The Fiery Cross

by Diana Gabaldon

  ILL YOU SING FOR ME, Roger?"

  She stood in the opening of the borrowed tent, facing outward. W

  From the back, he could see no more than her silhouette against the gray of the clouded sky, her long hair drifting in the rainy wind. She had worn it unbound to be married-maiden's hair, though she had a child.

  It was cold tonight, quite different from that first night together, that hot, gorgeous night that had ended in anger and betrayal. Months of other nights lay between that one and this-months of loneliness, months of joy. And yet his heart beat as fast now as it had on their first wedding night.

  "I always sing for you, hen." He came behind her, drew her back against him, so that her head rested on his shoulder, her hair cool and live against his face. His arm curled round her waist, holding her secure. He bent his head, nuzzling for the curve of her ear.

  "No matter what," he whispered, "no matter where. No matter whether you're there to hear or not-I'll always sing for you."

  She turned into his arms then, with a small hum of content in her throat, and her mouth found his, tasting of barbecued meat and spiced wine.

  The rain pattered on the canvas above, and the cold of late autumn curled up from the ground around their feet. The first time, the air had smelled of hops and mudflats; their bower had had the earthy tang of hay and donkeys. Now the air was five with pine and juniper, spiced with the smoke of smoldering fires-and the faint, sweet note of baby shit.

  And yet she was once more dark and light in his arms, her face hidden, her body gleaming. Then she had been moist and molten, humid with the summer. Now her flesh was cool as marble, save where he touched it-and yet the summer lived still in the palm of his hand where he touched her, sweet and slick, ripe with the secrets of a hot, dark night. It was right, he thought, that these vows should have been spoken as the first ones had, out of doors, part of wind and earth, fire and water.

  "I love you," she murmured against his mouth, and he seized her lip between his teeth, too moved to speak the words in reply just yet.

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  There had been words between them then, as there had been words tonight. The words were the same, and he had meant them the first time no less than he did now. Yet it was different.

  The first time he had spoken them to her alone, and while he had done so in the sight of God, God had been discreet, hovering well in the background, face turned away from their nakedness.

  Tonight he said them in the blaze of firelight, before the face of God and the world, her people and his. His heart had been hers, and whatever else he hadbut now there was no question of him and her, his and hers. The vows were given, his ring put on her finger, the bond both made and witnessed. They were one body.

  One hand of their joint organism crushed a breast a little too hard, and one throat made a small sound of discomfort. She drew back from him a little, and he felt rather than saw her grimace. The air came cold between them and his own skin felt suddenly raw, exposed, as though he had been severed from her with a knife - "Just a minute,

  441 need-"she said, and touched her breast, not finishing.

  okay? "

  Claire had fed the child while Brianna went to make her overtures to Reverend Caldwell. Bursting with porridge and stewed peaches7 Jemmy could e

  scarcely be roused to suckle briefly before relapsing into somnolence and b ing taken away by Lizzie, his wee round belly tight as a drum. That was as well for their privacy-drugged into such a gluttonous stupor, it was unlikely the bairn would wake before dawn. The price of it, though, was the unused milk.

  No one living in the same house with a nursing mother was likely to be unaware of her breasts, let alone her husband. They had a life of their own, those breasts. They changed size from hour to hour, for the one thing, swelling from their normal soft globes into great round hard bubbles that gave him the eerie feeling that if he touched one it would burst.

  Now and then, one did burst, or at least gave that impression. The ridge of soft flesh would rise like kneaded bread, slowly but surely pushing above the edge of Brianna's bodice. Then suddenly there would be a big, wet circle on the cloth, appearing magically as though some invisible person had thrown a snowball at her. Or two snowballs-for what one breast did, its fellow rushed at once to follow Suit.

  Sometimes the Heavenly Twins were foiled, though; Jernmy drained one side, but inconsiderately fell asleep before performing the same service for the other. This left his mother gritting her teeth, gingerly taking the swollen orb in the palm of her hand, pressing the edge of a pewter cup just under the nipple to catch the spray and dribble as she eased the aching fullness, enough to sleep herself

  She was doing it now; modestly turned away from him, an arisaid gathered round her shoulders against the chill. He could hear the hiss of the milk, a tiny chime against the metal.

  He was reluctant to drown the sound, which he found erotic, but nonetheless picked up the guitar, and put his thumb to the strings, his hand on the frets. He didn't strum or strike chords, but plucked single notes, small voices to echo his own, the thrum of one string ringing through the chanted line.

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  A love song, to be sure. One of the very old ones, in the Gaelic. Even if she didn't know all the words, he thought she'd take the sense of it.

  'On the night that our wedding is on us, I will come leaping to thee witbgifts, On the night that our wedding is on us.

  He closed his eyes, seeing in memory what the night now hid. Her nipples were the color of ripe plums and the size of ripe cherries, and Roger had a vivid mental picture of how one would feel in his mouth. He had suckled them once, long before-before the coming of Jemmybut no more.

  'You willget a hundred silver salmon ... A hundred badger skins ...

  She never asked him not to, never turned away-and yet he could tell by the faint intake of her breath that, often, she was bracing herself not to flinch when he touched her breasts.

  Was it only tenderness? he wondered. Did she not trust him to be gentle? He shied away from the thought, drowning it in a small cascade of notes, liquid as a waterfall. I

  It might not be you, whispered the voice, stubbornly refilsing to be distracted. Perhaps it was him-sometbing that be did to her.

  Fuck. Off, he thought succinctly to the voice, marking each word with a sharp-plucked string. Stephen Bonnet would have no place in their wedding bed. None.

  He laid a hand on the strings to silence them briefly, and as she slid the arisaid from her shoulders, began again, this time in English. A special song, too-one for the two of them alone. He didn't know whether anyone else might hear, but it made no difference if they did. She stood and slid the shift from her shoulders as his fingers touched the quiet opening of the Beatles' "Yesterday."

  He heard her laugh, once, then sigh, and the linen whispered against her skin as it fell.

  She came naked behind him as the soft melancholy yearning of the song filled the dark. Her hand stroked his hair, gathered it tight at the nape of his neck. She swayed, and he felt her press against his back, her breasts soft now, yielding and warm through his shirt, her breath tickling his ear. Her hand rested on his shoulder briefly, then slid down inside his shirt, fingers cool on his chest. He could feel the warm hard metal of her ring on his skin, and felt a surge of possession that pulsed though him like a gulp of whisky, a heat suffiasing his flesh.

  He ached to turn and take hold of her, but pushed the urge down, heightening anticipation. He bent his head closer to the strings, and sang until all thought left him and there was nothing left but his body and hers. He could not have said when her hand closed over his on the frets, and he rose and turned to her, still filledwrith the music and his love, soft and strong and pure in the dark.

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  SHE LAY QUIET in the dark, feeling the thunder of her heart boom slowly in her ears. The throb of it echoed in the pulse of her neck, her wrists, her breasts, her womb. She had lost track of her bou
ndaries; slowly the sense of limbs and digits, head and trunk, of space occupied, returned. She moved the single finger glued between her legs, and felt the last of the tingling shocks run down her thighs as it slid free.

  She drew breath slowly, listening. thank God, he hadn't wakHis breath still came in long, regular exhalations;

  ened. She had been careful, moving no more than a fingertip, but the final jolt of climax had struck her so hard that her hips jerked as her belly quivered and convulsed, her heels digging into the pallet with a loud rustling of straw.

  He'd had a very long day-they all had. Even so, she could still hear faint sounds of festivity on the mountainside around them. The chance to celebrate like this came so rarely that no one would let something so inconsequential as rain, cold, or tiredness keep them from the revels.

  She herself felt like a puddle of liquid mercury; soft and heavy, shimmering with each heartbeat. The effort of moving was unthinkable; but her final convulsion had pulled the quilt off his shoulders, and the skin of his back lay smooth and bare, dark by contrast with the pale cloth. The pocket of warmth around her was snug and perfect, but she couldn't luxuriate while he lay exposed to the chilly midnight air like that. Tendrils of fog had crept under the tent flap and hung ghostlike and clammy all around them; she could see the faint gleam of moisture on the high curve of his cheekbone.

  She summoned back the notion of bones and muscles, found a motor neuron in working order, and sternly ordered it to fire. Embodied once more, she , him, and gently pulled the quilt up around his ears. rolled onto her side, facing

  He stirred and murmured something; she stroked his tumbled black hair and he smiled faintly, eyelids half-opening in the blank stare of one who sees dreams. They dropped again and he took a long, sighing breath and fell back asleep.

  "I love you," she whispered, filled with tenderness. his flat shoulder blades She stroked his back lightly, loving the feel of

  through the quilt, the solid knob of bone at the nape of his neck, and the long, smooth groove that ran down the center of his spine to arch into the swell of his buttocks. A cold breeze rippled the tiny hairs of her arm, and she puffed it back under the covers, letting her hand rest lightly on Roger's bottom.

  The feel of it was no novelty, but thrilled her just the same, with its perfect warm roundness, its coarse curly hair. A faint echo of her solitary joy encouraged her to do it again, and her free hand crept between her legs, but sheer exhaustion stayed her, limp fingers cupped on the swollen flesh, one languid finger tracing the slickness. erent tonight. Without the ever-present danger She'd hoped it would be diff

  of waking Jemmy, free to take as much time as they wanted, and riding the waves of emotion from,their exchange of vows, she'd thought ... but it was the same.

  It wasn't that she wasn't aroused; quite the contrary. Every movement, each

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  touch, imprinted itself in the nerves of her skin, the crevices of mouth and memory, drowning her with scent, branding her with sensation. But no matter how wonderful the lovernaking, there remained some odd sense of distance, some barrier that she couldn't penetrate.

  And so once more she found herself lying beside him as he slept, reliving in memory each moment of the passion they had just shared-and able in memory at last to yield to it.

  Perhaps it was that she loved him too much, she thought, was too mindfill of his pleasure to take her own. The satisfaction she felt when he lost himself, gasping and moaning in her arms, was far greater than the simple physical pleasure of climax. And yet, there was something darker under that; a peculiar sense of triumph, as though she had won some undeclared and unacknowledged contest between them.

  She sighed and butted her forehead against the curve of his shoulder, enjoying the reek of him-a smell of strong and bitter musk, like permyroyal.

  The thought of herbs reminded her, and she reached down again, cautiously so as not to waken him, and slid one slippery finger deep inside to check. No, it was all right; the slip of sponge soaked with tansy oil was still in place, its fragile, pungent presence safeguarding the entrance to her womb.

  She moved closer, and he moved unconsciously, his body half-turning to accommodate her, his warmth at once enclosing her, comforting her. His hand groped like a bird flying blind, skimming her hip, her soft belly, in search of a resting place. She seized it in both hands and folded it, secure beneath her chin. His hand curled over hers; she kissed one large, rough knuckle and he sighed deeply, his hand relaxing.

  The sounds of revelry on the mountain had faded, as the dancers tired, and the musicians grew hoarse and weary. The rain began again, pattering on the canvas overhead, and gray mist touched her face with cool damp fingers. The smell of wet canvas made her think of camping trips as a child with her father, with their mingled sensations of excitement and safety, and she nestled deeper into the curve of Roger's body, feeling a similar sense of comfort and anticipation.

  It was early days, she thought. They had all their lives before them. The time of surrender would surely come.

  WATCH-VIRE

  ROM WHERE THEY LAY, he could see down through a gap in the rocks, all the way to the watch fire that burned before Hayes's tent. The

  1P great fire of the Gathering had burned itself to embers, the glow of it faint memory of the towering flames of declaration, but the smaller fire burned

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  steady as a star against the cold night. Now and then a dark, kilted figure rose to tend it, stood stark for a moment against the brightness, then faded back again into the night.

  He was faintly conscious of the racing clouds that dimmed the moon, the heavy flutter of the canvas overhead, and the rock-black shadows of the mountain slope, but he had no eyes for anything save the fire below, and the white patch of the tent behind it, shapeless as a ghost.

  He had slowed his breath, relaxed the muscles of arms and chest, back, buttocks, legs. Not in an attempt to sleep; sleep was far from him, and he had no mind to seek it.

  Nor was it an attempt to fool Claire into thinking he slept. So close against his body, so close to his mind as she was, she would know him wakeful. No, it was only a signal to her; an acknowledged pretense that freed her from any need to pay heed to him. She might sleep, knowing him occupied within the walnut shell of his mind, having no immediate demand to make of her.

  Few slept on the mountain tonight, he thought. The sound of the wind masked the murmur of voices, the shuffle of movement, but his hunter's senses registered a dozen small stirrings, identifying things half-heard, putting names to moving shadows. A scrape of shoe leather on rock, the flap of a blanket shaken out. That would be Hobson and Fowles, making a quiet departure alone in the dark, fearful of waiting for the morning, lest they be betrayed in the night.

  A few notes of music came down on a gust of wind from above; concertina and fiddle. Jocasta's slaves, unwilling to surrender this rare celebration to the needs of sleep or the imperatives of weather.

  An infant's thin wail. Wee Jernmy? No, from behind. Tiny Joan, then, and Marsali's voice, low and sweet, singing in French.

  Ir . . Alouette, gentil Alouette . . ."

  There, a sound he had expected; footsteps passing on the far side of the rocks that bordered his family's sanctuary. Quick and light, headed downhill. He waited, eyes open, and in a few moments heard the faint hail of a sentry near the tent. No figure showed in the firelight below, but the tent flap beyond it stirred, gaped open, then fell unbroken.

  As he had thought, then; sentiment lay strong against the rioters. It was not held a betrayal of friends, but rather the necessary giving up of criminals for the protection of those who chose to live by law. It might be reluctant-the witnesses had waited for the dark-but not secretive.

  '*. . jante plumerai 14 t9te . . . "

  it occurred to him to wonder why the songs sung to bairns were so often gruesome, and no thought given to the words they took in with their mothers' milk. The music of the so
ngs was no more to him than tuneless chanting-perhaps that was why he paid more mind than most to the words.

  Even Brianna, who came from what was presumably a more peaceable time, sang songs of fearsome death and tragic loss to wee Jern, all with a look on her face as tender as the Virgin nursing the Christ Child. That verse about the miner's daughter who drowned amidst her ducklings ...

  It occurred to him perversely to wonder what awful things the Blessed Mother might have counted in her own repertoire of cradle songs; judging

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  from the Bible, the Holy Land had been no more peaceful than France or Scotland.

  He would have crossed himself in penance for the notion, but Claire was lying on his right arm.

  "Were they wrong?" Claire's voice came softly from beneath his chin, starding him.

  "Who?" He bent his head to hers, and kissed the thick softness of her curls. Her hair smelt of woodsmoke and the sharp, clear tang of juniper berries.

  "The men in Hillsborough." "Aye, I think so."

  "What would you have done?"

  He sighed, moved one shoulder in a shrug.

  "Can I say? Aye, if it was me that was cheated, and no hope of redress, I might have laid hands on the man who'd done it. But what was done there-ye heard it. Houses torn down and set afire, men dragged out and beaten senseless only for cause of the office they held ... no, Sassenach. I canna say what I might have done-but not that."

  She turned her head a little, so he saw the high curve of her cheekbone, rimmed in light, and the flexing of the muscle that ran in front of her car as she smiled.

  "I didn't think you would. Can't see you as part of a mob."

  He kissed her ear, not to reply directly. He could see himself as part of a mob, all too easily. That was what frightened him. He knew much too well the strength of it.

  One Highlander was a warrior, but the mightiest man was only a man. It was the madness that took men together that had ruled the glens for a thousand years; that thrill of the blood, when you heard the shrieks of your companions, felt the strength of the whole bear you up like wings, and knew immortalityfor if you should fall of yourself, still you would be carried on, your spirit shrieking in the mouths of those who ran beside you. It was only later, when the blood lay cold in limp veins, and deaf ears heard the women weeping ...

  "And if it wasn't a man who cheated you? If it was the Crown, or the Court? No one person, I mean, but an institution."

  He knew where she meant to lead him. He tightened his arm around her, her breath warm on the knuckles of his hand, curled just under her chin.

  "It isna that. Not here. Not now." The rioters had lashed out in response to the crimes of men, of individuals; the price of those crimes might be paid in blood, but not requited by war-not yet.

  4 It isn't," she said quietly. "But it will be." "Not now," he said again.

  The piece of paper was safely hidden in his saddlebag, its damnable summons concealed. He must deal with it, and soon, but for tonight he would pretend it wasn't there. One final night of peace, with his wife in his arms, his family around him.

  Another shadow by the fire. Another hail by the sentry, one more to pass through the traitor's gate.

  "And are they wrong?" A slight tilt of her head toward the tent below. "The ones going to turn in their acquaintances?"

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  "Aye," he said, after a moment. "They're wrong as well."

  A mob might rule, but it was single men would pay the price for what was done. Part of the price was the breaking of trust, the turning of neighbor against neighbor, fear a noose squeezing tight until there was no longer any breath of mercy or forgiveness.

  It had come on to rain; the light spatter of drops on the canvas overhead turned to a regular thrum, and the air grew live with the rush of water. It was a winter storm; no lightning lit the sky, and the looming mountains were invisible.

  He held Claire close, curving his free hand low over her belly. She sighed, a small sound of pain in it, and settled herself, her arse nesting round as an egg in the cup of his thighs. He could feel the melting begin as she relaxed, that odd merging of his flesh with hers.

  At first it had happened only when he took her, and only at the last. Then sooner and sooner, until her hand upon him was both invitation and completion, a surrender inevitable, offered and accepted. He had resisted now and then, only to be sure he could, suddenly fearful of the loss of himself. He had thought it a treacherous passion, like the one that swept a mob of men, linking them in mindless fury.

  Now he trusted it was right, though. The Bible did say it, Thou shalt be one flesh, and What God basjoined together, let no man put asunder.

  He had survived such a sundering once; he could not stand it twice, and live. The sentries had put up a canvas lean-to near their fire to shelter them from the rain. The flames sputtered as the rain blew in, though, and lit the pale cloth with a flicker that pulsed like a heartbeat. He was not afraid to die with her, by fire or any other way--only to live without her.

  The wind changed, carrying with it the faint sound of laughter from the tiny tent where the newlyweds slept-or didn't. He smiled to himself, hearing it. He could only hope that his daughter would find such joy in her marriage as he had-but so far, so good. The lad's face lit when he looked at her.

  "What will you do?" Claire said quietly, her words almost lost in the pattering of the rain.

  "What I must."

  It was no answer, but the only one.