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He touchedinto e in this limpse of ain," he said softly, at last, and his fingers brushedleaf He sle ca as a woodpecker’s call I turned, looking Brianna sat still as a statue on her rock, looking toward the wood

64

SIGNAL FOR ACTION

Note, when on the March the discharge of three Pieces of Cannon will be the signal to fornal for Action

--Order of Battle, Wulators’ ca himself neither to run nor to look back A few shouted insults and half-meant threats were hurled in his direction, but by the time he ell into the trees, the crowd had lost interest in hi controversy It was past noon, and a hot day for May, but he found his shirt sweat-soaked and clinging to hi July

He stopped as soon as he was out of sight He was breathing fast, and felt dizzy, slightly sick with the aftereffects of adrenaline In the center of that ring of hostile faces, he hadn’t felt a thing--not a thing Safely away, though, theand his fists ached froers, and tried to slow his breathing

Maybe a bit uns than he’d thought, after all

He’dho; bone-deep relief, and an even deeper grief, quite unexpected, for his father, who hadn’t been so lucky

A slight breeze played about hi the damp hairs on his neck with a breath of welcoether, and his dale hi it off with shaking fingers, then stood with his eyes closed and the piece of cloth dangling frohts of air, until the momentary sense of nausea subsided

He called to ht of Brianna, framed in the doorway, Jemmy in her arms He saw her lashes ith tears and the baby’s round sole he had experienced in the cabin with Husband; a vision of beauty, a conviction of joy that soothed his o back to them; that was all that mattered

After a moinning to feel more settled in body, if not in mind, as he ht back Husband to Jaht have It was possible that the ht of theo home, deprived of even the faint semblance of leadership Husband had provided He hoped so

Or theyht struck him, with a phrase recalled from the confusion near the cabin

"D’ye come to offer different terms than Caldwell has?" The man with the black beard had asked hi at the door of the cabin, as he stood in prayer with Husband--"There’s no time for this!" someone had shouted "Caldwell’s come back from the Governor--" and someone else had added, in tones of desperation, "An hour, Heriven us an hour, no more!"

"Shit," he said, aloud David Caldwell, the Presbyterian minister who had one to speak with Tryon on the Regulators’ behalf--and been rebuffed, with a warning

"An hour, no more" An hour to disperse, to leave peaceably? Or an hour to reply to solanced up; the sun stood overhead, just a bit past noon He pulled on his coat and stuffed the discarded stock in his pocket, next to the unused flag of truce Whatever it

The day was still bright and hot, the s sap Now, though, his sense of urgency and hislike hornets, deprived him of any appreciation of the beauties of nature Even so, some trace of peace remained deep within him as he made his way quickly toward the creek; a faint echo of what he had felt in the cabin

That odd sense of awe had stayed with him, hidden but accessible, like a smooth stone in his pocket He turned it over in his ely oblivious to clutching braht Nothing whatever had happened, and in fact the entire experience had felt quite ordinary--nothing otherworldly or supernatural about it And yet, having seen by that particular clear light, he could not forget it Could he explain it to Brianna? he wondered

A trailing branch brushed past his face and he reached to push it aside, feeling even as he did so a faint surprise at the cool green gloss of the leaves, the odd delicacy of their edges, jagged as knives but paper-light An echo, faint but recognizable, of what he had seen before, that piercing beauty Did Claire see that? he thought suddenly Did she see the touch of beauty in the bodies beneath her hands? Was that perhaps how--and why--she was a healer?