Charles had landed with only seven companions, including the owner of a small bank named Aeneas MacDonald. Unable to finance an entire expedition, MacDonald had provided the funds for a small stock of broadswords, which constituted Charles’s entire armament. Jared sounded simultaneously admiring and horrified by the recklessness of the venture, but, loyal Jacobite that he was, did his best to swallow his misgivings.

And so far, Charles had succeeded. From the Highland grapevine, we learned that he had landed at Eriskay, crossed to Glenfinnan, and there waited, accompanied only by several large casks of brandywine, to see whether the clans would answer the call to his standard. And after what must have been several nerve-racking hours, three hundred men of clan Cameron had come down the defiles of the steep green hills, led not by their chieftain, who was away from his home – but by his sister, Jenny Cameron.

The Camerons had been the first, but they had been joined by others, as the Bill of Association showed.

If Charles should now proceed to disaster, despite all efforts, then how many men of Lallybroch could be spared, left at home to save something from the wreck?

Ian himself would be safe; that much was sure, and some balm to Jamie’s spirit. But the others – the sixty families who lived on Lallybroch? Choosing who would go and who would stay must seem in some lights like choosing men for sacrifice. I had seen commanders before; the men whom war forced to make such choices – and I knew what it cost them.

Jamie had done it – he had no choice – but on two matters he had held firm; no women would accompany his troop, and no lads under eighteen years of age would go. Ian had looked mildly surprised at this – while most women with young children would normally stay behind, it was far from unusual for Highland wives to follow their men to battle, cooking and caring for them, and sharing the army’s rations. And the lads, who considered themselves men at fourteen, would be grossly humiliated at being omitted from the tally. But Jamie had given his orders in a tone that brooked no argument, and Ian, after a moment’s hesitation, had merely nodded and written them down.

I hadn’t wanted to ask him, in the presence of Ian and Jenny, whether his ban on womenfolk was intended to include me. Because, whether it was or not, I was going with him, and that, I thought, was bloody all about it.

“Leave you behind?” he said now, and I saw his mouth curl into a sideways grin. “D’ye think I’d stand a chance of it?”

“No,” I said, snuggling next to him in sudden relief. “You wouldn’t. But I thought you might think about it.”

He gave a small snort, and drew me down, head on his shoulder. “Oh, aye. And if I thought I could leave ye, I’d chain ye to the banister; not much else would stop ye.” I could feel his head shake above me, in negation. “No. I must take ye wi’ me, Sassenach, whether I will or no. There are things you’ll maybe know along the way – even if they dinna seem like anything now, they may later. And you’re a rare fine healer, Sassenach – I canna deny the men your skill, and it be needed.”

His hand patted my shoulder, and he sighed. “I would give anything, mo duinne, could I leave ye here safe, but I cannot. So you will go with me – you and Fergus.”

“Fergus?” I was surprised by this. “But I thought you wouldn’t take any of the younger lads!”

He sighed again, and I put my hand flat on the center of his chest, where his heart beat beneath the small hollow, slow and steady.

“Well, Fergus is a bit different. The other lads – I willna take them, because they belong here; if it all goes to smash, they’ll be left to keep their families from starving, to work the fields and tend beasts. They’ll likely need to grow up fast, if it happens, but at least they’ll be here to do it. But Fergus… this isna his place, Sassenach. Nor is France, or I would send him back. But he has no place there, either.”

“His place is with you,” I said softly, understanding. “Like mine.”

He was silent for a long time, then his hand squeezed me gently.

“Aye, that’s so,” he said quietly. “Sleep now, mo duinne, it’s late.”

The fretful wail pulled me toward the surface of wakefulness for the third time. Baby Katherine was teething, and didn’t care who knew it. From their room down the hall, I heard Ian’s sleepy mumble, and Jenny’s higher voice, resigned, as she got out of bed and went to soothe the infant.

Then I heard the soft, heavy footfalls in the corridor, and realized that Jamie, still wakeful, was walking barefoot through the house.

“Jenny?” His voice, low-pitched to avoid disturbance, was still plainly audible in the creaking silence of the manor house,

“I heard the wee lassie greetin’,” he said. “If she canna sleep, neither can I, but you can. If she’s fed and dry, perhaps we can bear each other company for a bit, while you go back to your bed.”

Jenny smothered a yawn, and I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Jamie dear, you’re a mother’s blessing. Aye, she’s full as a drum, and a dry clout on her this minute. Take her, and I wish ye joy of each other.” A door closed, and I heard the heavy footfall again, heading back toward our room, and the low murmur of Jamie’s voice as he muttered soothingly to the baby.

I snuggled deeper into the comfort of the goose-down bed and turned toward sleep again, hearing with half an ear the baby’s whining, interspersed with hiccuping sobs, and Jamie’s deep, tuneless humming, the sound as comforting as the thought of beehives in the sun.

“Eh, wee Kitty, ciamar a tha thu? Much, mo naoidheachan, much.”

The sound of them went up and down the passage, and I dropped further toward sleep, but kept half-wakeful on purpose to hear them. One day perhaps he would hold his own child so, small round head cradled in the big hands, small solid body cupped and held firm against his shoulder. And thus he would sing to his own daughter, a tuneless song, a warm, soft chant in the dark.

The constant small ache in my heart was submerged in a flood of tenderness. I had conceived once; I could do so again. Faith had given me the gift of that knowledge, Jamie the courage and means to use it. My hands rested lightly on my breasts, cupping the deep swell of them, knowing beyond doubt that one day they would nourish the child of my heart. I drifted into sleep with the sound of Jamie’s singing in my ears.

Sometime later I drifted near the surface again, and opened my eyes to the light-filled room. The moon had risen, full and beaming, and all the objects in the room were plainly visible, in that flat, two-dimensional way of things seen without shadow.

The baby had quieted, but I could hear Jamie’s voice in the hall, still speaking, but much more quietly, hardly more than a murmur. And the tone of it had changed; it wasn’t the rhythmic, half-nonsense way one talks to babies, but the broken, halting speech of a man seeking the way through the wilderness of his own heart.

Curious, I slipped out of bed and crept quietly to the door. I could see them there at the end of the hall. Jamie sat leaning back against the side of the window seat, wearing only his shirt. His bare legs were raised, forming a back against which small Katherine Mary rested as she sat facing him in his lap, her own chubby legs kicking restlessly over his stomach.

The baby’s face was blank and light as the moon’s, her eyes dark pools absorbing his words. He traced the curve of her cheek with one finger, again and again, whispering with heartbreaking gentleness.

He spoke in Gaelic, and so low that I could not have told what he said, even had I known the words. But the whispering voice was thick, and the moonlight from the casement behind him showed the tracks of the tears that slid unregarded down his own cheeks.