baptism, I mean."
I noticed the slight hesitation; he still had not settled on any comfortable name by which to call Jamie to his face. Jamie addressed bim impartially as
33-
"Wee Roger," "Roger Mac," or "MacKenzie more rarely, by the Gaelic nickname Ronnie Sinclair had given Roger, a Sme6raicb, in honor of his voice. Singing nrusb, it meant,
"It's me should be thanking you, a charaid. We shouldna have managed there at the last, save for you and Fergus," Jamie said, laughter warming his own voice.
Roger was clearly visible in outline, tall and lean, with the glow of someone's fire behind him. One shoulder rose as he shrugged, and he shifted Jemmy to his other arm, wiping residual drool from his hand against the side of his breeches.
"No trouble," he said, a little gruffly. "Will the-the Father be all right, d'ye think? Brianna said he'd been roughly handled. I hope they)ll not mistreat him, once he's away."
Jamie sobered at that. He shrugged a little as he straightened the coat on his shoulders.
"I think he'll be safe enough, aye-I had a word with the Sheriff There was a certain grim emphasis on "word" that made his meaning clear. A Substantial bribe might have been more effective, but I was well aware that we had exactly two shillings, threepence, and nine farthings in cash to our names at the moment. Better to save the money and rely on threats, I thought. Evidently Jamie was of the same mind.
"I shall speak to my aunt," he said, "and have her send a note tonight to Mr. Lillywhite, wi' her own opinion on the subject. That will be a better safeguard for Father Kenneth than anything I can say myself."
"I don't suppose she'll be at all pleased to hear that her wedding is postponed," I observed. She wouldn't be. Daughter of a Highland faird and widow of a very rich planter, Jocasta Cameron was used to having her own way.
"No, she won't," Jamie agreed wryly, "though I suppose Duncan may be a bit relieved."
Roger laughed, not without sympathy, and fell in beside us as we started down the path. He shifted Jernmy, still grunting ferociously, under his arm like a football.
The Fiery Cross 143
"Aye, he will. Poor Duncan. So the weddings are definitely off, are they?"
I couldn't see Jamie's frown, but I felt the movement as he shook his head doubtfiilly.
"Aye, I'm afraid so. They wouldna give the priest to me, even with my word to hand him over in the morning. We could maybe take him by force, but even so-1)
"I doubt that would help," I interrupted, and told them what I had overheard while waiting outside the tent.
"So I can't see them standing round and letting Father Kenneth perform marriages," I finished. "Even if you got him away, they'd be combing the mountain for him, turning out tents and causing riots."
Sheriff Anstruther wouldn't be without aid; Jamie and his aunt might be held in good esteem among the Scottish community, but Catholics in general and priests in particular weren't.
"Instructions?" Jamie repeated, sounding astonished. "You're sure of it, Sassenach? It was Lillywhite who said he had 'instructions'?"
"It was," I said, realizing for the first time how peculiar that was. The Sheriff was plainly taking instructions from Mr. Lillywhite, that being his duty. But who could be giving instructions to the magistrate?
"There's another magistrate here, and a couple of justices of the peace, but surely. . ." Roger said slowly, shaking his head as he thought. A loud squawk interrupted his thoughts, and he glanced down, the light from a nearby fire shin ng off the bridge of his nose, outlining a faint smile as he spoke to his off-
i Mummy will be back spring. "What? You're hungry, laddie? Don't fret yourself,
soon." "Where is Mummy?" I said, peering into the shifting mass of shadows ahead. A light wind had risen, and the bare branches of oak and hickory rattled like sabers overhead. Still, Jemmy was more than loud enough for Brianna. to hear him. I caught Marsali's voice faintly up ahead, engaged in what appeared to be amiable conversation with Germain and Fergus regarding supper, but there was no sound of Bree's lower, huskier Boston-bred tones.
"Why?" Jamie said to Roger, raising his voice to be heard over the wind. Why what? Here, Jem, see that? Want it? Aye, of course ye do. Yes, good lad' 'gnaw on that for a bit." A spark of light caught something shiny in Roger's free hand; then the object disappeared, and Jemmy's cries ceased abruptly, succeeded by loud sucking and slurping noises.
"What is that? It isn't small enough for him to swallow, is it?" I asked anxiously.
"Ali, no. It's a watch chain. Not to worry," Roger assured me, "I've a good grip on the end of it. If he swallows it, I can pull it back out."
"Why would someone not want you to be married?" Jamie said patiently, ignoring the imminent danger to his grandson's digestive system.
"Me?" Roger sounded surprised. "I shouldn't think anyone cares whether I'm marriedor not, save myself-and you, perhaps," he added, a touch of humor in his voice. "I expect ye'd like the boy to have a name. Speaking of that"-he turned to me, the wind pulling long streamers of his hair loose and turning him into a wild black fiend in silhouette-"what did he end up being named? At the christening, I mean."
144 Diana Gabaldon
"Jeremiah Alexander Ian Fraser MacKenzie," I said, hoping I recalled it correctly. "Is that what you wanted?"
"Oh, I didn't mind so much what he was called," Roger said, edging gingerly round a large puddle that spread across the path. It had begun to sprinkle again; I could feel small chilly drops on my face, and see the dimpling of the water in the puddle where the firelight shone across it.
"I wanted Jeremiah, but I told Bree the other names were up to her. She couldn't quite decide between John for John Grey, and-and Ian, for her cousin, but of course they're the same name in any case.5'
Again I noticed the faint hesitation, and I felt Jamie's arm stiffen slightly under my hand. Jamie's nephew Ian was a sore point-and fresh in everyone's mind, thanks to the note we had received from him the day before. That must be what had decided Brianna at last.
"Well, if it isna you and my daughter," Jamie pursued doggedly, "then who is it? Jocasta and Duncan? Or the folk from Bremerton?"
"You think someone's out specially to prevent the marriages tonight?" Roger seized the opportunity to talk about something other than Ian Murray. "You don't think it5s just general dislike of Romish practices, then?"
"It might be, but it's not. If it were, why wait 'til now to arrest the priest? Wait a bit, Sassenach, I'll fetch ye over."
Jamie let go of my hand and stepped round the puddle, then reached back, grabbed me by the waist, and lifted me bodily across in a swish of skirts. The wet leaves slipped and squelched under my boots as he set me down, but I seized his arm for balance, righting myself.
"No," Jamie continued the conversation, turning back toward Roger. "Lillywhite and Anstruther have no great love of Catholics, I expect, but why stir up a stramash now, when the priest would be gone in the morning, ay? Do anyw
they maybe think he'll corrupt all the God-fearing folk on the mountain before dawn if they dinna keep him in ward?"
Roger gave a short laugh at that.
"No, I suppose not. Is there anything else the priest was meant to do tonight, beyond performing marriages and baptisms?"
"Perhaps a few confessions," I said, pinching Jamie's arm. "Nothing else that I know of " I squeezed my thighs together, feeling an alarming shift in my intimate arrangements. Damn, one of the pins holding the cloth between my legs had come loose when Jamie lifted me. Had I lost it?
"I don't suppose they'd be trying to keep him from hearing someone's confession? Someone in particular, I mean?" Roger sounded doubtful, but Jamie took the idea and turned it round in his hands, considering.
"They'd no objection to his hearing mine. And I shouldna think they'd care if a Catholic was in mortal sin or not, as by their lights, we're all damned anyway. But if they kent someone desperately needed confession, and they thought there was something to be gained by it ... 55
"That whoever it was might pay for access to the priest?" I asked skeptically. "Really, Jamie, these are Scots. I should imagine that if it were a question of paying out hard money for a priest, your Scottish Catholic murderer or adulterer would just say an Act of Contrition and hope for the best."
The Fiery Cross 145
Jamie snorted slightly, and I saw the white mist of his breath purl round his head like candle smoke; it was getting colder.
"I daresay," he said dryly. "And if Lillywhite had any thought of setting up in the confession business, he's left it a bit late in the day to make much profit. g someone's confession-but rather But what if it wasna a matter of stoppin
only of making sure that they overheard it?"
runt, evidently thinking this a promising supposition. Roger uttered a pleased g
"Blackmail? Aye, that's a thought," he said, with approval. Blood will out, I thought; oxford-educated or not, there was little doubt that Roger was a Scot. There was a violent upheavel under his arm, followed by a wail from Jemmy. Roger glanced down. 5s it gone, then?" H
"Oh, did ye drop your bawbee? Where e hoicked Jemmy up onto his shoulder like a bundle of laundry and squatted down, poking at the ground in search of the watch chain, which Jernmy had evidently hurled into the darkness.
"Blackmail? I think that' s a trifle far-fetched," I objected, rubbing a hand under my nose, which had begun to drip. "You mean they might suspect that Farquard Campbell, for instance, had committed some dreadful c ime, and if they knew about it for sure,they could hold him up about it? Isn't that awfully devious thinking? If you find a pin down there, Roger, it's mine."
6'well, Lillywhite and Anstruther are Englishmen, are they not?" Jamie said, with a delicate sarcasm that made Roger laugh. "Deviousness and double-dealally to that race, no, Sassenach?"
ing come natur
antly. "Pot calling the kettle black isn't in it. Be"Oh, rubbish," I said toler
sides, they didn't try to overhear yottr confession - "
"I havena got anything to be blackmailed for," Jamie pointed out, though it was"Epevrefnecst4ly obvious that he was only arguing for the fun of it.
:)," I began, but was interrupted by Jemmy, who was becoming ind fro with intermittent steam-whistle creasingly restive, flinging himself to an gingerly between his fingers shrieks. Roger grunted, pinched something and stood up -
"Found your pin," he said. "No sign of the chain, though."
"Someone will find it in the morning," I said, raising my voice to be heard e take him." I reached over the increasm& racket- "Perhaps you'd better let m f relief-exfor the baby, and Roger surrendered his burden with a distinct air o
plained when I got a whiff of Jernmy's diaper.
"Not again?" I said. Apparently taking this as a personal reproach, he shut his eyes and started to howl like an air-raid siren.
"Where is Bree)" I asked, trying simultaneously to cradle him reassuringly and to keep him at a sanitary distance. "Ouch!" He seemed to have taken advantage of the darkness to grow a number of extra limbs, all of which were flailing or grabbing.
"Oh, she,s just gone to run a wee errand," Roger said, with an air of vagueness that made Jamie turn his head sharply. The light caught him in proffle, and gleamed off the long, I saw the thick red brows drawn down in suspicion. Fire
straight bridge of his nose as he lifted it, questioning- Obviously, he smelled a rat. He turned toward me, one eyebrow lifted. Was I in on it?
146 Diana Gabaldon
"I haven't any idea," I assured him. "Here, I'm going across to McAllister's fire to borrow a clean clout. I'll see you at our camp in a bit."
Not waiting for an answer, I took a firm grasp on the baby and shuffled into the bushes, heading for the nearest campsite. Georgiana McAllister had newborn twins-I'd delivered them four days before-and was happy to provide me with both a clean diaper and a private bush behind which to effect my personal repairs. These accomplished, I chatted with her and admired the twins, all the while wondering about the recent revelations. Between Lieutenant Hayes and his proclamation, the machinations of Lillywhite and company, and whatever Bree and Roger were up to, the mountain seemed a perfect hotbed of conspiracy tonight.
I was pleased that we had managed the christening-in fact, I was surprised to find just how gratified I did feel about it-but I had to admit to a pang of distress over Brianna's canceled wedding. She hadn't said much about it, but I knew that both she and Roger had been looking forward very much to the blessing of their union. The firelight winked briefly, accusingly, off the gold ring on my left hand, and I mentally threw up my hands in Frank's direction.
And just wbat do you expect me to do about it? I demanded silently, while externally agreeing with Georgiana's opinion on the treatment of pinworms. "Ma'am?" One of the older McAllister girls, who had volunteered to change
JemmY, interrupted the conversation, dangling a long, slimy object delicately between two fingers. "I found this gaud in the wean's cloot; is it maybe your man's?"
"Good griefp, I was shocked by the watch chain's reappearance, but a moment's rationality corrected my first alarmed impression that Jemmy had in fact swallowed the thing. It would take several hours for a solid object to make its way through even the most active infant's digestive tract; evidently he had merely dropped his toy down the front of his gown and it had come to rest in his diaper.
"Gie it here, lass," Mr. McAllister, catching sight of the watch chain, reached out and took it with a slight grimace. He pulled a large handkerchief from the waist of his breeks and wiped the object carefully, bringing to light the gleam of silver links and a small round fob, bearing some kind of seal.
I noted the fob with some grimness, and made a mental resolve to give Roger a proper bollocking about what he let Jemmy put in his mouth. Thank goodness it hadn't come off.
"Why, that's Mr. Caldwell's wee gaud, surely!" Georgiana leaned forward, peering over the heads of the twins she was nursing.
"Is it?" Her husband squinted at the object, and fumbled in his shirt for his spectacles.
"Aye, I'm sure it is! I saw it when he preached Sunday. The first of my pains was just comin' on," she explained, turning to me, "and I had to come away before he'd finished. He saw me turn to go, and must ha' thought he'd outstayed his welcome, for he pulled the watch from his Pocket to have a wee keek, and I saw the glint from that bittie round thing on the chain."
"That's called a seal, a nigbean, "her husband informed her, having now settled a pair of half-moon spectacles firmly atop his nose, and turning the little
The Fiery CrOss 147
metal emblem over between his fingers. "You're right, though, it's Mr. Caldwell's, for see?" A horny finger traced the outline of the figure on the seal: a mace, an open book, a bell, and a tree, standing on top of a fish with a ring in its mouth.
"That's from the University of Glasgow, that is. Mr. Caldwell's a scholar," he told me, blue eyes wide with awe. "Been to learn the preachin', and a fine job he makes of it.
"You did miss a fine finish, Georgie," he added, turning to his 'Aife. "He went sae red in the face, talkin' of the Abomination of Desolation and the wrath at world's end, that I thought surely he'd have an apoplexy, and then what should we do? For he wouldna have Murray MacLeod to him, Murray bein' in the way of a heretic to Mr. Caldwell-he's New Light, Murray"-Mr. McAllister explained in an aside to me-"and Mrs.
Fraser here a Papist, as well as bein' otherwise engaged wi' you and the bairns. "
He leaned over and patted one of the twins gently on its bormeted head, but it paid no attention, blissfully absorbed in its suckling.
"Hmp. Well, Mr. Caldwell could ha' burst himself, for all I cared at the time," his wife said frankly. She hitched up her double armload and settled herself more comfortably. "And for mysel', I shouldna much mind if the midwife was a red Indian or Engtish-oh, I do beg your pardon, Mrs. Fraser-so long as she kent how to catch a babe and stop the bleedin'."
I murmured something modest, brushing away Georgiana's apologies, in favor of finding out more about the watch chain's origins.
"Mr. Caldwell. He's a preacher, you say?" A certain suspicion was stirring in the back of my mind.
"Oh, aye, the best I've heard," Mr. McAllister assured me. "And I've heard
5em all. Now, Mr. Urmstone, he's a grand one for the sins, but he's on in years, and gone a bit hoarse now, so as ye need to be right up front to hear him-and that's a bit dangerous, ye ken, as it's the folk in front whose sins he's likely to start in upon, The New Light fella, though, he's nay much; no voice to him."
He dismissed the unfortunate preacher with the scorn of a connoisseur. "Mr. Woodmason's all right; a bit stiff in his manner-an Englishman, ye?-but verra faithful about turning up for services, for all he's well stricken in years. Now, young Mr. Campbell from the Barbecue Church-"
"This wean's fair starved, ma'am," the girl holding Jemmy put in. Evidently so; he was red in the face and keening. "Will I give him a bit o' parritch, maybe?"
I gave a quick glance at the pot over the fire; it was bubbling, so likely wellcooked enough to kill most germs. I pulled out the horn spoon I carried in my pocket, which I could be sure was reasonably clean, and handed it to the girl.
"Thank you so much. Now, this Mr. Caldwell-he wouldn't by chance be a Presbyterian, would he?"
Mr. McAllister looked surprised, then beamed at my perceptivity. "Why, so he is, indeed! Ye'll have heard of him, then, Mrs. Fraser?"
"I think perhaps my son-in-law is acquainted with him," I said, with a tinge of irony.
Georgiana laughed.
148 Diana Gabaldo.
"I should say your grandson kens him, at least." She nodded at the chain, "Bairns that size are just like magpies; draped across her husband's broad palm.
they'll seize upon any shiny bawbee they see.
staring at the silver links and "So they do," I said slowly,
their dangling fob. That put something of a different complexion on the matter. If Jemmy had picked Mr. Caldwell's pocket, it had obviously been done sometime before Jamie had arranged the impromptu christening.
But Bree and Roger had known about Father Kenneth's arrest and the possiore that; there would have been plenty ble cancelation of their wedding well bef
of time for them to make other plans while Jamie and I were dealing with or Roger to Rosamund, Ronnie, and the other assorted crises. Plenty of time f
the Presbyterian minister-with Jemmy along for go and talk to Mr. Caldwell,
the ride.
And as soon as Roger had confirmed the unlikelihood of the priest's performing any marriages tonight, Brianna had disappeared on a vague "errand," re
Well, if Father Kenneth had wanted to interview a Presbyterian groom befo marrying him, I supposed Mr. Caldwell might be allowed the same privilege with aiprospective Papist bride.
Jemmy was devouring porridge with the single-mindedness of a starving piranha; we couldn't leave quite yet. That was just as well, I thought; let Brianna break the news to her father that she would have her wedding after all-priest or no priest.
I spread out my skirt to dry the damp hem, and the firelight glowed from both my rings. A strong disposition to laugh bubbled up inside me, at the thought of what Jamie would say when he found out, but I suppressed it, not wanting to explain my amusement to the McAllisters.
"Shall I take that?" I said instead to Mr. McAllister, with a nod toward the watch chain. "I think perhaps I shall be seeing Mr. Caldwell a little later."
HAPPY THE BRIDE
THE MOON SHINES ON
E WERE LUCKY. The rain held off, and shredding clouds revealed a silver moon, rising lopsided but luminous over the slope of Black Mountain; suitable illumination for an intimate family W
wedding. I had met David CaldweH, though I hadn't recalled it until I saw him; a small but immensely personable gentleman, very tidy in his dress, despite camping in the open for a week. Jamie knew him, too, and respected him. That didn't prevent a certain tightness of expression as the minister came into the
The Fiery Cross 149
firelight, his worn prayer book clasped in his hands, but I nudged Jamie warningly, and he at once altered his expression to one of inscrutability.
I saw Roger glance once in our direction, then turn back to Bree. There en a slight smile at the corner of his mouth, or it could have been might have be
nudged him again. s. Jamie exhaled strongly through his nose, and I only the effect of the shadow
"You had your way over the baptism," I whispered. He lifted his chin a glanced in our direction, looking slightly anxious.
slightly. Briann