Uncle Joe. He says ats what color Badger is.
Whos Badger?
Auntie Gails doggy.
Hmm, I said. Not yet, then. All right, sweetheart, lets go and hang Esmeralda out to dry.
6
Home Is the Hunter, Home from the Hill
JAMIE AND BRIANNA CAME back in late afternoon, with two brace of squirrels, fourteen doves, and a large piece of stained and tattered canvas that, unwrapped, revealed something that looked like the remnants of a particularly grisly murder.
Supper? I asked, gingerly poking at a shattered bone sticking out of the mass of hair and slick flesh. The smell was iron-raw and butcherous, with a rank note that seemed familiar, but decay hadnt yet set in to any noticeable degree.
Aye, if ye can manage, Sassenach. Jamie came and peered down at the bloody shambles, frowning a little. Ill tidy it up for ye. I need a bit o whisky first, though.
Given the bloodstains on his shirt and breeks, I hadnt noticed the equally stained rag tied round his leg, but now saw that he was limping. Raising a brow, I went to the large basket of food, small tools, and minor medical supplies that I lugged up to the house site every morning.
From whats left of it, I presume that isor wasa deer. Did you actually tear it apart with your bare hands?
No, but the bear did, Bree said, straight-faced. She exchanged complicit glances with her father, who hummed in his throat.
Bear, I said, and took a deep breath. I gestured at his shirt. Right. How much of that blood is yours?
No much, he said tranquilly, sitting down on the Big Log. Whisky?
I looked sharply at Brianna, but she seemed to be intact. Filthy, and with green-gray bird droppings streaked down her shirt, but intact. Her face glowed with sun and happiness, and I smiled.
Theres whisky in the tin canteen hanging over there, I said, nodding toward the big spruce at the far side of the clearing. Do you want to fetch it for your father while I see whats left of his leg?
Sure. Where are Mandy and Jem?
When last seen, they were playing by the creek with Aidan and his brothers. Dont worry, I added, seeing her lower lip suck suddenly in. Its very shallow there, and Fanny said shed go and keep an eye on Mandy while shes collecting leeches. Fannys very dependable.
Mm-hmm. Bree still looked dubious, but I could see her fighting down her maternal impulse to go scoop Mandy out of the creek immediately. I know I met her last night, but Im not sure I remember Fanny. Where does she live?
With us, Jamie said matter-of-factly. Ow!
Hold still, I said, spreading the puncture wound in his leg open with two fingers while I poured saline solution into it. You dont want to die of tetanus, do you?
And what would ye do if I said yes, Sassenach?
The same thing Im doing right now. I dont care if you want to or not; Im not having it.
Well, why did ye ask me, then? He leaned back on his palms, both legs stretched out, and looked up at Bree. Fannys a wee orphan lass. Your brother took her under his protection.
Brees face went almost comically blank. My brother. Willie? she asked, tentative.
Unless your mother kens otherwise, hes the only brother yeve got, Jamie assured her. Aye, William. Jesus, Sassenach, yere worse than the bear!
He closed his eyes, whether to avoid looking at what I was doing to his legenlarging and debriding the wound with a lancet; the injury wasnt serious in itself, but the puncture wound in his calf was deep, and I was in fact not being rhetorical about the risk of tetanusor to give Bree a moment to recover her countenance.
She looked at him, head cocked to one side.
So, she said slowly. That means he knows that youre his father?
Jamie grimaced, not opening his eyes.
He does.
Not that happy about it? One side of her mouth curled up, but both her eyes and her voice were sympathetic.
Probably not.
Yet, I murmured, rinsing blood down his long shinbone. He snorted. Bree made a more feminine version of the same noise and went to fetch the whisky. Jamie heard her go and opened his eyes.
Are ye not done yet, Sassenach? I saw the slight vibration of his wrists and realized that he was bracing himself on his palms in order to hide the fact that he was trembling with exhaustion.
Im through hurting you, I assured him. I put my hand next to his on the log as I rose, touching his fingers lightly. Ill put a bandage on it, and then you should lie down for a bit with your foot propped up.
Dont fall asleep, Da. Briannas shadow fell over him, and she leaned down to hand him the canteen. Ian says hes bringing Rachel and his mother down to have supper with us. She leaned in farther and kissed him on the forehead.
Dont worry about Willie, she said. Hell figure things out.
Aye. I hope he doesna wait til Im dead. He gave her a lopsided smile to indicate that this was meant to be a joke, and lifted the canteen in salute.
I CHIVVIED JAMIE, protesting, into the shade under my surgical shelter and made him lie down with my apron folded under his head.
Have you had anything at all to eat since breakfast? I asked, propping his injured leg up with a chunk of wood from the scrap heap.
I have, he said patiently. Amy Higgins sent bannocks and cheese wi Brianna, and we ate it whilst waiting on the bear to leave. Do ye think Id not have said by now if I was starving?
Oh, I said, feeling rather foolish. Well, yes, I do. Its just I smoothed hair back from his brow. Its just that I want to make you feel better, and feeding you was the only thing that came to mind.
That made him laugh, and he stretched, arching his back, and readjusted himself into a more comfortable position on the trampled grass.
Well, thats a kind thought, Sassenach. I could think of a few other things, maybeafter Ive had a wee rest. And Brianna says that Ians lot are coming to supper. He turned his head, casting a look toward the distant mountain, where the sun was coming slowly down through a scatter of fat little clouds, painting their bellies with soft gold.
We both sighed a little at the sight, and he turned back and took my hand.
What I want ye to do, Sassenach, is sit wi me here for a momentand tell me Im no dreaming. Shes really here? She and the bairns and Roger Mac?
I squeezed his hand and felt the same bubbling joy I could see in his face.
Its real. Theyre here. Right there, in fact. I laughed a little, because I could still see Brianna below, just heading for the trees that fringed the creek, her long hair loose now, fading to brown in the shadows and lifting in the evening breeze as she called for the children.
I know what you mean, though. I had a visit with Roger this morning and asked him to let me examine his throat. I felt just like doubting Thomas. It was so strange to have him right there in front of me, touch himand at the same time, it didnt seem strange at all.
I rubbed the back of his hand lightly with my thumb, feeling the knobs of his knuckles and the faint roughness of the scar that ran down from where his fourth finger had been.
I feel like that all the time, Sassenach, he said, his voice a little husky. His fingers curled over mine. When I wake sometimes in the early morning, and I see ye there beside me. I doubt youre real. Until I touch yeor until ye fart.
I yanked my hand loose and he rolled away and came up sitting, elbows hunched comfortably over his knees.
So how is it wi Roger Mac? he asked, ignoring my glare. Dye think hell ever have his voice back?
I dont know, I said. I truly dont. But let me tell you what he told me about a man named Hector McEwan
He listened with great attention, stirring only to brush away wandering clouds of gnats.
Have ye ever seen that yourself, a nighean? he asked when Id finished. Blue light, as he said?
A small, deep shiver went through me that had nothing to do with the cooling air. I looked away, to a buried past. Or one Id tried to bury.
I well, yes, I said, and swallowed. But I thought I was hallucinating at the time, and its quite possible I was. Im reasonably sure that I was actually dying, and imminent death might alter ones perceptions.
Aye, it does, he said, rather dryly. But thats not to say what ye see in such a state isna true. He looked closely at my face, considering.
Ye dinna need to tell me, he continued quietly, and touched my shoulder. Theres no need to live such things again, if they dinna come back of their own accord.
No, I said, maybe a little too quickly. I cleared my throat and took a firm grip on mind and memory. I wont. Its just that I had a bad infection, andand Master Raymond I wasnt looking directly at him, but I felt his head lift suddenly at the name. He came and healed me. I dont have any idea how he did it, and I wasnt thinking anything consciously. But I saw I rubbed a hand slowly over my forearm, seeing it again. It was blue, the bone inside my arm. Not a vivid blue, not like that I gestured toward the mountain, where the evening sky above the clouds had gone the color of larkspur. A very soft, faint blue. But it didglow isnt the right word, really. It was alive.
It had been. And Id felt the blue spread outward from my bones, wash through me. And felt the bursting of the microbes in my system, dying like stars. The remembered sense of it lifted the hairs on my arms and neck, and filled me with a strange sensation of well-being, like warm honey being stirred.
A wild cry from the woods above broke the mood, and Jamie turned, smiling.
Och, theres wee Oggy. He sounds like a hunting catamount.
I got to my feet, brushing grass off my skirt. I think hes the loudest child Ive ever heard.
As though the shriek had been a signal, I heard hooting from the hollow below, and a gang of children burst out of the trees by the creek, followed by Bree and Roger, walking slowly, heads leaning toward each other, deep in what looked like contented conversation.
Im going to need a bigger house, Jamie said, meditatively.
Before he could expand on this interesting notion, though, the Murrays appeared on the path that led down from the eastern side of the Ridge, Rachel carrying Oggybellowing over her shoulderand Ian behind her with a large, covered basket.
The children? Rachel said to Jamie. Jamie stood up, smiling, then nodded toward the clearing below.