The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [240]
“The Leftenant bids me request the attendance upon him of Mr. Farquard Campbell, Mr. Andrew MacNeill, Mr. Gerald Forbes, Mr. Duncan Innes, and the priest, as well as yourself, sir.”
A certain amount of tension left Jamie’s shoulders.
“Does he,” he said dryly. Farquard Campbell and Andrew MacNeill were large landowners and local magistrates; Gerald Forbes a prominent solicitor from Cross Creek. And Duncan Innes was about to become the largest plantation owner in the western half of the colony, by virtue of his impending marriage to Jamie’s widowed aunt, Jocasta Cameron.
He gave a slight shrug and shifted the baby to his other shoulder, settling himself.
“Aye. Well, then. Tell the Leftenant I shall attend him as soon as may be convenient. However, if he desires to speak wi’ Father Kenneth, I think he will have a bit of a wait. Both the good Father and myself are required at a wedding.”
Nothing daunted, Corporal McNair bowed and went off, presumably in search of the other gentlemen on his list.
“And what’s all that about?” I asked Jamie. “Oops.” I reached up and skimmed a glistening strand of saliva from Jemmy’s chin before it could reach Jamie’s shirt. “Starting a new tooth, are we?”
“I’ve plenty of teeth,” Jamie assured me. “And so have you, so far as I can see. As for yon corporal laddie and his message—Archie Hayes likely thinks to enlist me, Campbell, and the rest to help him.” He held a dripping branch out of the way for me to pass; Roger and Brianna had gone on ahead.
“Help him what? Track down the rioters? No one on the Ridge was involved, surely?” I ducked under the branch, feeling the chill of a wet leaf brush my cheek.
“No. As to what Hayes may want help with, I canna say. And I dinna mean to find out, either.” He cocked one ruddy eyebrow at me, and I laughed.
“Oh, a certain flexibility in that word convenient, is there?”
“I didna say it would be convenient for him,” Jamie pointed out. “Now, about your petticoat, Sassenach, and why you’re scampering about the mountain bare-arsed—Duncan, a charaid!” The wry look on his face melted into genuine pleasure at sight of Duncan Innes, making his way toward us through a small growth of longleaf pine.
Duncan clambered over a fallen log, the process made rather awkward by his missing left arm, and arrived on the path beside us, shaking water droplets from his hair. He was dressed for his wedding, in a clean shirt and stock with a fine lace jabot, and a coat of blue wool with red silk facings, the empty sleeve pinned up with a brooch. I had never seen Duncan look so elegant, and said so.
“Och, well,” he said diffidently. “Miss Jo did wish it.” He shrugged off the compliment along with the rain, carefully brushing away dead needles and bits of bark that had adhered to his coat in the passage through the pines.
“Brrr! A gruesome day, Mac Dubh, and no mistake.” He looked up at the sky and shook his head. “Happy the bride the sun shines on; happy the corpse the rain falls on.”
“I do wonder just how delighted you can expect the average corpse to be,” I said, “whatever the meterological conditions. But I’m sure Jocasta will be quite happy.” I added hastily, seeing a look of bewilderment spread itself across Duncan’s features. “And you, too, of course!”
“Oh… aye,” he said, a little uncertainly. “Aye, of course. I thank ye, ma’am.”
“When I saw ye coming through the wood, I thought perhaps Corporal MacNair was nippin’ at your heels,” Jamie said. “You’re no on your way to see Archie Hayes, are you?”
Duncan looked quite startled.
“Hayes? No, what would the Leftenant want wi’ me?”
“One or two things that I can think of. Here, Sassenach, take this wee squirrel away, aye?” Jamie interrupted himself to hand me Jemmy, who had decided to take a more active interest in the proceedings and was attempting