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"Mo chridhe," he said softly, sh and his skin still chilled, fresh ater

"You’d better put your trousers on," I said "You’ll freeze"

"I’ll do Ciaille ruaidh?"

To , eyes wide blue in a rose-leaf face, all hint of te to reach for Jaainst a shoulder, pulling the woolly cap down snugly over his ears

"We’re starting a tooth," I told Jaht perhaps a bit of whisky on his gumsthere wasn’t any in the house"

"Oh, aye We canthe baby to the spot where his clothes lay, he bent and ru up with the dented pewter flask he carried on his belt

He sat on a rock, balancing Jemmy on his knee, and handed me the flask to open

"I went to thethe cork with a soft pop, "but the cask was gone"

"Aye, Fergus has it Here, I’ll do it; er, and I dribbled a bit of the spirit onto it

"What’s Fergus doing with it?" I asked, settlingit," he said, uninfor at the swollen gum "Oh, there it is Aye, that hurts a bit, doesn’t it? Ouch!" He reached down and gingerly disentangled Jerip on the hairs of his chest

"Speaking of that" I said, and reached out to take his right hand Shifting his other arm to keep hold of Jeers upward

It was a very shallow cut, just across the tips of the first three fingers--the fingers hich he had crossed himself The blood had already clotted, but I dribbled a bit more of the whisky over the cuts and cleaned the smears of blood from his palm with my handkerchief

He let me tend him in silence, but when I finished and looked up at hiht, Sassenach," he said

"Is it?" I said I searched his face; he looked tired, but tranquil The slight frown I had seen between his brows for the last few days was gone Whatever he was about, he had begun it

"Ye saw, then?" he asked quietly, reading my own face

"Yes Is it--it’s to do with the cross in the dooryard, is it?"

"Oh, in a way, I suppose"

"What is it for?" I asked bluntly

He pursed his lips, rubbing gently at Jeal MacKenzie call the clan, did you?"

I was more than startled at this, but answered cautiously

"No I saw Colu at Leoch"

He nodded, the ht of torches deep in his eyes

"Aye," he said softly "I mind that Colum was chief, and the al who led thehts

"There were raids, now and again That was a different thing, and often no e born of drink or boredom--a srain But to gather the clan for war, all the fightingI only saw it the once, et"

The cross of pinewood had been there when he woke onehim as he crossed the courtyard The inhabitants of Leoch were up and about their business as usual, but no one glanced at the cross or referred to it in any way Even so, there were undercurrents of exciteh the castle

Thein undertones, but when he joined a group, the talk shifted at once to desultory conversation

"I was Colum’s nephew, aye, but newly corandsire" Jarandfather had been Sireat friend of the MacKenzies of Leoch

"I couldna tell as afoot, but soht someone’s eye" At last, he had made his way to the stable, and found Old Alec, Colum’s Master of Horse The old man had been fond of Ellen MacKenzie, and was kind to the son for his mother’s sake, as well as his own