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Brianna’s stomach clenched, and she surreptitiously wiped sweaty hands on her skirt There they were, all together and in one place--the four stones she had thought it would take a lifetier at the e the virtues of her choice, but Brianna paid no attention to what the wolanced at Lawyer Forbes, his round face still reflecting sness A sudden wild iht, while he still had all four stones…could she bring herself to that? Inveigle him, kiss him, lull him into complacency--and then steal the stones?

Yes, she could--and then what? Run off into the raced and the county in an uproar, run and hide like a coet to the Indies before the baby ca it was insanity, but still--it could be done

The stones glittered and winked, temptation and salvation Everyone had co their admiration, herself teht, the steps of the plan unfolding inevitably before herit Steal a horse, head up the Yadkin valley into the backcountry Despite the nearness of the fire, she shivered, feeling cold at the thought of flight through the winter snows But her mind ran on

She could hide in the mountains, at her parents’ cabin, and wait for theer ith them Yes, and what if the baby came first, and she was there on theto help but a handful of stolen brightness?

Or should she ride at once for Wilht, Roger was never co her only chance at return to wait for a ht reject her and her child?

"Miss Fraser?"

Lawyer Forbes aiting, swollen with expectation

She took a deep breath, feeling sweat trickle down between her brsts, beneath the loosened stays

"They’re all very lovely," she said, surprised at how coolly she was able to speak "I could not possibly choose aeht the flicker of a smile on Mr MacNeill’s face, and the deep flush of Forbes’s round cheeks, but turned her back on the stones with a polite word

"I think ill not wait dinner," Jocasta murmured in her ear "If his Lordship should be delayed…"

On cue, Ulysses appeared in the doorway, elegant in full livery, to announce dinner Instead, in a mellifluous voice that carried easily over the chatter, he said, "Lord John Grey, h of satisfaction, and urged Brianna forward, toward the slight figure that stood in the doorway

"Good You shall be his partner at dinner, lanced back at the table by the hearth, but the stones were gone

Lord John Grey was a surprise a surprise She had heard her mother speak of John Grey--soldier, diplo Instead, he was six inches shorter than she was, fine-boned and slight, with large, beautiful eyes, and a fair-skinned handsoirlishness only by the fir her; many people did, taken aback by her size--but then had set hi anecdotes of his travel, ad upon the wall, and regaling the table at large with news of the political situation in Virginia

What he did not rateful

Brianna listened to Miss Forbes’s descriptions of her brother’s importance with an absent s in a sea of kind intentions Could they not leave her alone? Could Jocasta not even have the decency to wait a few ht, up to Averasboro Heavens, how the es, I couldna tell you!"

No, they couldn’t, she thought, with a kind of despair They couldn’t leave her alone They were Scots, kindly but practical, and with an iron conviction of their own rightness--the saot half of them killed or exiled after Culloden

Jocasta was fond of her, but clearly had made up her mind that it would be foolish to wait Why sacrifice the chance of a good, solid, respectable e, to a will-o’-the-wisp hope of love?

The horrible thing was that she knew herself it was foolish to wait Of all the things she had been trying not to think of for weeks, this was the worst--and here it was, rising up in her ainst snow

If If they caer would not be with them She knew it They wouldn’t find the Indians who had taken him--how could they, in a trackless wilderness of snow and er was dead--of injuries, disease, torture

Or he would be found, alive, and refuse to coain Or he would co sense of Scottish honor, deter her for it Or he would come back, see the baby, and…

Or none of the him home to you--or I will not come home myself And she would live here alone forever, drowned in the waves of her own guilt, her body bobbing in the swirl of good intentions, anchored by a rotting uht had pulled her under

"Miss Fraser! Miss Fraser, are ye quite weel, then?"

"Not very, no," she said "I think I’ the table with a crash as she fell forward into a whirling sea of china and white linen

The tide had turned again, she thought She was buoyed up on a flood of kindness as people bustled to and fro, fetching war her tucked up warmly on the sofa in the little parlor, with a pillow to her head and salts to her nose, a thick shawl round her knees

At last they were gone She could be alone And now that the truth was out in her own mind, she could cry for all her losses--for father and lover, family and mother, for the loss of time and place and all that she should have been and would never be

Except that she couldn’t

She tried She tried to su roo the crowd But now that she truly was alone, paradoxically she wasn’t afraid anymore One of the house slaves popped a head in, but she waved a hand, sending the girl away again

Well, she was Scottish, too--"Well, half," shea hand over her belly--and entitled to her own stubbornness They were coer If it felt as though that conviction were made of feathers rather than iron…still it was hers And she was hanging on to it like a raft, until they pried her fingers off and let her sink