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“They tasted fine,her husband a quelling look

“I suppose they would be well enough, if a person was desperate,” Iain went

on, ignoring the look “But they have no taste”

Gregor hid his s his brows sternly “They may have no taste, Iain, but they’ll fill your belly in difficult times Remember the last time the oat crop failed? It was in my father’s day People in Glen Dhui died”

Iain looked suitably chastened

“Dinna worry,” Gregor went on “They taste better if you mix them with milk and butter, or riddle”

Iain and his wife exchanged wondering glances

As they were leaving, the old wo aside “’Tis fine that the laird likes to cook, e it ’Tis no’ proper for the Chief of the Grants of Glen Dhui to be holding a pan and doing women’s work”

Meg nodded sagely, and it was not until they had ridden away that she burst out laughing When she told hihed too, but he refuted the “women’s work” claim

“A soldier has to learn to cook for hiyll has potatoes in his garden, too And he is just as bossy as you, Lady Meg, inhis people eat them”

“If I aood,” she retorted primly

He grinned at her back, as she rode away

As the days passed, their usual tasks were set aside, or given to others to coh to take over the for of their little troop, and Alison the household chores The general slept, rousing hior when they came to take their supper with him

On one war her slippery body in his ar her cold lips until she burned Then they lay upon the smooth stones and let the sun dry them

“I used to co his eyes over her naked back and the curve of her bottolen”