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I set a hand gingerly on his ankle The skin was puffy, hot and dry under ht red The brilliant color extended froh he’d been dipped in boiling water

His face, ears, and neck were also flushed the color of a plum tomato; only the pale skin of his chest had escaped, and even that was dotted with pinpricks of red Beyond the lobsterlike coloration, the skin was peeling fro in wispy shreds like Spanish moss

I peered closely at his hip Here, I could see that the redness was caused by a denser version of the rash on his chest; the stipple of tiny dots showed up clearly on the stretched skin over the ilial crest

"You look like you’ve been roasted over a slow fire," I said, rubbing a finger over the rash in fascination "I’ve never seen anything so red in my life" Not raised; I couldn’t feel the individual spots, though I could see theht it es under the skin But so many of them

"I shouldna say ye’ve much room to criticize, Sassenach," he said Too weak to nod, he cut his eyes at e blotches of yellow and blue

"Oh, damn!" I leaped to my feet, threw the quilts hastily on top of him, and ran for the door Distracted by Ja to mind itself in the side yard--and the water had been low Christ, if it boiled dry and burned the clothes

The hot reek of urine and indigo hit me in the face as I shot out the door In spite of that, I drew a deep breath of relief, as I saw Marsali, red in the face with the effort of levering a drippingwooden clothes-fork I went hastily to help her, snatching the stea theoodness," I said, waving ers in the air to cool them "I was afraid I’d ruined the lot"

"Weel, they’ll be a bit dark,back the fine blond strands that escaped froh, ye can leave them in the sun to fade Here, let’s o had already started to crackle and blacken in the bottom of the pot as we tipped it off the fire, and clouds of acrid shing and fanning smoke from her face "Leave it, Mother Claire; I’ll fetch up water so it can soak Ye’ll need to see to Da, aye? I came down at once when I heard; is he verra poorly?"

"Oh, thank you, dear" I was overwhel I had time to do just noas to haul several buckets of water froers to cool them; the skin under the splotches of dye was nearly as red as Jaht," I assured her, suppressing my own fears "He feels dreadful, and looks worse--I’ve never seen anyone look like that in all et infected" I crossed ers in superstitious prophylaxis

"Ah, he’ll do," Marsali said confidently "Fergus said as they thought he was dead when they found hie, he was makin’ terrible jokes about the snake, so they didna worry any seen the state of his injured leg, but I soing to make an onion poultice and clean out the wound a bit Go and see him, why don’t you, while I fetch the onions?"

Luckily there were plenty of onions; I had pulled them teeks before, when the first frost ca in the pantry, fragrant and crackling when I brushed against theht the, half-burned and stiff fro clothes, and I worked slowly, not wanting to slice off a finger accidentally

"Here, I’ll do that, a leannan" Mrs Bug took the knife out of my hand and dealt briskly with the onions "Is it a poultice? Aye, that’ll be the thing A good onion poultice will " Still, a worried frown puckered her forehead as she glanced toward the surgery

"Can I help, Ma worried "Da looks awful; is he all right?"

"Ganda full?" Jem popped into the kitchen after his randfather than interested in the knife Mrs Bug was using He dragged his little stool toward her, face purposeful under his coppery fringe "Me do!"

I brushed the hair out offiercely from the onions

"I think so" I sniffed and blotted ood" I could hear the ser had saved his life Possibly he had I just hoped it stayed saved

"He’s asleep," she added Her htly as sheIf a man was in bed, at least you knehere he was And that he was safe, for thealone!" She scooped hi board, feet kicking in protest "Do you need anything, Ma