one here will touch it, for fear of attracting the sha the leather pouch inalive had not recurred since Nayawenne’s death Surely it was no ainst my palm

"Ask her--what if the shaman wasn’t buried? If the body couldn’t be found?"

Pollyanne’s round face was sole She shook her head when Ian had finished and replied