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Ja hi travelers at a speed fast enough to keep the brute fro stray bairns, or otherwise causing trouble After a week’s journey, he was all too well acquainted with the stallion’s proclivities He passed Brianna and Marsali, halfway up the coluer, riding at the head, he wastoo fast to do more than flourish his hat at the the hat back on and leaning low over the horse’s neck "Ye’re a deal too lively for your own good, let alone h, eh?"
He pulled hard left, off the trail, and down the slope, trawood out of the ith a gunshot snapping of twigs What the seven-sided son of a bitch needed was flat country, where Ja hi Given that there wasn’t a flat spot in twenty athered up the reins, clicked his tongue, jabbed both heels into the horse’s ribs, and they charged up the shrubby hillside as though they had been fired froe-boned, well-nourished, and sound of wind, which hy Jaht him He was also a hard-mouthed, bad-tempered reester of a horse, which hy he hadn’t cost much More than Jamie could easily afford, even so
As they sailed over a s, and hared up an almost vertical hillside littered with scrub oak and persiain or coht he had before Gideon veered sideways, crushing Jaathered his hindquarters and charged down the other side of the hill into a thicket of brush, sending coveys of quail exploding fro low branches, lurching through streaht up as many hillsides as Jamie could point them at, and Gideon was, if not precisely tractable, at least exhausted enough to befro nearly as hard as the horse He was, however, still in the saddle, and still in charge
He turned the horse’s head toward the sinking sun and clicked his tongue again
"Coo hoged shape of the land, had not covered so round as to lose themselves entirely He turned Gideon’s head upward, and within a quarter hour, had conized
They picked their way along the ridge, searching for a safe way down through the tangles of chinkapin, poplar, and spruce The party was not far away, he knew, but it could take some time to cross to them, and he would as soon rejoin thee Not that Claire or MacKenzie could not guide them--but he admitted to hie at the head of the party, leading his people home
"Christ,his head in mock dismay at his own pretensions
The horse was lathered, and when the trees opened out for a space, Ja the reins, but keeping a sufficient grip as to discourage any notions the outheidie creature rove of silver birch, at the lip of a sht the horse held h an opinion of himself to contemplate self-destruction, but best to be careful, in case he had any thought of flinging his rider off into the laurels below
The breeze was fro the cold touch of it on his heated skin The land fell away in undulating waves of brown and green, kindled here and there with patches of color, lighting the low of caht, and breathed deep, his body relaxing
Gideon relaxed, too, all the feistiness draining slowly out of him like water frohtly on the horse’s neck, and the horse stayed still, ears forward Ah, he thought, and the realization stole over hiht of such places in a way that had no words, only recognizing one when he caht have called it holy, save that the feel of such a place had nothing to do with church or saint It was sih he preferred to be alone when he found one He let the reins go slack across the horse’s neck Not even a thrawn-ive trouble here, he felt
Sure enough, the horse stood quiet,in the chill They could not tarry long, but he was deeply glad of the momentary respite--not from the battle with Gideon, but from the press of people
He had learned early on the trick of living separately in a crowd, private in his mind when his body could not be But he was born a mountain-dweller, and had learned early, too, the enchant of quiet places
Quite suddenly, he had a vision of his mother, one of the s them unexpectedly in response to God knehat--a sound, a s for rabbits on a hillside then, hot and sweaty, his fingers pricked with gorse and his shirt stuck to hione to thereenish shadow, on the ground beside a tiny spring She sat quitehands folded in her lap
She had not spoken, but s either, but filled with a great sense of peace and contento about hi he stood at the center of the world He had been five, maybe, or six
As suddenly as it had co into dark water It left behind it the sah someone had briefly e hi the feel of the pine needles under his boots, some physical connection with this place Caution h Gideon seeh; the stallion had dropped his head and was nuzzling for tufts of dried grass Jamie stood still for athe north
He no longer recalled who had taught him this--whether it was Mother, Father, or Auld John, Ian’s father He spoke the words, though, as he turned hi the brief prayer to each of the four airts in turn, and ended facing west, into the setting sun He cupped his e from his palms
"May God make safe to me each step,