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I wanted to laugh, but didn’t Instead I moved closer; cold and dah his plaid

"At least it’s only the sick ones ant to touch me," I said I held out the flask to hione out of you?"

He glanced down atthe flask, he stooped, cupped ently

"That," he said

Then he turned and strode downhill, presumably full of virtue once more

13

BEANS AND BARBECUE

I TOOK THE KETTLE BACK to our camp, only to find the place hter in the distance indicated that Lizzie, Marsali, and Mrs Bug--presumably with children in toere on their way to the wo behind a convenient screen of juniper, so the full kettle over the fire to boil, then stood still for a ht be best directed

While Father Kenneth’s situationrun, it wasn’t one where my presence would be likely to make a difference But I was a doctor--and Rosaarments into some sort of order, and started downhill toward the creek, abandoning the mobcap to its fate

Ja the relative ihtthe creek, I found hi by the barbecue pit, in peaceful conversation with Ronnie Sinclair-- casually on the handle of the ax, of which he had soed to possess himself

I relaxed a bit when I saw that, and tookthe party Unless Rosale Ronnie with her bare hands or beat hi at all unthinkable--ht not be needed after all

The pit was a broad one, a natural declivity bored out of the clay creekbank by some distant flood and then deepened by judicious spadework in the years succeeding Judging by the blackened rocks and drifts of scattered charcoal, it had been in use for so it now; the led scents of fowl, pork, mutton, and possum rose up in a cloud of apple-wood and hickory sht of the pit was so Clouds of white s a nu pyres--h the haze It reminded me all too vividly of the charnel pits on Jaors of the Middle Passage were burned, and I sed heavily, trying not to recall the - down in the pit at the moment, her skirt kirtled well above plump knees and sleeves rolled back to bare her massive arms as she ladled a reddish sauce onto the exposed ribs of a huge hog’s carcass Around her lay five antic shapes, shrouded in da up around the into the soft drizzle

"It’s poison, is what it is!" Ronnie Sinclair was saying hotly, as I cas when she’s done!"

"It is pigs, Ronnie," Jamie said, with considerable patience He rolled an eye atfat dripped onto the biers of hickory coals below "Myself, I shouldna think ye could do anything to a pig--in the way of cooking, that is--that would "

"Quite true," I put in helpfully, srilled chops, roasted loin, baked haso but the squeal"

"Aye, well, but this is the barbecue, isn’t it?" Ronnie said stubbornly, ignoring my feeble atte wi’ vinegar--that’s the proper way of it! After all, ye wouldna put gravel into your sausage s from the henhouse? Tcha!" He jerked his chin toward the white pottery basin under Rosa it clear that its contents fell into the saht a savory whiff as the wind changed So far as I could tell from smell alone, Rosamund’s sauce seear to leave a thick blackish crust on thecaramel aroma in the air

"I expect therowl beneath s they are, too," Ja She was black to the knees and her square-jowled face was streaked with rain, sweat, and soot "Will they have been wild hogs, ently reared?"

"Wild," she said, with a certain araying hair off her brow "Fattened on chestnut ive a flavor to the meat!"

Ronnie Sinclair made a Scottish noise indicative of derision and conteood ye risly sauce that h theraw!"

Rosa the supposed ht of blood, which Ronnie seemed disposed to take personally Ja the ax well out of reach

"Oh, I’ly "Why, Mistress Lindsay has been hard at work since dawn, at least"

"Long before that, Mr Fraser," the lady replied, with a certain grim satisfaction "You want decent barbecue, you start at least a day before, and tend it all through the night I been a-s since yesterday afternoon" She drew in a great sniff of the rising s a beatific expression

"Ah, that’s the stuff! Not but what a savory sass like this ’un is wasted on you bastardly Scots," Rosa it tenderly into place "You’ve pickled your tongues with that everlastin’ vinegar you slop on your victuals It’s all I can do to stop Kenny a-puttin’ it on his corn bread and porridge of a mornin’"