I rode for a good five minutes before answering. When I had decided what to say, I reined in, turning across the road, so as to force Jamie to stop as well. Bargrennan was in sight, rooftops just visible in the dawning light.
I urged my horse parallel with the other, so that I was no more than a foot away from Jamie. I looked him in the eye for a minute before speaking.
"Will you do me the honor of sharing my bed, O lord and master?" I asked politely.
Obviously suspecting something, he considered a moment, then nodded, just as formally. "I will. Thank you." He was raising the reins to go when I stopped him.
"There's just one more thing, master," I said, still polite.
"Aye?"
I whipped my hand from the concealed pocket in my skirt, and the dawn light struck sparks from the blade of the dagger pressed against his chest.
"If," I said through my teeth, "you ever raise a hand to me again, James Fraser, I'll cut out your heart and fry it for breakfast!"
There was a long silence, broken only by the shiftings and creakings of horses and harness. Then he held out his hand, palm up.
"Give it to me." When I hesitated, he said impatiently, "I'm no going to use it on ye. Give it to me!"
He held the dirk by the blade, upright so that the rising sun caught the moonstone in the hilt and made it glow. Holding the dagger like a crucifix, he recited something in Gaelic. I recognized it from the oath-taking ceremony in Colum's hall, but he followed it with the English translation for my benefit:
"I swear on the cross of my Lord Jesus, and by the holy iron which I hold, that I give ye my fealty and pledge ye my loyalty. If ever my hand is raised against you in rebellion or in anger, then I ask that this holy iron may pierce my heart." He kissed the dirk at the juncture of haft and tang, and handed it back to me.
"I don't make idle threats, Sassenach," he said, raising one brow, "and I don't take frivolous vows. Now, can we go to bed?"
* * *
23
Return to Leoch
Dougal was waiting for us at the sign of the Red Boar, impatiently pacing to and fro outside.
"Made it, did ye?" he asked, watching with approval as I dismounted without assistance, staggering only slightly. "Gallant lass—ten miles without a whimper. Get up to your bed then; ye've earned it. Jamie and I will stable the horses." He patted me, very gently, on the rump in dismissal. I was only too glad to follow his suggestion, and was asleep almost before my head touched the pillow.
I didn't stir when Jamie crawled in beside me, but woke suddenly in the late afternoon, convinced that there was something important I had forgotten.
"Horrocks!" I exclaimed suddenly, sitting bolt upright in bed.
"Hah?" Jamie, startled out of a sound sleep, shot sideways out of bed, ending on the floor in a crouch, hand on the dirk he had left on top of his piled clothes. "What?" he demanded, staring wildly around the room. "What is it?"
I stifled a giggle at the sight of him, crouched naked on the floor, red hair standing on end like quills.
"You look like a fretful porpentine," I said.
He gave me a dirty look and rose to his feet, replacing the dirk on the stool that held his clothes.
"You couldna wait 'til I woke to tell me that?" he inquired. "You thought it would make more impression if ye woke me out of a sound sleep by shouting 'Hedgehog!' in my ear?"
"Not 'hedgehog,' " I explained. "Horrocks. I remembered all at once that I'd forgotten to ask you about him. Did you find him?"
He sat down on the bed and sank his head in his hands. He rubbed his face vigorously, as though to restore circulation.
"Oh, aye," he said through the muffling fingers. "Aye, I found him."
I could tell from the tone of voice that the deserter's information had not been good.
"Would he not tell you anything after all?" I asked sympathetically. That had always been a possibility, though Jamie had gone prepared to part with not only his own money, and some provided by Dougal and Colum, but even his father's ring if necessary.
Jamie lay back on the bed beside me, staring up at the ceiling.
"No," he said. "No, he told me all right. And at a reasonable price."
I rolled up onto an elbow in order to look down at his face.
"Well, then?" I demanded. "Who did shoot the sergeant-major?"
He looked up at me and smiled, a trifle grimly.
"Randall," he said, and shut his eyes.
"Randall?" I said blankly. "But why?"