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When I turned back to the fire, Murtagh was sitting on the other side, calmly warming his hands at the blaze. Je
“I could ha’ cut both your throats before ye ever looked in the right direction,” the little man observed.
“Oh, could ye then?” Je
“None sae bad,” Murtagh agreed, nodding sagely. “Is the wee Sassenach that good?”
“No,” said Je
The little man nodded. “Aye. Did ye find the Watch yet?”
We told him of our progress to date. At the news that Jamie had escaped, I could have sworn that a muscle twitched near the corner of his mouth, but it would have been stretching matters to call it a smile.
At length, Je
“Where are you going?” I asked in surprise.
“Home.” She nodded at Murtagh. “He’ll be wi’ ye now; you don’t need me, and there’s others that do.”
Murtagh looked up at the sky. The waning moon was faintly visible behind a haze of cloud, and a soft spatter of rain whispered in the pine boughs above us.
“The morning will do. The wind’s risin’, and no one will move far tonight.”
Je
Murtagh sighed impatiently. “You’re stubborn as your ox of a brother, beggin’ your pardon. Little reason to hurry back, so far as I can see – I doubt your good man will ha’ taken a doxy to his bed in the time ye’ve been gone.”
“You see as far as the end o’ your nose, duine, and that’s short enough,” Je
Murtagh raised his hands in surrender. “Oh, aye, ye’ll take your own way. I didna ken I was tryin’ to talk sense to a wild sow. Get a tush through the leg for my trouble, I expect.”
Je
As she turned to saddle the horse, Murtagh added, “By the bye, ye’ll reckon to find a new kitchen maid when ye reach home.”
She paused and eyed him, then slowly set the saddle on the ground. “And who might that be?” she asked.
“The Widow MacNab,” he replied, with deliberation.
She was still for a moment, nothing moving but the kerchief and cloak that stirred in the rising wind.
“How?” she asked at last.
Murtagh bent to pick up the saddle. He heaved it up and secured the girth with what seemed like one effortless motion.
“Fire,” he said, giving a final tug to the stirrup leather. “Watch your way as ye pass the high field; the ashes will still be warm.”
He cupped his hands to give her a foot up, but she shook her head and took the reins instead, beckoning to me.
“Walk wi’ me to the top of the hill, Claire, if ye will.”
The air was cold and heavy, away from the fire. My skirts were damp from sitting on the ground, and clung to my legs as I walked. Je
“It was MacNab that gave Jamie to the Watch?” I asked at last. She nodded slowly.
“Aye. Ian will have found out, or one of the other men; it doesna matter which.”
It was late November, well past Guy Fawkes Day, but I had a sudden vision of a bonfire, flames leaping up timbered walls and sprouting in the thatch like the tongues of the Holy Ghost, while the fire within roared its prayers for the damned. And inside, the guy, an effigy crouched in ash on his own hearthstone, ready to fall into black dust at the next blast of cold wind to sweep through the shell of his home. There is a fine line sometimes, between justice and brutality.
I realized Je
We paused at the top of the hill, Murtagh a dark speck by the fire below. Je
“The rents from quarter day,” she said. “Ye might need it.”
I tried to give the money back, insisting that Jamie would not want to take money that was needed for the ru
Outclassed, I gave up at last, and tucked the money safely away in the recesses of my own costume. At Je
“It’s Ian’s, but he has another,” she said. “Put it into your stocking top, and hold it with your garter. Don’t leave it off, even when ye sleep.”
She paused a moment, as though there were something else she meant to say. Apparently there was.
“Jamie said,” she said carefully, “that ye might… tell me things sometimes. And he said that if ye did, I was to do as ye said. Is there… anything ye wish to tell me?”
Jamie and I had discussed the necessity for preparing Lallybroch and its inhabitants against the coming disasters of the Rising. But we had thought then that there was time. Now I had no time, or most a few minutes, in which to give this new sister I held dear enough information to guard Lallybroch against the coming storm.
Being a prophet was a very uncomfortable occupation, I thought, not for the first time. I felt considerable sympathy with Jeremiah and his Lamentations. I also realized exactly why Cassandra was so unpopular. Still, there was no help for it. On the crest of a Scottish hill, the night wind of an autumn storm whipping my hair and skirts like the sheets of a banshee, I turned my face to the shadowed skies and prepared to prophesy.
“Plant potatoes,” I said.
Je
“As many as you can. They’re not planted in the Highlands now, but they will be. They’re a root crop that will keep for a long time, and the yield is better than wheat. Put as much ground as you can into crops that can be stored. There’s going to be a famine, a bad one, in two years. If there’s land or property that’s not productive now, sell it, for gold. There’s going to be war, and slaughter. Men will be hunted, here and everywhere through the Highlands.” I thought for a moment. “Is there a priest-hole in the house?”
“No, it was built well after the Protector’s time.”
“Make one then, or some safe place to hide. I hope Jamie won’t need it,” I swallowed hard at the thought, “but someone may.”
“All right. Is that all?” Her face was serious and intent in the half-light. I blessed Jamie for his forethought in warning her, and her for her trust in her brother. She didn’t ask me how, or why, but only took careful note of what I said, and I knew my hasty instructions would be followed.
“That’s all. All I can think of just now, anyway.” I tried to smile, but the effort seemed unconvincing, even to me.
Hers was better. She touched my cheek briefly in farewell.
“God go wi’ ye, Claire. We’ll meet again – when ye bring my brother home.”