An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon Read Free Book Online Page B

away a sudden thought of Malva Christie, and forced himself back to his reasoning.
    “Aye, he’s hidden it here,” he repeated, more confident now. “If he had it all, he’d be long gone.
    He’s been waiting, trying for a way to get to it. But he hasna been able to do it secretly—so now he’s trying something else.”
    “Aye, but what? That—” Ian nodded toward the amorphous shape on the path. “I thought it might be a snare or a trap of some kind, but it’s not. I looked.”
    “A lure, maybe?” The smell of blood was evident even to him; it would be a plain call to any predator. Even as he thought this, his eye caught movement near the pig, and he put a hand on Ian’s arm.
    A tentative flicker of movement, then a small, sinuous shape darted in, disappearing behind the pig’s body.
    “Fox,” both men said together, then laughed, quietly.
    “There’s that panther in the wood above the Green Spring,” Ian said dubiously. “I saw the tracks yesterday. Can he mean to draw it wi’ the pig, in hopes that we should rush out to deal with it and he could reach the gold whilst we were occupied?”
    Jamie frowned at that, and glanced toward the cabin. True, a panther might draw the men out—but not the women and children. And where might he have put the gold in such a densely inhabited space? His eye fell on the long, humped shape of Brianna’s kiln, lying some way from the cabin, unused since her departure, and a spurt of excitement drew him upright. That would be—but no; Arch had stolen the gold from Jocasta Cameron one bar at a time, conveying it secretly to the Ridge, and had begun his theft long before Brianna had gone. But maybe …
    Ian stiffened suddenly, and Jamie turned his head sharp to see what the matter was. He couldn’t see anything, but then caught the sound that Ian had heard. A deep, piggish grunt, a rustle, a crack. Then there was a visible stirring among the blackened timbers of the ruined house, and a great light dawned.
    “Jesus!” he said, and gripped Ian’s arm so tightly that his nephew yelped, startled. “It’s under the Big House!”
    The white sow emerged from her den beneath the ruins, a massive cream-colored blotch upon the night, and stood swaying her head to and fro, scenting the air. Then she began to move, a ponderous menace surging purposefully up the hill.
    Jamie wanted to laugh at the sheer beauty of it.
    Arch Bug had cannily hidden his gold beneath the foundations of the Big House, choosing his times when the sow was out about her business. No one would have dreamed of invading the sow’s domain; she was the perfect guardian—and doubtless he’d meant to retrieve the gold in the same way when he was ready to go: carefully, one ingot at a time.
    But then the house had burned, the timbers collapsing into the foundation, rendering the gold unreachable without a great deal of work and trouble—which would certainly draw attention. It was only now, when the men had cleared away most of the rubble—and spread soot and charcoal all over the clearing in the process—that anyone might be able to reach something hidden under it without attracting notice.
    But it was winter, and the white sow, while not hibernating like a bear, kept strictly to her cozy den—save when there was something to eat.
    Ian made a small exclamation of disgust, hearing slobbering and crunching from the path.
    “Pigs havena got much delicacy of feeling,” Jamie murmured. “If it’s dead, they’ll eat it.”
    “Aye, but it’s likely her own offspring!”
    “She eats her young alive now and then; I doubt she’d boggle at eating them dead.”
    “Hst!”
    He hushed at once, eyes fixed on the blackened smear that had once been the finest house in the county. Sure enough, a dark figure emerged from behind the springhouse, sidling cautiously on the slippery path. The pig, busy with her grisly feast, ignored the man, who seemed to be clad in a dark cloak and carrying something like a