"Oh, could ye then?" Jenny was sitting with her knees drawn up, hands clasped near her ankles. With a lightning dart, her hand went under her skirt and the blade of a sgian dhu flashed in the firelight.
"None sae bad," Murtagh agreed, nodding sagely. "Is the wee Sassenach that good?"
"No," said Jenny, restoring her blade to her stocking. "So it's good you'll be with her. Ian sent for ye, I expect?"
The little man nodded. "Aye. Did ye find the Watch yet?"
We told him of our progress to date. At the news that Jamie had escaped, I could have sworn that a muscle twitched near the corner of his mouth, but it would have been stretching matters to call it a smile.
At length, Jenny rose, folding her blanket.
"Where are you going?" I asked in surprise.
"Home." She nodded at Murtagh. "He'll be wi' ye now; you don't need me, and there's others that do."
Murtagh looked up at the sky. The waning moon was faintly visible behind a haze of cloud, and a soft spatter of rain whispered in the pine boughs above us.
"The morning will do. The wind's risin', and no one will move far tonight."
Jenny shook her head and went on tucking her hair beneath her kerchief. "I know my way. And if none will move tonight, there's none will hinder me on the road, no?"'
Murtagh sighed impatiently. "You're stubborn as your ox of a brother, beggin' your pardon. Little reason to hurry back, so far as I can see—I doubt your good man will ha' taken a doxy to his bed in the time ye've been gone."
"You see as far as the end o' your nose, duine, and that's short enough," Jenny answered sharply. "And if ye've lived so long without knowing better than to stand between a nursing mother and a hungry child, you've not sense enough to hunt hogs, let alone find a man in the heather."
Murtagh raised his hands in surrender. "Oh, aye, ye'll take your own way. I didna ken I was tryin' to talk sense to a wild sow. Get a tush through the leg for my trouble, I expect."
Jenny laughed unexpectedly, dimpling. "I expect ye might at that, ye auld rogue." She bent and heaved the heavy saddle up on her knee. "See that ye take care with my good-sister, then, and send word when ye've found Jamie."
As she turned to saddle the horse, Murtagh added, "By the bye, ye'll reckon to find a new kitchen maid when ye reach home."
She paused and eyed him, then slowly set the saddle on the ground. "And who might that be?" she asked.
"The Widow MacNab," he replied, with deliberation.
She was still for a moment, nothing moving but the kerchief and cloak that stirred in the rising wind.
"How?" she asked at last.
Murtagh bent to pick up the saddle. He heaved it up and secured the girth with what seemed like one effortless motion.
"Fire," he said, giving a final tug to the stirrup leather. "Watch your way as ye pass the high field; the ashes will still be warm."
He cupped his hands to give her a foot up, but she shook her head and took the reins instead, beckoning to me.
"Walk wi' me to the top of the hill, Claire, if ye will."
The air was cold and heavy, away from the fire. My skirts were damp from sitting on the ground, and clung to my legs as I walked. Jenny's head was bent against the wind, but I could see her profile, lips pale and set with chill.
"It was MacNab that gave Jamie to the Watch?" I asked at last. She nodded slowly.
"Aye. Ian will have found out, or one of the other men; it doesna matter which."
It was late November, well past Guy Fawkes Day, but I had a sudden vision of a bonfire, flames leaping up timbered walls and sprouting in the thatch like the tongues of the Holy Ghost, while the fire within roared its prayers for the damned. And inside, the guy, an effigy crouched in ash on his own hearthstone, ready to fall into black dust at the next blast of cold wind to sweep through the shell of his home. There is a fine line sometimes, between justice and brutality.
I realized Jenny was looking full at me, questioning, and I returned her gaze with a nod. We stood together, in this case at least, on the same side of that grim and arbitrary line.
We paused at the top of the hill, Murtagh a dark speck by the fire below. Jenny rummaged for a moment in the side pocket of her skirt, then pressed a small wash leather bag into my hand.
"The rents from quarter day," she said. "Ye might need it."
I tried to give the money back, insisting that Jamie would not want to take money that was needed for the running of the estate, but she would have none of it. And while Janet Fraser was half her brother's size, she more than matched his stubbornness.