See for yourself, a nighean.
Jem, Mandy, and Germain had been sorted out from their companions and were now tagging along behind Bree and Roger, amicably pushing one another.
Oh, Rachel said very softly, and I saw her hazel eyes go soft as well. Oh, Jamie. Thy daughter looks so like theeand her son as well!
I told ye, Ian said, smiling down at her, and she put a hand on his arm, squeezing tight.
Thy mother Rachel shook her head, unable to think of anything sufficiently descriptive of Jennys emotional state.
Well, I doubt shell faint away, Jamie said, getting gingerly to his feet. Shes met the lass once before, though no the bairns. Where is she, though? He glanced up the path that led into the woods, as though expecting his sister to materialize there as he spoke.
Shes staying at the MacNeills tonight, Rachel said, and set Oggy on the grass, where he lay squirming in a leisurely manner. She and Cairistina MacNeill became very friendly while we were quilting, and Cairistina told us that her husband has gone to Salisbury and she was frightened at the thought of being alone at night, their home being such a distance from the nearest neighbor.
I nodded at that. Cairistina was very young, newly marriedshe was Richard MacNeills third wifeand had come from Campbelton, near Cross Creek. Night on a mountain was very dark, and full of things unseen.
That was very kind of Jenny, I said.
Ian gave a brief snort of amusement. Ill no say my mother isna kind, he said. But Ill give ye good odds that shes staying on her own account as much as Mistress MacNeills. He nodded at Oggy, who was whining, a long trail of drool hanging from his lower lip. The laddies had the colic three nights runnin and its a small cabin, aye? Id wager ye three to one shes stretched out like a corpse on Mrs. MacNeills bed right now, sound asleep.
She walked the floor with him half the night, Rachel said apologetically to me. I told her I would take him, but she said, Pish, and whats a grannie for, then? She squatted and picked up Oggy before he could escalate to his imitation of an air-raid siren. What does thee think of Marmaduke, Claire?
Of oh, as a name for Oggy, you mean? I hastily rearranged my face, but it was too late. Rachel laughed.
Thats what Jenny said. Still, she added, removing the end of her dark plait from her sons grasping fingers, Marmaduke Stephenson was one of the Boston Martyrs: a very weighty Friend. It would be a fine name.
Well, I grant ye, he wouldna easily be mistaken for someone else, if ye call him Marmaduke, Jamie said, trying to be tactful. And hed learn to fight early on. But if ye mean him to be a Quaker
Aye, said Ian to Rachel. And were no calling him Fear the Lord, either, lass. Maybe Fortitude, though; thats a decent manly name.
Hmm, she said, looking down her nose at her offspring. What does thee think of Wisdom? Wisdom Murray? Wisdom Ian Murray?
Ian laughed. Aye, and what if the laddie should turn out to be a fool? Borrowing trouble, are ye no?
Jamie tilted his head and squinted at Oggy, considering, then glanced at Ian, then at Rachel, and shook his head.
Given his parents, I dinna think thats likely. Still have ye thought perhaps to honor your own da, Rachel? What was your fathers name?
Mordecai, she said. Possibly not as a first name
Mordecai, she said. Possibly not as a first name
I glanced at the fire, a wavering reddish transparency in the daylight. Ian, would you build up the fire a bit? Im going to cook the doves in the ashes, and then hmmm I glanced back down the hill, counting heads as they came up. The Higgins children had peeled off and gone to their own cabin for supper, so that left us withI counted quickly on my fingersseven adults, four childrenand I had a big pot of lentils with herbs and a hambone that had been bubbling since midday. Bree had skinned and cleaned the squirrels shed brought backperhaps Id best cut them up and add them to the pot. And then
We brought thee a small addition to thy supper, Claire. Rachel nodded toward the basket over her arm. No, Oggy, thee mustnt pull thy mothers hair. I might be startled and drop thee into the fire, and that would be a dreadful shame, wouldnt it?
I laughed at this very Quaker threat, but Oggy let gomostlythe end of his mothers braid and stuffed his fist into his mouth instead, regarding me with a thoughtful stare.
Come on, I said, reaching for him. Youve got cousins to meet, young Oglethorpe.
JAMIES LEG DIDNT hurt a great deal, but it was bruised and tender, and he was happy to sit on the big stump near Claires makeshift surgery and let his bones rest as he watched his family, busy with making dinner.
Brianna was dealing with the shattered deer, still wearing the hunting clothes hed lent her. He watched her sure hand with the knife and the power of her shoulders working, proud of her. Did she take that skill from himself, he wonderedor from her mother? It wasnt only the hands, nor yet the simple knowledge of how to go about it it was a toughness of mind, he thought approvingly. The recognition of a job to do and no need to question it.
He glanced at Roger, who was splitting wood, stripped to the waist and sweating. That lad did have questions, and likely always would. Jamie thought he maybe sensed a new determination in him, though; hed need it.
Claire said he meant to go on with being a minister. That was good; folk needed someone to do for their souls, and Roger plainly needed something worth doing. Claire said hed told her hed thought about it and made up his mind.
Brianna, though what might the shape of her life be here, now? Shed taught a bit in their wee school, when she was here on the Ridge before. He hadnt thought she really liked the teaching, though; he thought she wouldnt miss it. She rose to her feet as he watched, and stretched, arms reaching for the sky. Christ, shes a braw lass
Maybe shell have more children. He was almost afraid to think that. He didnt want to risk her. And Jem and Mandy needed her. Still and all The thought was a small green hope in his chest and he smiled, watching the knot of children bringing up firewood, dropping it on the ground, and running off to join the game of whatever they were playing. Hide-and-seek, perhaps there was wee Frances, coming along with a bundle of sticks and a handful of flowers.
Shed lost her cap and her dark curls had come down on one side, straggling over one shoulder. Her face was pink with the exercise and she was smiling; he was happy to see it.
Something tickled his leg, breaking into his thoughts. There was a green thing that looked like a tiny spade sitting on his upraised knee.
He moved a hand cautiously toward it, but it wasnt afraid of him and didnt fly off or retaliate by trying to crawl into his ears or nose as flies did. It let him touch its backside, merely twitching its antennae in mild annoyance, but when he attempted to stroke its back, it sprang off his knee, sudden as a grasshopper, and landed on the edge of Claires medicine box, where it seemed to pause to take stock of its circumstances.
Dont do it, he advised the insect, in Gaelic. Youll end up as a tonic, or ground to powder. He couldnt tell whether it was looking at him, but it seemed to consider, then gave another startling hop and vanished.
Fanny had brought Claire a plant of some kind, and Claire was turning over the leaves, her face bright with interest, explaining what it was good for. Fanny glowed, a tiny smile of pleasure at being useful on her face.
The sight of her warmed his heart. Shed been so frightened when Willie brought her to themand nay wonder, poor wee lass. There was a colder place in his heart where her sister, Jane, lived.
He said a small prayer for the repose of Janes souland, after an instants hesitation, another for Willie. Whenever he thought of Jane, he saw her in his mind, alone and abandoned in black night, her face stark white, dead by the light of her only candle. Dead by her own hand, and the church said thus damned, but he stubbornly prayed for her soul anyway. They couldnt stop him.
Dinna fash, a leannan, he thought toward her, tenderly. Ill see Frances safe for ye, and maybe Ill see ye in Heaven one day. Dinna be afraid.
He hoped someone would see William safe for him. Dreadful as the memory of that night was, he kept it, recalled it deliberately. William had come to him for help, and he treasured that. The sense of the two of them, pursuing a lost cause through a rainy, dangerous night, standing together in desolation by the light of that candle, too late. It was a dreadful memory, but one he didnt want to forget.
Mammaidh, he thought, his mother coming suddenly to mind. Look after my bonnie lad, will ye?
7
Dead or Alive
WILLIAM, NINTH EARL OF Ellesmere, Viscount Ashness, Baron Derwent, leaned against an oak tree, taking stock of his resources. At the moment, these consisted of a fairly good horsea nice dark bay with a white nose who (William had been informed by the horses prior owner) went by the name of Bartholomewalong with a canvas sack containing a discouragingly small amount of food and half a bottle of stale beer, a decent knife, and a musket that might, in a pinch, be used to club someone, because attempting to fire it would undoubtedly blow off Williams hand, face, or both.
He did have three pounds, seven shillings, twopence, and a handful of small coins and fragments of metal that might once have been coinsa beneficent side effect of a scraping acquaintance with an American militia unit hed encountered at a roadside tavern. They had, they said, served with the Continental troops at Monmouth and had been with General Washington six months earlier, at Middlebrook Encampmentthe last known place that Williams cousin Benjamin had been seen alive.
Whether Benjamin was still alive was a matter of considerable speculation, but William was determined to proceed on that assumption until and unless he found proof to the contrary.
His encounter with the New Jersey militiamen had yielded no information whatever in that regard, but it had produced a number of men eager to play at cards, who grew wilder in their wagers as the night wore on and the drink ran low.