There was a light knock at the door, and we sprang apart like guilty lovers. I dabbed hastily at my hair, thinking that a monastery, while an excellent convalescent home, lacked something as a romantic retreat.
A lay brother came in at Jamie's bidding, and dumped a large leather saddlebag on the table. "From MacRannoch of Eldridge Manor," he said with a grin. "For my lady Broch Tuarach." He bowed then and left, leaving a faint breath of seawater and cold air behind.
I unbuckled the leather straps, curious to see what MacRannoch might have sent. Inside were three things: a note, unaddressed and unsigned, a small package addressed to Jamie, and the cured skin of a wolf, smelling strongly of the tanner's arts.
The note read: "For a virtuous woman is a pearl of great price, and her value is greater than rubies."
Jamie had opened the other parcel. He held something small and glimmering in one hand and was quizzically regarding the wolf pelt.
"A bit odd, that. Sir Marcus has sent ye a wolf pelt, Sassenach, and me a pearl bracelet. Perhaps he's got his labels mixed?"
The bracelet was a lovely thing, a single row of large baroque pearls, set between twisted gold chains.
"No," I said, admiring it. "He's got it right. The bracelet goes with the necklace you gave me when we wed. He gave that to your mother; did you know?"
"No, I didn't," he answered softly, touching the pearls. "Father gave them to me for my wife, whoever she was to be"—and a quick smile tugged at his mouth—"but he didna tell me where they came from."
I remembered Sir Marcus's help on the night we had burst so unceremoniously into his house, and the look on his face when we had left him next day. I could see from Jamie's face that he also was remembering the baronet who might have been his father. He reached out and took my hand, fastening the bracelet about my wrist.
"But it's not for me!" I protested.
"Aye, it is," he said firmly. "It isna suitable for a man to send jewelry to a respectable married woman, so he gave it to me. But clearly it's for you." He looked at me and grinned. "For one thing, it won't go round my wrist, even scrawny as I am."
He turned to the bundled wolfskin and shook it out.
"Whyever did MacRannoch send ye this, though?" He draped the shaggy wolfhide about his shoulders and I recoiled with a sharp cry. The head had been carefully skinned and cured as well, and equipped with a pair of yellow glass eyes, it was glaring nastily at me from Jamie's left shoulder.
"Ugh!" I said. "It looks just like it did when it was alive!"
Jamie, following the direction of my glance, turned his head and found himself suddenly face-to-face with the snarling countenance. With a startled exclamation, he jerked the skin off and flung it across the room.
"Jesus God," he said, and crossed himself. The skin lay on the floor, glowering balefully in the candlelight.
"What d'ye mean, 'when it was alive,' Sassenach? A personal friend, was it?" Jamie asked, eyeing it narrowly.
I told him then the things I had had no chance to tell him; about the wolf, and the other wolves, and Hector, and the snow, and the cottage with the bear, and the argument with Sir Marcus, and the appearance of Murtagh, and the cattle, and the long wait on the hillside in the pink mist of the snow-swept night, waiting to see whether he was dead or alive.
Thin or not, his chest was broad and his arms warm and strong. He pressed my face into his shoulder and rocked me while I sobbed. I tried for a bit to control myself, but he only hugged me harder, and said small and gentle things into the cloud of my hair, and I finally gave up and cried with the complete abandon of a child, until I was worn to utter limpness and hiccupping exhaustion.
"Come to think of it, I've a wee giftie for ye, myself, Sassenach," he said, smoothing my hair. I sniffed and wiped my nose on my skirt, having nothing else handy.
"I'm sorry I haven't got anything to give you," I said, watching as he stood up and began to dig through the tumbled bedclothes. Probably looking for a handkerchief, I thought, sniffing some more.
"Aside from such minor gifts as my life, my manhood, and my right hand?" he asked dryly. "They'll do nicely, mo duinne." He straightened up with a novice's robe in one hand. "Undress."
My mouth fell open. "What?"
"Undress, Sassenach, and put this on." He handed me the robe, grinning. "Or do ye want me to turn my back first?"
Clutching the rough homespun around me, I followed Jamie down yet another flight of dark stairs. This was the third, and the narrowest yet; the lantern he held lit the stone blocks of walls no more than eighteen inches apart. It felt rather like being swallowed up into the earth, as we went further and further down the narrow black shaft.