𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐁𝐞 | 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 ✅

8 - The Broken Divide Is Rebuilt

Jenny frowned at me as soon as I appeared in the hallway, immediately knowing that something was wrong. She stood up and smoothed her skirts down quickly before hurrying over to me, "what is it, Jamie?" She asked me in a worried tone of voice, "ye're not ill, are ye?" Without waiting for an answer, she laid the back of her hand against my forehead. "No fever..." she said to herself.

I shrugged her off. "I'm not ill, Jenny."

"Then what -?"

She caught me looking at Eira's door and sighed, assuming that my problem lied with the woman behind the wood... and many ways, it did. Had Eira not been who she was... had I not felt for her like I did, I was sure that leaving Lallybroch for France would not be a problem.

But it was.

"Jenny," I dipped my voice, lowering my head so I could talk to her even more quietly than I was. The last thing that I wanted was for Eira to overhear me. No, I had to be the one to tell her. "Father's sending me to the University in Paris."

Jenny gasped, "but Eira..." she looked towards the door, "she'll ne'er come out again, Jamie."

"I ken." I sighed, "I tried to dissuade him, but..."

"Aye," she agreed, "I ken what he's like. D'ye think it'd do much good if I tried?"

I shook my head. There was no way that I could get out of going to Paris. No, I would have to do the year and hope that there was some emergency here at Lallybroch that would call for my attention before then.

"Well..." she patted my shoulder, "I'll see ye for breakfast?"

I nodded. Neither of us knew what else to say with regards to Paris. I felt awful for leaving Jenny with the responsibility of Eira once again - and so soon after her father's death - but there was nothing to be done.

One day, I told myself, Eira and I will not be parted from each other ever again.

I sat on the floor opposite Eira's bedroom door and waited for the house to go to sleep.

She was waiting for me in the armchair by the fireplace, in it the flames were roaring. The room was warm, and it smelled sweetly of mint and of roses; the kind which grew wild in the woodlands hereabouts, and the same which was the scent of Eira's perfume - she had once told me that it was her favourite flower. They were beautiful, and once I had discovered that they grew in the forest close to Beannachd, they had become my favourite flower too because they always reminded me of my Eira, my home.

"Jamie!" She exclaimed happily as I came further into the room, leaving the bedroom door open behind me. I went over to her and knelt down on one knee, taking one of her delicate hands in both of my own and kissing the back of it softly. I closed my eyes, relishing the feeling of her skin against my lips, even if it was only her hand.

One day, I hoped to kiss her lips.

"Ye needna be so formal," she told me with a smile, playfully pushing my shoulder with her free hand so I tumbled backwards. I let myself fall onto my back on the floor, letting out a grunt. I wanted her to think that she had caught me off guard because then she would smile and my heart would soar.

I sat myself up and moved a little closer to the fire, realising how cold it had been in the hallway where I had been sitting for the last five or so hours.

Eira and I sat in peaceful silence for a few minutes, the hush disrupted by the crackling wood of the fire.

"What are ye reading?" I asked her, gesturing to the book in her lap. I hadn't noticed it when I had first come in, but as I had looked her over in the silence, it had become quite obvious.