REASON AND EMOTION (Excerpt)

Inspired by a remark anent rationality and emotion in the last post, I thought I'd put up a brief excerpt illustrating the point. [g:] This is from a short story (well, all right, it's 25,000 words, but still...) I've just done for an anthology. The story was originally called "Terror Daemonium" and is the story of what happened to Michael Murray (the middle brother, between Young Jamie and Young Ian, Janet's twin) and to Joan MacKimmie (Laoghaire's younger daughter; Marsali's sister) when ...