Outlander - Diana Gabaldon [190]
“Did you mind a lot?” I said abruptly. “Being beaten, I mean. Did you get over it easily?”
He squeezed my hand lightly before letting it go.
“Mostly I forgot it as soon as it was over. Except for the last time; that took awhile.”
“Why?”
“Ah, well. I was sixteen, for one thing, and a man grown…I thought. For another, it hurt like hell.”
“You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to,” I said, sensing his hesitation. “Is it a painful story?”
“Not nearly as painful as the beating,” he said, laughing. “No, I don’t mind tellin’ ye. It’s a long story, is all.”
“It’s a long way to Bargrennan yet.”
“So it is. Well, then. You recall I told ye I spent a year at Castle Leoch when I was sixteen? It was an agreement between Colum and my father—so I’d be familiar wi’ my mother’s clan. I fostered wi’ Dougal for two years, and then went to the Castle for a year, to learn manners, and Latin and such.”
“Oh. I wondered how you’d come to be there.”
“Aye, that was the way of it. I was big for my age, or tall at least; a good swordsman even then, and a better horseman than most.”
“Modest, too,” I said.
“Not very. Cocky as hell, and even faster with my tongue than I am now.”
“The mind boggles,” I said, amused.
“Well it might, Sassenach. I found I could make people laugh wi’ my remarks, and I made them more frequent, without carin’ much what I said, or to whom. I was cruel sometimes, to the other lads, not meanin’ it, just not able to resist if I thought of something clever to say.”
He looked up at the sky, to gauge the time. Blacker still, now that the moon had gone down. I recognized Orion floating near the horizon, and was strangely comforted by the familiar sight.
“So, one day I went too far. I was with a couple of the other lads, going down a corridor when I saw Mistress FitzGibbons at the other end. She was carryin’ a big basket, near as big as she was, and bumping to and fro as she walked. You know what she looks like now; she wasna much smaller then.” He rubbed his nose, embarrassed.
“Well, I made a number of ungallant remarks concerning her appearance. Funny, but most ungallant. They amused my companions considerably. I didna realize she could hear me as well.”
I recalled the massive dame of Castle Leoch. While I had never seen her other than good-humored, she did not appear to be the sort of person to be insulted with impunity.
“What did she do?”
“Nothing—then. I didna know she’d heard, until she got up at the Hall gathering next day and told Colum all about it.”
“Oh, dear.” I knew how highly Colum regarded Mrs. Fitz, and didn’t think he would take any irreverence directed at her lightly. “What happened?”
“The same thing that happened to Laoghaire—or almost.” He chuckled.
“I got verra bold though, and I stood up and said I chose to take my beating wi’ fists. I was tryin’ to be verra calm and grown-up about it all, though my heart was going like a blacksmith’s hammer, and I felt a bit sick when I looked at Angus’s hands; they looked like stones, and big ones at that. There were a few laughs from the folk gathered in the Hall; I wasna so tall then as I am now, and I weighed less than half as much. Wee Angus could ha’ torn my head off with one blow.
“Anyway, Colum and Dougal both frowned at me, though I thought they were really a bit pleased I’d had the nerve to ask it. Then Colum said no, if I was goin’ to behave like a child, I’d to be punished like one. He gave a nod, and before I could move, Angus bent me across his knee, turned up the edge of my kilt and blistered me with his strap, in front of the entire Hall.”
“Oh, Jamie!”
“Mmmphm. You’ll have noticed Angus is verra professional about his work? He gave