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It was in kindness that the thought came to me nohether it was truly spoken, or only called forth froht hold Everyone makes choices, and no one knohat may be the end of any of thes, it was not to bla Nor was harm all that had coreat many people who had spoken those vows, only to abandon or betray them And yet it came to me that neither death nor conscious choice dissolved some bonds For better or for worse, I had loved two men, and some part of the, I supposed, was that while I had often felt a deep and searing regret for what I had done, I had never felt guilt With the choice so far behind ized to Frank a thousand tiiveness It occurred to iven it, nonetheless--to the best of his ability The loft was dark, save for faint lines of light that seeped through the chinks of the floor, but it no longer seemed empty

I stirred abruptly, pulled fro reindeer, two dark figures darted hand-in-hand across the field of snow, cloaks like clouds around them They hesitated for a moment outside the horses’ shelter, then disappeared inside

I leaned on the sill, heedless of the snow crystals under ; whickers and sta came clearly to rown fainter; now a clear, loud "Meh-eh-eh!" cah the floorboards, as Hirahter fro the sounds across the road Where was Ja the hood ofa spray of ice acrossacross the snoard the shelter, but going slowly, kicking up white clouds of dusty ice Whatbut then I realized that he was following in the lovers’ tracks, sta deliberately to obliterate a trail that must tell its story clearly to any of the trackers in the house below

A hole appeared suddenly in the brushy shelter, as a section of the branched wall fell away Clouds of stea two riders, and set off to the west, urged from a walk to a trot and then a canter The snoas not deep; no more than three or four inches The horse’s hooves left a clear dark trail, leading down the road

A piercing whinny rose from the shelter, followed by another Sounds of alar and thuds as ed for their weapons Jamie had disappeared

All at once, horses burst fro the fallen branches Snorting, whinnying, kicking, and jostling, they spilled out over the road in a chaos of flyingfro away fro away the switch and ducked back into the shelter, just as the door below flung open, spilling pale gold light over the scene

I seized the opportunity of the co seen Everyone was outside; even Mrs Brown had rushed out, nightcap and all, leaving the quilts pulled half off the bed Hiraly of beer, swayed and mehed tipsily at me as I passed, yellow eyes moist and protuberant with conviviality

Outside, the roadas full of half-dressed itation I caught sight of Ja with the best of the the excited bits of question and comment, I heard scraps of speech--"spooked""panther?""godda around and incoherent argument, it was unanimously decided that the horses would likely co off the trees in veils of whirling ice; the wind stuck freezing fingers through every crevice of clothing

"Would you stay out on a night like this?" Roger deenerally decided that no sane , if not quite sane, certainly sensible creatures--the party began to trickle back into the house, shivering and gru the last stragglers, Ja on the porch His hair was loose and the light froht my eye, rolled his oard heaven, and raised his shoulders in the faintest of shrugs

I put cold fingers to my lips and blew him a small frozen kiss

PART FOUR

I Hear No Music

But the Sound of Drums

33

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?" Brianna asked She turned over,carefully in the narrow confines of Mr Wemyss’s bed, and parked her chin coer’s shoulder

"What would I have done about what?" War with one of Mrs Bug’s dinners, and having finally achieved the nirvana of an hour’s privacy with his wife, Roger felt pleasantly drowsy and detached

"About Isaiah Morton and Alicia Brown"

Roger gave a jaw-cracking yawn and settled hi loudly under them He supposed the whole house had heard them at it earlier, and he didn’t really care She’d washed her hair in honor of his holealow of the hearth It was only late afternoon, but the shutters were closed, giving the pleasant illusion that they were inside a small private cave