Ye came looking for me, he said bluntly, looking up from the wheel. They hadnt spoken on the walk save for brief courtesies. With the guns in plain sight, though, it was clearly time for business.
Cleveland nodded and took off his hat, openly appraising. His stomach strained the fabric of his hunting shirt, but it looked like hard fat, of the sort that would armor a mans vitals.
I did. Heard a good bit about you these two years past, one way and another.
Folk who listen to gossip will hear nae good of themselves, Jamie said, in the Gàidhlig.
What? Cleveland was startled. Whats that? Aint French, I heard a-plenty of that.
Its the Gàidhlig, Jamie said with a shrug, and repeated the sentiment in English. Cleveland smiled in response.
Youd be right about that, Mr. Fraser, he said. Bending, he picked up the heavy iron strip as though it were made of dandelion fluff and stood meditatively turning it in his hands. Theres a good bit of talk abroad about how you came to lose your army commission.
Despite himself, Jamie felt warmth rise up his neck.
I resigned my commission, Mr. Cleveland, following the Battle of Monmouth. I had been temporarily appointed as field general in order to take command of a number of independent militia companies. These disbanded following the battle. There was no further need of my services.
Id heard that you quit without notice, leaving half your men alone on the battlefield, in order to tend your ailing wife. Clevelands bushy brows rose inquiringly. Though having met Mrs. Fraser, I can certainly understand your feelins as a man.
Jamie turned to face him over the wagonload of muskets and powder.
Ive no need to defend myself to you, sir. If yeve something to say to me, say it and have done. Ive a privy to dig.
Cleveland raised one hand, palm out, and bent his head, conciliating.
No offense intended, Mr. Fraser. I only want to know whether youre planning to rejoin the army. In whatever capacity.
No, Jamie said shortly. Why?
Because if not, Cleveland said, and fixed him with a calculating eye, you might be interested to know that a-many of your Whiggish neighbors over the mountainshe jerked his chin in the rough direction of Tennessee Countylandowners, I mean, men who have something to loseare raising private militias to protect their families and their property. I thought you might be considering something of the sort.
Jamie felt his dislike of the man alter slightly, sliding reluctantly toward curiosity.
And if I were? he said.
Cleveland shrugged.
It would be good to keep in touch with other groups. Theres no tellin where the British might pop up, but when they domark me, Mr. Fraser, when they doI for one would like to know about it in time to take action.
Jamie looked down into the wagon: muskets, and old ones, for the most part, with dry, cracked stocks and scratched muzzlesbut a few regular British Brown Besses in better condition. Bought, traded, or stolen? he wondered.
Action, he repeated carefully. And who are some of these men you speak of?
Oh, they exist, Cleveland said, answering the thought rather than the question. John Sevier. Isaac Shelby. William Campbell and Frederick Hambright. A good many others thinking on it, I can tell you.
Jamie nodded but didnt say more.
One other thing I heard about you, Mr. Fraser, said Cleveland, picking up one of the muskets from the wagon bed, idly checking the flint, is that you were an Indian agent. That true?
I was.
And a good one, by report. Cleveland smiled, suddenly clumsily playful. I hear tell theres quite a few redheaded children down in the Cherokee villages, hey?
Jamie felt as though Cleveland had struck him across the face with the musket. Was that really being said, or was this some piece of foolery by which Cleveland hoped to involve him in something shabby?
Ill wish ye good day, sir, he said stiffly. My men will be down with tools to mend your wheel directly.
He started walking back up the trace, but Cleveland, who moved quickly despite his bulk, was right beside him.
If were to have militia, we need guns, Cleveland said. That stands to reason, dont it? Seeing that Jamie wasnt disposed to answer rhetorical questions, he tried another tack.
The Indians have guns, he said. The British government gives the Cherokee a good-sized allotment of shot and powder every year, for hunting. Was that the case when you were an agent?
Good day, Mr. Cleveland. He walked faster, though the exercise was making his wounded leg throb. Cleveland grabbed his arm and jerked him to a stop.
We can talk about guns later, Cleveland said. Theres just the one other thing I had in mind to speak to you about.
Take your hand off me. The tone of his voice made Cleveland let go, but he didnt back away.
A man named Cunningham, he said, his small brown eyes steady on Jamies. Ex-navy captain. A Tory. Loyalist.
That made a small, cold hole in Jamies middle. Captain Cunningham was indeed a Loyalistso were a dozen others of his tenants.
I hate a Tory, Cleveland said, reflectively. He shook his head, but Jamie could see the gleam of his eyes beneath his hat brim. Hung a few of em, down home. Put a scare into the others, and they left. He cleared his throat and spat, landing a gob of yellowish phlegm near Jamies foot.
Now. This Captain Cunningham writes letters. Essays in the papers. Someone with the captains welfare in mind might want to have a word with him about that. Dont you think?
WHEN JAMIE CAME back to the house site, he found the fire made up and a good smell of something cooking in the cauldron. Roger and Ian were there, talking to Claire while the shouts of children playing echoed among the trees near the creek. Thats right; Jenny would be coming to dinner tonight. Hed nearly forgot, in his annoyance with the blether of yon Cleveland.
Someone with the captains welfare in mind might want to have a word with him about that. Dont you think?
This was not, in fact, bad advice, but knowing that didnt help his mood any. He disliked being threatened, he disliked being condescended to, and he very much disliked being loomed at by a man larger than himself. He didnt like Clevelands news, either, but he didnt hold the man responsible for that.
The air of peaceful domesticity reached out for him, soothing, tempting him to join his family, drink the cold beer Fanny had pulled out of the well, sit down, and rest his aching leg. But the conversation with Cleveland was still boiling under his breastbone and he didnt want to talk to anyone about it until hed parsed it for himself.
He waved briefly to Claire as he passed through the site to where his shovel was waiting, thrust into the ground by the half-dug privy; the effort of digging would calm him as he thought things through. He hoped.
ROGER HAD SEEN Jamie disappear quietly into the shadows behind the half-built chimney and assumed that hed gone for a piss. But when he didnt reappear within a few minutes, Roger detached himself from the conversationthis presently centering on the infinite possibilities for wee Oglethorpes eventual real nameand followed his father-in-law into the gloaming.
He found Jamie standing on the edge of a large rectangular hole in the ground, evidently lost in contemplation of its depths.
New privy? he asked, nodding into the pit. Jamie looked up, smiling at sight of him, and Roger felt a rush of warmthon more than one account.
Aye. Id only meant it to be the usual, ken, wi a single seat of ease. Jamie gestured at the hole, the last of the sun touching his hair and skin with a golden light. But with four moreand maybe yet more, in time? As ye say ye mean to stay, I mean. He glanced sideways at Roger, and the smile came again.
Then theres the folk who come to see Claire, too. One of the Crombie boys came down last week to get a remedy for a case o the blazing shits, and he spent so long gruntin and groanin in Bobby Higginss privy that the family were all havin to trot into the woods, and Amy wasna best pleased at the state of the privy when he left, I can tell ye.
Roger nodded.
So ye mean to make it bigger, or make two privies?
Aye, thats the question. Jamie seemed pleased that Roger had grasped the essence of the situation so quickly. See, most o the places wi families have a necessary that will accommodate two at oncethe McHughs have a three-hole privy, and a thing of beauty it is, too; Sean McHugh is a canny man with his tools, and a good thing, what wi seven bairns. But the thing is He frowned a little and turned to look back toward the fire, presently hidden behind the dark bulk of the chimney stack. The women, ken?
Claire and Brianna, you mean. Roger took Jamies meaning at once. Aye, theyve notions of privacy. But a wee latch on the inside of the door ?
Aye, I thought of that. Jamie waved a hand, dismissing it. The difficultys more what they think of germs. He pronounced the word very carefully and glanced quickly at Roger under his brows, as though to see if hed said it right, or as if he werent sure it was a real word to start with.
Oh. Hadnt thought of that. Ye mean the sick folk who comethey might leave He waved his own hand toward the hole.
Aye. Ye should ha seen the carry-on when Claire insisted on scalding Amys privy wi boiling water and lye soap and pourin turpentine into it after the Crombie lad left. His shoulders rose toward his ears in memory. If she was to do that every time we had sick folk in our privy, wed all be shitting in the woods, too.
He laughed, though, and so did Roger.
Both, then, Roger said. Two holes for the family, and a separate privy for visitorsor rather, for the surgery. Say its for convenience. Ye dinna want to seem highfalutin by not letting people use your own privy.
No, that wouldna do at all. Jamie vibrated briefly then stilled, but stayed for a moment, looking down, a half smile still on his face. The smells of damp, fresh-dug earth and newly sawn wood rose thick around them, mingling with the scent of the fire, and Roger could almost imagine that he felt the house solidifying out of the smoke.
No, that wouldna do at all. Jamie vibrated briefly then stilled, but stayed for a moment, looking down, a half smile still on his face. The smells of damp, fresh-dug earth and newly sawn wood rose thick around them, mingling with the scent of the fire, and Roger could almost imagine that he felt the house solidifying out of the smoke.