The Fiery Cross, Page 36

  to be of Aid in the Suppression of local Hostilities.

  You may have beard, during your visit to North Carolina, of a Group of Men who style themselves `Regulators'--or you may not, as other Matters compelled your Attention on that Occasion (my Wife is pleased to beargood Report ofyour own Health, and sends with this a Parcel of Medicines, with Instructionsfor their Administration should you still be plagued with Headache).

  These Regulators are no more than Rabble, less disciplined in their Actions even than the Rioters whom we bear have banged Gov. Richardson in Effigy in Boston. I do not say there is no Substance to their Complaint, but the Means of its Expression seems unlikely to result in Redress by the Crown-ratber, to provoke both Sides to further Excess, which cannotfail to end in Injury.

  There was a serious outbreak of Violence in Hillsborougb on 24 September, in which much Property was wantonly destroyed and Violence donesome justly, some not-to officials of the Crown. One Man, a justice, was grievously Wounded; many of the Regulation were arrested. Since then, we have beard little more than Murmurs; Winter damps down Discontent, which smolders by the Hearths of Cottages and Potbouses, but once let out with the Spring Airing, it willflee abroad like tbefoul Odorsfrom a sealed House, staining the Air.

  Tryon is an able Man, but not a Farmer. lfbe were, be would scarce think of seeking to make War in Winter. Still, it may be that be hopes by making Show of Force now-wben be is likct'Y sure it will not be needed-so to intimidate the Rapscallions as to obviate its Necessity later. He is a Soldicr.

  Such remarks bring me to the true Point of this Missive. I expect no evil Outcome of the present Enterprise, and yet-you are a Soldier, too, even as I am. You know the Unpredictability ofEvil, and what Catastrophe may springfrom trivial Beginnings.

  No man can know the Particulars of his own End-save that be will have one. Thus, I have made such Provision as I can, for the Wco'are of my Family.

  I enumerate them here, as you will not know them all. Claire Fraser, my beloved Wife; my Daughter Brianna and her Husband, Roger MacKenzie, and their Child, Jeremiah MacKenzie. Also my Daughter Marsali and her Husband, Fergus Fraser (who is my adopted Son)-they have now two young ones, Germain andjoan by Name. WeeJoan is namedfor Marsali's sister, known asJoan MacKenzie, presently abiding still in Scotland. I have not the leisure to acquaint you with the History of the Situation, but I am disposedforgood Reason to regard thisyouny Woman likewise as a Daugbter, and I bold myself similarly obligatedfor her We6rare, and that of her Mother, one Laogbaire MacKenzie.

  Ipray youfor the Sake of our long Friendship andfor the Sake ofyour

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  Regardfor my Wife and Daughter, that if Mischance should befall me in this Enterprise, you will do what you can to see them safe.

  I depart upon the Morrow's Dawn, which is now notfar off.

  Your most humble and obedient Servant, James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser

  Postscriptum: My Thanksfor the Intelligence you provide in answer to my earlier Query regarding Stephen Bonnet. I note your accompanying Advice with tbegreatest Appreciation and Gratitudefor its kind Intentthough as you suspect, it will not sway me.

  Post-Postscriptum: Copies of my Will and Testament, and of the Papers pertaining to my Property and Affairs here and in Scotland, will be found with Farquard Campbell, of Greenoaks, near Cross Creek.

  PARTTHREE

  Alarms and Excursions

  THE MILITIA RISES

  HE WEATHER FAVORED US, keeping cold but clear. With the Muellers and the men from the nearby homesteads, we set out from Fraser's Ridge with a party of nearly forty men-and me.

  T

  We acquired half a dozen more men from Wogan's Hollow, three from Belleview, and the two Findlay brothers, who came from a tiny settlement called Possum Gut. As we approached the Treaty Line, and the farthest point of our peripatetic muster, we formed a respectable company in number, if not in expertise. Some of the men had been soldiers once, if not trained infantrymen; either in Scotland, or in the French and Indian Wars. Many had not, and each evening saw Jamie conducting military drills and practice, though of a most unorthodox sort.

  "We havena got time to drill them properly," he'd told Roger over the first evening's fire. "It takes weeks, ken, to shape men so they willna run under fire." Roger merely nodded at that, though I thought a faint look of uneasiness

  ffickered across his face. I supposed he might be having doubts regarding his own lack of experience, and exactly how he himself would respond under fire. I'd known a lot of young soldiers in my time.

  I was kneeling by the fire, cooking corn dodgers on an iron griddle set in the ashes. I glanced up at Jamie, to find him looking at me, a slight smile hidden in the corner of his mouth. He'd not only known young soldiers; he'd been one. He coughed, and bent forward to stir the coals with a stick, looking for more of the quails I'd set to bake, wrapped in clay.

  "It's the natural thing, to run from danger, aye? The point of drilling troops is to accustom them to an officer's voice, so they'll hear, even over the roar of guns, and obey without thinkin' of the danger."

  "Aye, like ye train a horse not to bolt at noises," Roger interrupted, sardonically.

  "Aye, like that," Jamie agreed, quite seriously. "The difference being that ye need to make a horse believe ye ken better than he does; an officer only needs to be louder." Roger laughed, and Jamie went on, half-smiling.

  "When I went for a soldier in France, I was marched to and fro and up and down, and wore a pair of boots clear through before they gave me powder for my gun. I was sae weary at the end of a day of drilling that they could have shot off cannon by my pallet and I wouldna have turned a hair."

  He shook his head a little, the half-smile fading from his face. "But we havena got the time for that. Half our men will have had a bit of soldiering; we must depend on them to stand if it comes to fighting, and keep heart in the

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  others." He glanced past the fire, and gestured toward the fading vista of trees and mountains.

  "It's no much like a battlefield, is it? I canna say where the battle may be-if there is one-but I think we must plan for a fight where there's cover to be had. We'll teach them to fight as Highlanders do; to gather or to scatter at my word, and otherwise, to make shift as they can. Only half the men were soldiers, but all of them can hunt." He raised his chin, gesturing toward the recruits, several of whom had bagged small game during the day's ride. The Lindsay brothers had shot the quail we were eating.

  Roger nodded, and bent down, scooping a blackened ball of clay out of the fire with his own stick, keeping his face hidden. Almost all. He had gone out shooting every day since our return to the Ridge, and had still to bag even a possum. Jamie, who had gone with him once, had privately expressed the opinion to me that Roger would do better to hit the game on the head with his musket, rather than shoot at it.

  I lowered my brows at Jamie; he raised his at me, returning my stare. Roger's feelings could take care of themselves, was the blunt message there. I widened my own eyes, and rose.

  "But it isn't really like hunting, is it?" I sat down beside Jamie, and handed him one of the hot corn dodgers. "Especially now."

  "What d'ye mean by that, Sassenach?" Jamie broke the corn dodger open, half-closing his eyes in bliss as he inhaled the hot, fragrant steam.

  "For one, you don't know that it will come to a fight at all," I pointed out. "For another, if it does, you won't be facing trained troops-the Regulators aren't soldiers, any more than your men are. For a third, you won't really be trying to kill the Regulators; only frighten them into retreat or surrender. And for a fourth"-I smiled at Roger-"the point of hunting is to kill something. The point of going to war is to come back alive."

  Jamie choked on a bite of corn dodger. I thumped him helpffilly on the back, and he rounded on me, glaring. He coughed crumbs, swallowed, and stood up, plaid swinging.

  "Listen to me," he said, a little hoarsely. "Ye're figh
t, Sassenach-and ye're wrong. It's no like hunting, aye. Because the game isna usually trying to kill You. Mind me-" He turned to Roger, his face grim. "She's wrong about the rest of it. War is killing, and that's all. Think of anything less-think of halfmeasures, think of frightening-above all, think of your own skin-and by God, man, ye will be dead by nightfall of the first day."

  He flung the remains of his corn dodger into the fire, and stalked away.

  I SAT FROZEN for a moment, until heat from the fresh corn dodger I was holding seeped through the cloth round it and burned my fingers. I set it down on the log with a muffled "ouch," and Roger shifted a little on his log.

  "All right?" he said, though he wasn't looking at me. His eyes were fixed on the direction in which Jamie had vanished, toward the horses.

  "Fine." I soothed my scorched fingertips against the cold, damp bark of the

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  log. With the awkward silence eased by this little exchange, I found it possible to address the matter at hand.

  "Granted," I said, "that Jamie has a certain amount of experience from which to speak ... I do think what he said was rather an overreaction."

  "Do you?" Roger didn't seem upset or taken aback by Jamie's remarks.

  "Of course I do. Whatever happens with the Regulators, we know perfectly well that it isn't going to be an all-out war. It's likely to be nothing at all!" "Oh, aye." Roger was still looking into the darkness, lips pursed in thought-

  fiflness. "Onlyl think that's not what he was talking about."

  I lifted one eyebrow at him, and he shifted his gaze to me, with a wry halfsmile.

  "When he went out hunting with me, he asked me what I knew about what was coming. I told him. Bree said he'd asked her, and she told him, too." "What was coming-you mean, the Revolution?"

  He nodded, eyes on the fragment of corn dodger he was crumbling between long, callused fingers.

  "I told him what I knew. About the battles, the politics. Not all the detail, of course, but the chief battles I remembered; what a long, drawn-out, bloody business it will be." He was quiet for a moment, then looked up at me, a slight glint of green in his eye.

  "I suppose ye'd call it fair exchange. It's hard to tell with him, but I think I maybe scared him. He's just returned the favor."

  I gave a small snort of amusement, and stood up, brushing crumbs and ashes off my skirt.

  "The day you scare Jamie Fraser by telling him war stories, my lad," I said, "will be the day hell freezes over."

  He laughed, not discomposed in the slightest.

  "Maybe I didn't scare him, then-though he got very quiet. But I tell you what"-he sobered somewhat, though the glint stayed in his eye-"he did scare me, just now."

  I glanced off in the direction of the horses. The moon hadn't yet risen, and I couldn't see anything but a vague jumble of big, restless shadows, with an occasional gleam of firelight off a rounded rump or the brief shine of an eye. Jamie wasn't visible, but I knew he was there; there was a subtle shift and mill of movement among the horses, with faint whickers or snorts, that told me someone familiar was among them.

  "He wasn't just a soldier," I said at last, speaking quietly, though I was fairly sure Jamie was too far away to hear me. "He was an officer."

  I sat down on the log again, and put a hand on the corn dodger. It was barely warm now. I picked it up, but didn't bite into it.

  "I was a combat nurse, you know. In a field hospital in France."

  He nodded, dark head cocked in interest. The fire threw deep shadows on his face, emphasizing the contrast of heavy brow and strong bones with the gentle curve of his mouth.

  "I nursed soldiers. They were all scared." 1 smiled a little, sadly. "The ones who'd been under fire remembered, and the ones who hadn't, imagined. But it was the officers who 'couldn't sleep at night."

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  1 ran a thumb absently over the bumpy surface of the corn dodger. It felt faintly greasy, from the lard.

  "I sat with Jamie once, after Preston, while he held one of his men in his arms as he died. And wept. He remembers that. He doesn't remember Culloden-because he can't bear to." I looked down at the lump of fried dough in my hand, picking at the burned bits with my thumbnail.

  "Yes, you scared him. He doesn't want to weep for you. Neither do I," I added softly. "It may not be now, but when the time does come-take care, will you? 15

  There was a long silence. Then, "I will," he said quietly. He stood up and left, his footsteps fading quickly into silence on the damp earth.

  The other campfires burned brightly, as the night deepened. The men still kept to the company of relative and friend, each small group around its own fire. As we went on, they would begin to join together, I knew. Within a few days, there would be one large fire, everyone gathered together in a single circle of light.

  Jamie wasn't scared by what Roger had told him, I thought-but by what he himself knew. There were two choices for a good officer: let concern for his responsibilities tear him apart-or let necessity harden him to stone. He knew that.

  And as for me ... I knew a few things, too. I had been married to two soldiers-officers, both; for Frank had been one, too. I had been nurse and healer, on the fields of two wars.

  I knew the names and dates of battles; I knew the smell of blood. And of vomit, and voided bowels. A field hospital sees the shattered limbs, the spilled guts, and bone ends ... but it also sees the men who never raised a gun, but died there anyway, of fever and dirt and sickness and despair.

  I knew that thousands died of wounds and killing on the battlefields of two World Wars; I knew that hundreds upon hundreds of thousands died there of infection and disease, It would be no different now-nor in four years.

  And that scared me very much indeed.

  THE NEXT NIGHT, we made camp in the woods on Balsam Mountain, a mile or so above the settlement of Lucklow. Several of the men wanted to push on, to reach the hamlet of Brownsville. Brownsville was the outer point of our journey, before turning back toward Salisbury, and it held the possibility of a

  -but Jamie thought better pothouse-or at least a hospitable shed to sleep in

  to wait.

  "I dinna want to scare the f

  olk there," he had explained to Roger, "riding in with a troop of armed men after dark. Better to announce our business by daytight, then give the men a dayand a night-to make ready to leave." He had stopped then, and coughed heavily, shoulders racked with the spasm,

  I didn't like either the looks of Jamie or the sound of him. He had

  the patchy look of a mildewed quilt, and when he came to the fire to fill his dinner bowl, I could hear a f

  aint wheezing sigh in every breath. Most of the men were in similar condition; red noses and coughing were endemic, and the fire popped and sizzled every few moments, as someone hawked and spat into it.

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  I should have liked to tuck Jamie up in bed with a hot stone to his feet, a mustard plaster on his chest, and a hot tisane of aromatic peppermint and ephedra leaves to drink. Since it would have taken a brace of cannon, leg irons, and several armed men to get him there, I contented myself with fishing up a particularly meaty ladle of stew and plopping it into his bowl.

  "Ewald," Jamie called hoarsely to one of the Muellers. He stopped and cleared his throat, with a sound like tearing flannel. "Ewald-d'ye take Paul and fetch along more wood for the fire. It'll be a cold night."

  It already was. Men were standing so close to the fire that the fringes of their shawls and coats were singed, and the toes of their boots-those who had boots-stank of hot leather. My own knees and thighs were close to blistering, as I stood perforce near the blaze in order to serve out the stew. My backside was like ice, though, in spite of the old pair of breeks I wore under shift and petticoat-both for insulation and for the avoidance of excessive friction while on horseback. The Carolina backwoods were no place for a sidesaddle.

  The last bowl served, I turned round
to eat my own stew, with the fire at my back, a grateffil bloom of warmth embracing my frozen bottom.

  "All right, is it, ma'am?" Jimmy Robertson, who had made the stew, peered over my shoulder in search of compliment.

  "Lovely," I assured him. "Delicious!" In fact, it was hot and I was hungry. That, plus the fact that I hadn't had to cook it myself, lent a sufficient tone of sincerity to my words that he retired, satisfied.

  I ate slowly, enjoying the heat of the wooden bowl in my chilly hands, as well as the soothing warmth of food in my stomach. The cacophony of sneezing and hacking behind me did nothing to impair the momentary sense of wellbeing engendered by food and the prospect of rest after a long day in the saddle, Even the sight of the woods around us, bone-cold and black under growing starlight, failed to disturb me.

  My own nose had begun to run rather freely, but I hoped it was merely the result of eating hot food. I swallowed experimentally, but there was no sign of sore throat, nor rattling of congestion in my chest. Jamie rattled; he had finished eating and come to stand beside me, warming his backside at the blaze. "All right, Sassenach?" he asked hoarsely.

  "Just vasomotor rhinitis," I replied, dabbing at my nose with a handkerchief "Where?" He cast a suspicious look at the forest. "Here? I thought ye said they lived in Africa."

  "What-oh, rhinoceroses. Yes, they do. I just meant my nose is running, but I haven't got lagrippe."

  "Oh, aye? That's good. I have," he added unnecessarily, and sneezed three times in succession. He handed me his emptied bowl, in order to use both hands to blow his nose, which he did with a series of vicious honks. I winced slightly, seeing the reddened, raw look of his nostrils. I had a bit of camphorated bear grease in my saddlebag, but I was sure he wouldn't let me anoint him in public..

  69 Are you sure we oughtn't to push on?" I asked, watching him. "Geordie says the village isn't far, and there is a road-of sorts."

  I knew the answer to that; he wasn't one to alter strategy for the sake of personal comfort. Besides, camp was already made and a good fire going. Still,

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  beyond my own longing for a warm, clean bed-well, any bed, I wasn't fussyI was worried for Jamie. Close to, the sigh in his breath had a deeper, wheezing note to it that troubled me.

  He knew what I meant. He smiled, tucking away the sodden kerchief in his sleeve.

  "I'll do, Sassenach," he said. "It's no but a wee cold in the neb. I've been a deal worse than this, many times."

  Paul Mueller heaved another log onto the fire; a big ember broke and roared up with a flare that made us step away in order to avoid the spray of sparks. Well baked in the rear by this time, I turned to face the fire. Jamie, though, stayed facing outward, a slight frown on his face as he surveyed the shadows of the looming wood.

  The frown relaxed, and I turned to see two men emerging from the woods, shaking needles and bits of bark from their clothes. Jack Parker, and a new man-I didn't yet know his name, but he was plainly a recent immigrant from somewhere near Glasgow, judging from his speech.

  "All quiet, sit," said Parker, touching his hat in brief salute. "Cold as charity, though."

  "Aye, Ah hivny felt ma privates anytime since dinner," the Glaswegian chimed in, grimacing and rubbing himself as he headed for the fire. "Might as well be gone aetegither!"

  "I take your meaning, man," Jamie said, grinning. "Went for a piss a moment ago, but I couldna find it." He turned amid the laughter and went to check the horses, a half-finished second bowl of stew in one hand.

  The other men were already making ready their bedrolls, debating the wisdom of sleeping with feet or head near the fire.

  "It'll scorch the soles o' your boots, and ye get too close," argued Evan Lindsay. "See? Charred the pegs right out, and now look!" He lifted one large foot, exhibiting a battered shoe with a wrapping of rough twine tied round it to hold it together. The leather soles and heels were sometimes stitched, but more often fastened with tiny whittled pegs of wood or leather, glued with pine gum or some other adhesive. The pine gum in particular was flammable; I'd seen occasional sparks burst from the feet of men who slept with their feet too near the fire, when a shoe peg suddenly ignited from the heat.

  "Better than settin' your hair on fire," Ronnie Sinclair argued.

  "I dinna think the Lindsays need worry about that owermuch." Kenny grinned at his elder brother, and tugged down the knit cap he wore-like his two brothers-over a balding head.

  "Aye, headfirst every time," Murdo agreed. "Ye dinna want to chill your scalp; it'll go right to your liver, and then you're a dead man." Murdo was tendcrly solicitous of his exposed scalp, being seldom seen without either his knitted nightcap or a peculiar hat made from the hairy skin of a possum, lined