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By the ti There was a sinister air of stillness about the house; no sound of scurrying servants, nofetched in from the cookhouse Most peculiar of all, Ulysses was not there to greet us; our knocking went unanswered for several minutes, and when the door was at last opened, it was Phaedre, Jocasta’s body-servant, who appeared

She had looked dreadful when I had last seen her, nearly a year before, after her mother’s death She didn’t look much better now; there were circles under her eyes, and her skin looked bruised and drawn, like a fruit beginning to go bad

When she saw us, though, her eyes lighted and her mouth relaxed in visible relief

"Oh, Mr Jamie!" she cried "I been prayin’ for soht for sure it would be Mr Farquard, and then we maybe be in worse trouble, he such a man for the law and all, even if he is your auntie’s friend"

Jamie raised an eyebrow at this rather confused declaration, but nodded reassuringly and squeezed her hand

"Aye, lass I dinna believe I’ve been an answer to prayer before, but I’ve no objection Is h"

Withdrawing before we could ask further questions, she beckoned us toward the stair

Jocasta was in her boudoir, knitting She raised her head at the sound of feet, alert, and before anyone could say anything, asked "Ja voice, and stood up Even at a distance, I could see that there were , missed stitches and open runs; most unlike her usual fastidious needlework

"Aye, it’sthe room in two strides, he reached her side and took her ar her hand in reassurance

Her face underwent the same transforht she h, and turned toward h hoell, never mind it for now Will ye come? Duncan’s hurt"

Duncan lay in bed in the next room, inert under a stack of coht be dead, but he stirred at once at the sound of Jocasta’s voice

"Mac Dubh?" he said, puzzled He poked his head up fro to see in the dis you here?"

"Lieutenant Wolff," Jamie said, a little caustically "Is the naht say so" There was a slightly odd tone to Duncan’s voice, but I paid it nohim sufficiently from the bedclothes to find out what the unshot wound At first exa whatever of the sort visible, and it took a fewto discover that what he was suffering fro It was a simple fracture of the lower tibia, fortunately, and while undoubtedly painful, it seereat threat to his health

I sent Phaedre to find so reat danger, sat down to get to the bottos

"He has been here? Lieutenant Wolff?" he asked

"Aye, he has" Again the slight hesitation

"Has he gone, then?"

"Oh, aye" Duncan shuddered a little, involuntarily

"A you?" I asked

"Oh, no, Mrs Claire," he assured ht out, Duncan," Jamie said, in a tone of mild exasperation "I think it’ll no be a tale that i, aye? And if it’s the sort of tale I think, then I have a bittie story to tell to you, as well"

Duncan eyed hi, and lay back on the pillow

The Lieutenant had arrived at River Run two days before, but unlike his usual habit, had not come to the front door to be announced Instead, he had left his horse hobbled in a field a mile from the house, and approached stealthily on foot

"We only realized asthe horse later, ye see," Duncan explained to"I didna ken he was here at all, until I went out to the necessary after supper, and he leaped at ht, and then I near died of being shot, for he fired at me, and if I had had an arm on that side, I daresay he would have struck it Only I hadna got one, so he didn’t"

In spite of his disability, Duncan had fought back ferociously, butting the Lieutenant in the face, charging hiered and tripped himself on the brick walk, and fell backward so as he hit his head a dreadful sain at memory of the sound "Like a melon hit wi’ an ax, it was"

"Och, aye So, was he killed at once, then?" Jarown easier in his ain "Now, see, Mac Dubh, here’s the pinch of the , too, when I knocked him ower, and I stepped into the stone channel fro by the walk Ulysses heard me callin’ at last, and came down, and Jo after him"

Duncan had told Jocasta what had happened, as Ulysses had gone to fetch a couple of grooms to help carry Duncan into the house And then, between the pain of his broken leg and his habit of leaving difficulties to the butler to be resolved, had likewise left the Lieutenant

"It was my fault, Mac Dubh, and I ken it well," he said, his face drawn and pale "I ought to have given orders of soht to have said, and I’ve had tih to think"