Voyager - Diana Gabaldon [394]
It was a long wait, and the inquisitiveness of the forest midges made it longer still. After what seemed forever, though, I saw Jamie give a nod to one of the guards, and come from the beach toward the trees. I signed to Marsali to wait, and ducking under branches, ignoring the thick brush, I dodged madly toward the place where he had disappeared.
I popped breathlessly out from behind a bush, just as he was doing up the laces of his flies. His head jerked up at the sound, his eyes widened, and he let out a yell that would have summoned Arabella the sheep back from the dead, let alone the waiting sentry.
I dodged back into hiding, as crashing boots and shouts of inquiry headed in our direction.
“C’est bien!” Jamie shouted. He sounded a trifle shaken. “Ce n’est qu’un serpent!”
The sentry spoke an odd dialect of French, but appeared to be asking rather nervously whether the serpent was dangerous.
“Non, c’est innocent,” Jamie answered. He waved at the sentry, whose inquiring head I could just see, peering reluctantly over the bush. The sentry, who seemed unenthusiastic about snakes, however innocent, disappeared promptly back to his duty.
Without hesitation, Jamie plunged into the bush.
“Claire!” He crushed me tight against his chest. Then he grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me, hard.
“Damn you!” he said, in a piercing whisper. “I thought ye were dead for sure! How dare ye do something harebrained like jump off a ship in the middle of the night! Have ye no sense at all?”
“Let go!” I hissed. The shaking had made me bite my lip. “Let go, I say! What do you mean, how dare I do something harebrained? You idiot, what possessed you to follow me?”
His face was darkened by the sun; now a deep red began to darken it further, washing up from the edges of his new beard.
“What possessed me?” he repeated. “You’re my wife, for the Lord’s sake! Of course I would follow ye; why did ye not wait for me? Christ, if I had time, I’d—” The mention of time evidently reminded him that we hadn’t much, and with a noticeable effort, he choked back any further remarks, which was just as well, because I had a number of things to say in that vein myself. I swallowed them, with some difficulty.
“What in bloody hell are you doing here?” I asked instead.
The deep flush subsided slightly, succeeded by the merest hint of a smile amid the unfamiliar foliage.
“I’m the captain,” he said. “Did ye not notice?”
“Yes, I noticed! Captain Alessandro, my foot! What do you mean to do?”
Instead of answering, he gave me a final, gentle shake and divided a glare between me and Marsali, who had poked an inquiring head out.
“Stay here, the both of ye, and dinna stir a foot or I swear I’ll beat ye senseless.”
Without pausing for a response, he whirled and strode back through the trees, toward the beach.
Marsali and I exchanged stares, which were interrupted a second later, when Jamie, breathless, hurtled back into the small clearing. He grabbed me by both arms, and kissed me briefly but thoroughly.
“I forgot. I love you,” he said, giving me another shake for emphasis. “And I’m glad you’re no dead. Dinna do that again!” Letting go, he crashed back into the brush and disappeared.
I felt breathless, myself, and more than a little rattled, but undeniably happy.
Marsali’s eyes were round as saucers.
“What shall we do?” she asked. “What’s Da going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I said. My cheeks were flushed, and I could still feel the touch of his mouth on mine, and the unfamiliar tingling left by the brush of beard and mustache. My tongue touched the small stinging place where I had bitten my lip. “I don’t know what he’s going to do,” I repeated. “I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.”
It was a long wait. I was dozing against the trunk of a huge tree, near dusk, when Marsali’s hand on my shoulder brought me awake.
“They’re launching the ship!” she said in an excited whisper.