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She realized suddenly that her brsts were turgid, aching with milk; there had been no time in the last several hours even to think of it, let alone take the tiled at the thought, and she gritted her teeth against the s with her sweat She yearned toward Roger, wanting suddenly to suckle hiainst her breast and let life flow into hi to touch hi to distract herself from discomfort

He seemed to feel her hand on his arht she saw a consciousness of her flicker in its depths

"You look like thethat popped into her head One dark eyebroitched slightly upward

"The leeches," she said She touched one of those on his neck, and it contracted sluggishly, already half-full "A beard of snakes Can you feel the what hera soundless "no," with obvious effort

"Don’t talk" She glanced at the other bed, feeling self-conscious, but the wounded man in it was quiet, eyes closed She turned back, bent, and quickly kissed Roger, the ht he meant to smile

She wanted to shout at him What happened? What in hell did you DO? But he couldn’t answer

Suddenly, fury overwhel to and fro nearby, she didn’t shout, but instead leaned down and gripped his shoulder--that seeed spots--and hissed, "How in God’s name did you do this?" in his ear

His eyes rolled slowly toward her, fixing on her face He rimace which she couldn’t interpret at all, and then the shoulder under her hand began to vibrate She stared at him in complete perplexity for a few seconds, before she realized that he was laughing Laughing!

The tube in his throat jiggled, and ravated her beyond bearing She stood up, hands pressed against her aching brsts

"I’ll be right back," she said "Don’t you bloody go anywhere, damn you!"

72

TINDER AND CHAR

GERALD FORBES WAS A SUCCESSFUL lawyer, and norear, and with the soot of gunpowder staining his face, he still had an air of solid assurance that served him well as a captain of militia This air had not quite deserted hi the brim of his hat as he stood in the doorway of the tent

At first I assumed that it was merely the discomfort that afflicts many people in the presence of illness--or perhaps aardness over the circu else; he barely nodded toward Brianna, who sat by Roger’s bed

"My sympathies for your misfortune, ma’am," he said, then turned at once to Jaht--a word? And Mrs Fraser, too," he added, with a grave bow in ot up, reaching by reflex for reat deal I could do; that much was obvious Isaiah Morton lay on his side in Forbes’s tent, his face dead-white and sheened with sweat He still breathed, but slowly, and with a horrible gurgling effect that reer’s throat He wasn’t conscious, which was a small mercy Isweat fro had not cooled h the lung," I said, and both h they both clearly knew as rilanced at Forbes, who nodded, not taking his eyes fro an unspoken question "He wasn’t a coward And it was a clean advance--no other coulators behind you? No sharpshooters? No a his head before the questions were finished

"We chased a few Regulators as far as the creek, but we stopped there and let theers, and he mechanically rolled and unrolled the bri"

Jamie nodded, silent

I cleared ently over him

"He was shot twice in the back," I said The second bullet had only grazed his upper arm, but I could plainly see the direction of the furrow it had left

Jamie closed his eyes briefly, then opened thenation

Gerald Forbes glanced at him, surprised

"Brown? That’s what he said"

"He spoke?" Ja his ruddy brows together He glanced atIsaiah Morton’s wrist, and could feel the flutter and stuain

"When they brought hi down the maltreated hat "He asked for you, Fraser And then he said, ‘Tell Ally Tell Ally Brown’ He said that several tiestured mutely at Morton, whose half-closed lids showed slices of white, his eyes rolled up in agony

Ja obscene, very softly, under his breath in Gaelic

"Do you really think they did this?" I asked, equally softly The pulse thu

He nodded, looking down at Morton

"I shouldna have let theh to himself Morton and Alicia Brown, he meant

"You couldn’t have stopped them" I reached my free hand toward him, to touch him in reassurance, but couldn’t quite reach him, tethered as I was to Morton’s pulse