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Ja out Ronnie’s incensed response to this calus for ye, erous business to be stalking beasts of that size Like the wild boar that we hunted in Scotland, aye?"

"Ha" Rosaood-natured scorn toward the slope above, where her husband--roughly half her size--presued in less strenuous pursuits "No, indeed, Mr Fraser, I kilt this lottoward the instru her eyes in a sinister fashion at Ronnie "Caved in their skulls with one blow, I did"

Ronnie, not the most perceptive of men, declined to take the hint

"It’s the to at Ja at the red-crusted bowl "Devil’s apples! She’ll poison us all!"

"Oh, I shouldna think so, Ronnie" Jaly at Rosamund "Ye mean to sell the meat, I suppose, Mrs Lindsay? It’s a poor merchant that would kill her customers, aye?"

"I ain’t yet lost a one, Mr Fraser," Rosa over to dribble sauce fro haunch "Ain’t never had but good words about the taste, neither," she said, "though a-course that would be in Boston, where I come from"

Where folk have sense, her tone clearly implied

"I met a man from Boston, last time I went to Charlottesville," Ronnie said, his foxy brows dran in disapproval He tugged, trying to free his arrip, but to no avail "He said to me as it was his custom to have beans at his breakfast, and oysters to his supper, and so he’d done every day since he was a wean A wonder he hadna blown up like a pig’s bladder, filled wi’ such wretched stuff as that!"

"Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart," I said cheerily, seizing the opening "The more you eat, the more you fart The more you fart, the better you feel--so let’s have beans for every meal!"

Ronnie’s mouth dropped open, as did Mrs Lindsay’s Jahter, and Mrs Lindsay’s look of astonishh After a rin twisting up the corner of his mouth

"I lived in Boston for a time," I said mildly, as the hilarity died down a bit "Mrs Lindsay, that sratified

"Why, so it does,her voice--slightly--froe "It’s my private receipt what does it," she said, with a proprietorial pat of the pottery bowl "Brings out the flavor, see?"

Ronnie’s ed, the evident result of Janored this, engaging in an a to reserve an entire carcass for use at the wedding feast

I glanced at Ja this Given that Father Kenneth was probably at present en route either back to Baltiaol in Edenton, I had es would in fact take place tonight

On the other hand, I had learned never to underestimate Jamie, either With a final word of coed Ronnie bodily away froh to thrust the ax into my hands

"See that safe, aye, Sassenach?" he said, and kissed rinned down at me "And where did ye learn so much about the natural history of beans, tell ht it ho back "It’s really a little song"

"Tell her to sing it to her rin widened "He can write it down in his wee book"

He turned away, putting a companionable arm firns of trying to escape back in the direction of the barbecue pit

"Co wi’ me, Ronnie," he said "I must just have a i’ the Lieutenant He wishes to buy a ha atHe turned back to Ronnie "But I ken he’ll want to hear whatever ye can tell hireat friend of Gavin Hayes, no?"

"Oh," said Ronnie, his scowl lightening somewhat "Aye Aye, Gavin was a properto Gavin’s death a few years before He glanced up at Jamie, lips pursed "Does his lad ken what happened?"

A tender question, that Gavin had in fact been hanged in Charleston, for theft--a shameful death, by anyone’s standards

"Aye," Jamie said quietly "I had to tell him But it will help, I think, if ye can tell him a bit about his Da earlier--tell hi--not quite a smile--touched his face as he looked at Ronnie, and I saw an answering softness on Sinclair’s face

Jahtened on Ronnie’s shoulder, then dropped away, and they set off up the hill, side by side, the subtleties of barbecue forgotten

Hoas for usI watched theo, linked by the conjuration of that one sied by days and months and years of shared hardship; a kinship closed to anyone who had not likewise lived through it Jamie seldom spoke of Ardsmuir; neither did any of the other men who had come out of it and lived to see the New World here