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I hauled him again onto the trail, dripping and cursing. He stated, “You’re more suitable than you look,” and that i cursed myself for a idiot. He should have visible it on my face for, after he shook himself (like a puppy, sending droplets flying) he acknowledged, “My boy Calum informed me the story you informed him concerning the Campbells coming for you, and also you being despatched into the fields through your spouse, with them pondering she used to be your ma, and also you a boy. ” “It used to be only a tale,” I acknowledged. “Something to cross the time. ” “Indeed? ” he stated. “For I heard inform of a raiding social gathering of Campbells despatched out many years in the past, looking revenge on somebody who had taken their livestock. They went, and so they by no means got here again. If a small fellow such as you can kill a dozen Campbells… good, you need to be powerful, and also you needs to be speedy. ” i have to be silly, i assumed ruefully, telling that kid that story. I had picked them off one after the other, like rabbits, as they got here out to piss or to work out what had occurred to their pals: I had killed seven of them earlier than my spouse killed her first. We buried them within the glen, equipped a small cairn of stacking stones above them, to weigh them down so their ghosts wouldn't stroll, and we have been unhappy: that Campbells had come to date to kill me, that we have been pressured to kill them in go back. I take no pleasure in killing: no guy should still, and no lady. occasionally dying is important, however it is usually an evil factor. that's anything i'm in doubtless of, even after the occasions I converse of the following. I took the rope from Calum MacInnes, and that i clambered up and up, over the rocks, to the place the waterfall got here out of the facet of the hill, and it was once slim sufficient for me to go. It used to be slippery there, yet I made it over with no incident, tied the rope in position, got here down it, threw the top of it to my better half, walked him throughout. He didn't thank me, neither for rescuing him, nor for buying us throughout; and that i didn't count on thank you. I additionally didn't count on what he truly stated, although, which was once: “You aren't a complete guy, and also you are gruesome. Your spouse: is she additionally small and unpleasant, like your self? ” i made a decision to take no offense, no matter if offense were meant or no. I easily acknowledged, “She isn't. She is a tall girl, nearly as tall as you, and whilst she used to be young—when we have been either younger—she was once reckoned by means of a few to be the main attractive woman within the lowlands. The bards wrote songs praising her eco-friendly eyes and her lengthy red-golden hair. ” i presumed I observed him balk at this, however it is feasible that I imagined it, or much more likely, needed to visualize I had visible it. “How did you win her, then? ” I spoke the reality: “I sought after her, and that i get what i need. i didn't surrender. She acknowledged i used to be clever and that i was once sort, and that i might regularly offer for her. and i've. ” The clouds started to reduce, once again, and the realm blurred on the edges, grew to become softer. “She acknowledged i'd be a great father. and i've performed my top to elevate my childrens. who're additionally, while you're pondering, normal-sized. ” “I beat experience into younger Calum,” acknowledged older Calum. “He isn't really a nasty baby. ” “You can merely do this so long as they're there with you,” I acknowledged.