Looking back, it was a cruel mistake. But I was obsessed. I was
going
to escape, and bring no danger upon you. I hope you can understand,
and forgive me."
"Of course," said his mother, for both of them.
"Thank you," he said quietly. Mary nodded gently, and asked him to
continue.
"All right.... And yet again, by the Standing Stone, you heard
bagpipes. Did they play Scotland the Brave?"
"Yes," she answered, understanding at last.
"It is the only song James knew, or ever wanted to learn. It was he
you saw: pale with affliction, kilted as a sign of defiance, as he
could not be by day. He must have been half dead by then.....
"For he, too, was determined to bring no harm upon his family. Like
myself he would not go to them, though he was too proud, and too far
gone, to conceal himself as I did. I could not convince him to follow
me to the hiding place, and I could not force him. I believe now that
he must have spent those last nights in wandering and delirium,
waiting for the chance to perform his final deed. But unstable as his
mind had become, the heart beneath remained intact.
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