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"When I went for a soldier in France, I was marched to and fro and up and down, and wore a pair of boots clear through before they gave un I was sae weary at the end of a day of drilling that they could have shot off cannon by my pallet and I wouldna have turned a hair"

He shook his head a little, the half-sot the ti; we , and keep heart in the others" He glanced past the fire, and gestured toward the fading vista of trees and mountains

"It’s no much like a battlefield, is it? I canna say where the battle ht where there’s cover to be had We’ll teach theather or to scatter at my word, and otherwise, to make shift as they can Only half the men were soldiers, but all of the toward the recruits, several of who the day’s ride The Lindsay brothers had shot the quail ere eating

Roger nodded, and bent down, scooping a blackened ball of clay out of the fire with his own stick, keeping his face hidden Al every day since our return to the Ridge, and had still to bag even a possuone with hier would do better to hit the game on the head with his musket, rather than shoot at it

I lowereds could take care of thee there I widened , is it?" I sat down beside Jaers "Especially now"

"What d’ye er open, half-closing his eyes in bliss as he inhaled the hot, fragrant steaht at all," I pointed out "For another, if it does, you won’t be facing trained troops--the Regulators aren’t soldiers, any more than yourto kill the Regulators; only frighten them into retreat or surrender And for a fourth"--I s The point of going to war is to come back alive"

Jaer I thu He coughed cru

"Listen to ht, Sassenach--and ye’re wrong It’s no like hunting, aye Because the ga to kill you Mindabout the rest of it War is killing, and that’s all Think of anything less--think of half---above all, think of your own skin--and by God, htfall of the first day"

He flung the reer into the fire, and stalked away

I SAT FROZEN for aseeped through the cloth round it and burnedwith a

"All right?" he said, though he wasn’t looking at me His eyes were fixed on the direction in which Jamie had vanished, toward the horses

"Fine" I soothedWith the aard silence eased by this little exchange, I found it possible to address the matter at hand

"Granted," I said, "that Jamie has a certain amount of experience from which to speakI do think what he said was rather an overreaction"

"Do you?" Roger didn’t seem upset or taken aback by Jamie’s reulators, we know perfectly well that it isn’t going to be an all-out war It’s likely to be nothing at all!"

"Oh, aye" Roger was still looking into the darkness, lips pursed in thoughtfulness "Only--I think that’s not what he was talking about"

I lifted one eyebrow at hiaze towithI told him Bree said he’d asked her, and she told hi--you , callused fingers

"I told him what I knew About the battles, the politics Not all the detail, of course, but the chief battles I re, drawn-out, bloody business it will be" He was quiet for a reen in his eye

"I suppose ye’d call it fair exchange It’s hard to tell with him, but I think I ave a s crumbs and ashes offhim war stories, my lad," I said, "will be the day hell freezes over"

He laughed, not discohtest

"Maybe I didn’t scare hiot very quiet But I tell you what"--he sobered solint stayed in his eye--"he did scare lanced off in the direction of the horses The ue juleaht off a rounded rump or the brief shine of an eye Jamie wasn’t visible, but I kneas there; there was a subtle shift andthe horses, with faint whickers or snorts, that toldthe quietly, though I was fairly sure Jamie was too far away to hear ain, and put a hand on the corn dodger It was barely warm now I picked it up, but didn’t bite into it