He thought often while they were practicing first the simple moves and then, to his surprise, the more difficult ones that he taught her, of the idea that had passed through his mind in the barn at Urquhart, that she could improve if she had a man. After a lifetime of what felt like bad luck—a father who lived only to drink more whiskey, sheep lost to the MacDonalds summer after summer, and fleeces lost to them in the raid on Urquhart to top the lot—it seemed he had finally had this very most important stroke of luck just when he needed it most.So when, after a month of nightly practice with the dirk, she asked him to teach her to swing the claymore, he did not resist, though he told her that she would grow frustrated very quickly because of the length of the thing—his was almost exactly as tall as Elisabeth herself—not to mention its weight. The footwork, though, was not very different from what she had learned already, and though he could not think when she might ever be called upon to fight with the sword, and though her arms did become quickly tired when using it, she made a very creditable sight after a fortnight’s work, because of the same native balance that seemed more and more to be a basic part of her character.Her body was lean and hard beneath his, now, when he took her of a night, but it made the struggle all the better, and when she spent with her eagle’s cry, she looked into his eyes, and he could see that in the abandon with which she writhed against him there was a sort of balance in her need for him and his need for her.The strap never seemed to stay on its hook for long.
What do You think about Book JdM6x1406931-20978754?
