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The fiddle had ceased, but he could hear the twang and throb of instru drawing room, whose double doors could be thrown open to allow dancers to spill out across the foyer, when the tiuests in the drawing rooerat the hearth, ireen livery, a poker held at the ready as he supervised two antic vat of fresh ruistered Roger’s presence and identity, then returned to his business

Theoccasional thirsty glances at the hearth as they readied their instruer inquired, pausing beside the fiddler He smiled as the man turned round to him "‘Ei’ the Crooked Horn,’ perhaps, or ‘Shaee’?"

"Oh, God love ye, sir, nothin’ fancy" The conductor of the small ensemble, a cricketlike Irishhtness of his eyes, waved a hand in cordial scorn at his s and reels No h," he added, practically "’Tisn’t the Asseood fiddler can keep ’eer said with a s at the cracked fiddle case the conductor had set on a whatnot, carefully out of the way of being stepped or sat on

"That would be ed, sir Roger MacKenzie, of Fraser’s Ridge" He returned the bow, taking pleasure in the old-fashioned formality, and clasped Hanlon’s hand briefly, careful of the twisted fingers and knobby joints Hanlon saw his care of the arthritic hand and gave a brief grimace of deprecation

"Ah, they’ll be fine with a drop of lubrication, so they will" Hanlon flexed one hand experier with a bright glance

"And yourself, sir; I felt the calluses on your fingertips Not a fiddler, perhaps, but would ye be after playin’ soed instru like you gentleer nodded politely toward the ensemble, which, now unpacked, boasted a battered cello, two viols, a truht have started life as a hunting horn, though it appeared to have been a that stuck out in different directions

Hanlon eyed hi in his breadth of chest

"And hark at the voice in hier’s reply was interrupted by a loud thu behind hi himself over his instrue chick, to protect it froentle

"Watch yourself, then!" the cellist snapped "Clumsy sot!"

"Oh?" The intruder, a stocky ly at the cellist "You daredare shpeak to me" His face was flushed an unhealthy red, and he swayed slightly as he stood; Roger could smell the fumes of alcohol froer to the cellist, and appeared to be on the point of speech A tongue tip showed pinkly between his teeth, but no words eed His empurpled jowls quivered for a moment, then he abandoned the atte narrowly to avoid an inco off the doorjamb as he passed into the corridor

"’Ware, then, Mr O’Reilly" Seamus Hanlon spoke dryly to the cellist "Were we near the sea, I should reckon there’d be a press-gang waitin’ for ye, the instant ye set foot outside As it is, I’d put no odds on hi of the kind"

O’Reilly spat eloquently on the floor

"I know hi, ht as a tick--he’ll not rehtfully at the doorway through which the Lieutenant had vanished

"Well, that’s as entleman, too, and I do believe his est" He stood for a ainst the paler

"Fraser’s Ridge, ye said? Will ye be a kinsman of Mrs Cameron’s--or Mrs Innes, I should say?" he corrected hier said patiently, having discovered that this was the most efficient description, as most of the county appeared to knoho Ja Roger’s own fa visibly i here, anyway?" the cellist de after the departed officer He patted his instruly "Everyone knows he meant to wed Mrs Cameron and have River Run for himself I wonder he’s the tripes to show his face today!"

"Perhaps he’s coested "A civil gesture--best man won and all that, aye?"

The gestion

"Maybe," said the flutist, shaking his head over his instrument "But if you’re any friend to Duncan Innes, tell him to watch his back in the dancin’"

"Aye, do that," Sea man, and speak to hi footman, and scooped a cup neatly fro at Roger over its rim "It may be you’ll know a tune or two that’s new to me"