Lord That She Might Be Safe. She

He [brian Fraser] Told Me That A Man Must Be Responsible For Any See He Sows, For It's His Duty To Take Care Of A Woman And Protect Her. And If I Wasna Prepared To Do That, Then I'd No Right To Burden A Woman With The Consequences Of My Own Actions.

I Wasn't Used To Living Crowded Cheek By Jowl With Numbers Of Other People, As Was Customary Here. People Ate, Slept, And Frequently Copulated, Crammed Into Tiny, Stifling Cottages, Lit And Warmed By Smoky Peat Fires. The Only Thing They Didn't Do Together Was Bathe - Largely Because They Didn't Bathe.

I Can Bear Pain Myself, He Said Softly, But I Couldna Bear Yours. That Would Take More Strength Than I Have.

Torn Between The Impulse To Stroke His Head, And The Urge To Cave It In With A Rock, I Did Neither.

It Wasn't A Thing I Had Consciously Missed, But Having It Now Reminded Me Of The Joy Of It; That Drowsy Intimacy In Which A Man's Body Is Accessible To You As Your Own, The Strange Shapes And Textures Of It Like A Sudden Extension Of Your Own Limbs.