You're tearin' my guts out, Claire.

Oh, Claire, ye do break my heart wi' loving you.

Once you've chosen a man, don't try to change him', I wrote with more confidence. 'It can't be done. More important-don't let him try to change you.

I thought I could make out Jamie's Highland screech, but that was likely imagination; they all sounded equally demented.

It's only that ye looked so beautiful, wi' the fire on your face, and your hair waving in the wind. I wanted to remember it.

He splayed a hand out over the photographs, trembling fingers not quite touching the shiny surface, and then he turned and leaned toward me, slowly, with the improbable grace of a tall tree falling. He buried his face in my shoulder and went very quietly and thoroughly to pieces.

It was a beautiful bright autumn day, with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it.