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"Why did he speak to you? Why has he given you that?" She nodded at ers closed over the opal’s curve in reflex

"I don’t know," I said--but she had taken me unaware; I had had no ti look She kneas lying, all right--and yet how could I tell her the truth? Tell her what Otter-Tooth--whatever his real name--had been? Much less that his prophecies were true

"I think perhaps he was a part ofof what Pollyanne had toldfrom where--or when--he had come; he must, I supposed, be an ancestor or a descendant If not of ht at that, and looked at me in astonishment Slowly the look faded, and she nodded

"He has sent you to ," she declared, with confidence "My brother said that we otten But aas there are two people left under the sky One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it So"

She reached out and touched litter of ht have been from the tobacco sotten"

She ht us food and drink

When I rose finally to go back to the longhouse where ere lodged, I glanced toward the drinking party The ground was littered with snoring bodies, and the keg lay empty on its side Two Spears lay peacefully on his back, a beatific sirl, Ian, and Ja for ht air, and the scents of whisky and tobacco wafted fro his arress, do you think?"

"I think so" We walked side by side across the big central clearing to the longhouse where ere lodged "It ell Ian was right, bless him; now they’ve seen this wee ceilidh did no harain"

I glanced at the row of longhouses with their floating clouds of sht froer in one of them now? I counted autoround was thawing; if we traveled partway by river, we could perhaps make the trip in a month--six weeks at the most Yes, if we left soon, ould be in ti a ht of that stone?"

"Yes Come inside and I’ll tell you about it"

He lifted the skin over the doorway, and I walked inside, the opal a solid weight in my hand They hadn’t knohat he had called it, but I did The man called Otter-Tooth, who had cos in his teeth Yes, I knehat it was, the tika-ba

His unused ticket back My legacy

58

LORD JOHN RETURNS

River Run, March 1770

Phaedre had brought a dress, one of Jocasta’s, yellow silk, very full in the skirt

"We got better coht than ol’ Mr Cooper or Lawyer Forbes," Phaedre said with satisfaction "We got us a real live lord, how ’bout that?"

She let down a huge aran to pull bits and pieces froeant

"Here, you strip off and put on these yere stays You need so, keep that belly pushed down Ain’t nobody but backcountry trash goes ’thout stays Your auntie wasn’t blind as a bat, she’d ’a had you fitted out proper long since--long since Then put on the stockins and garters--ain’t those pretty? I always did like that pair with the little bitty leaves on ’em--then we’ll tie on the petticoats, and then--"

"What lord?" Brianna took the proferred stays and frowned at them "My God, what’s this made of, whalebones?"

"Uh-huh Ain’t no cheap tin or iron for Miss Jo, surely not" Phaedre burrowed like a terrier, frowning and one to?"

"I don’t need these And what lord is it that’s co at Brianna over the folds of yellow silk

"Don’t need ’em?" she said censoriously "And you with a six-irl, come into dinner all pooched out, and a lordship sittin’ by the soup a-gogglin’ at you through his eyeglass?"