“
But Jamie was not quite finished, it seemed. Ignoring Dougal's fuming, he drew a short string of white beads from his sporran. He stepped froward and fastened the necklace around my neck. Looking down, I could see it was a string of small baroque pearls, those irregularly shaped productions of freshwater mussels, interspersed with tiny pierced-work gold roundels. Small pearls dangled from the gold beads.
'They're only Scotch pearls,' he said, apologetically, 'but they look bonny on you.' His fingers lingered a moment on my neck.
'Those were your mother's pearls!' said Dougal, glowering at the necklace.
'Aye,' said Jamie calmly, 'and now they're my wife's. Shall we go!
”
”