𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐁𝐞 | 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 ✅

4 - That Was The Thing About Jamie

There was a frantic knocking at the door to my bedroom in the dead of the night. I woke up immediately and got out of bed, crossing the room and throwing the door open angrily - I hated being disturbed.

Morag was standing there.

"Mistress," she said, "there's a fire -"

"A fire?" I asked, waking up entirely at the possibility of fire. "What? Where?"

"At yer cottage, Mistress, yer father -"

I was pushing her roughly out of the way and going down the hallway before she could finish.

The door on my right opened and I collided with the person coming out of it.

Jamie.

I took a second to look at him, "where're ye going?" I asked, stupefied by him. He was clad in a kilt and looked as wide awake as ever. He had his dirk at his side. He looked to be in a hurry.

"To yer father." He answered me in a tone that implied his answer should have been obvious.

"But Morag -"

"I heard her telling ye. I was awake anyway, Eira." He stepped past me and began to walk down the long hallway.

"But ye canna go!"

"Why canna I?" Jamie asked, turning back to me slowly and coming back the way he had left. He stopped directly in front of me. I tilted my head back so I could look into his gorgeous blue eyes. I willed myself to not become distracted by the deepness of them at a time such as this. "He's my tenant, is he not?"

"He's my father -"

"And ye canna go." Jamie ground his teeth together as he looked me up and down for a few seconds before fixing his gaze on my face once more, "ye're in yer underclothes, and it'd take ye much too long to get dressed. Nay, get back in bed and rest. Have breakfast waiting for me when I return -"

"But -"

"Stay here," he insisted again. Jenny appeared behind me. I knew because he was staring at her over my shoulder. She was probably a trifle more dressed than I. "Stay with Jenny, and I'll see to yer father."

"But Jamie -"

He turned and swept back along the hallway, ignoring me and instead calling over his shoulder to his sister, "dinna let her out of yer sight!"

Jenny and I knew that we would have no more sleep after the news that Morag had brought to us, so we went downstairs and sat in front of the still-smouldering fire in the living room, cuddled together under a thick blanket that her mother had knitted many years before. She read to me, as she had done so often over the course of my life but more so in the absence of her brother since he had gone to foster with their Uncle Dougal... it was soothing to have Jenny beside me, and more so to hear her voice reading the poetry aloud.

I startled awake when I heard the large front door slam from the kitchen. Jenny was asleep beside me, the book which she had been reading from was still open in her lap. I pulled the blanket back from me slowly, careful not to wake her up, and then I left the room.

Jamie was in the kitchen scoffing a bannock down his throat, and he was covered in soot... and when he turned at the rustle of my skirts as I entered the kitchen, I knew immediately. I began to cry. Jamie watched me, and after a few seconds, he placed the bannock down on the table and slowly crossed the room, putting his laidir arms around me and holding me tightly as I sobbed. I sobbed into his shoulder, ignoring the hand of Brian Fraser on my shoulder who spoke softly, "it's true, lassie... I'm sorry. Ye're welcome to stay here. Ye're my daughter, or as good as, anyway -"