𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐁𝐞 | 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 ✅

11 - From Jamie, With Love

An inane silence seemed to settle over Lallybroch as I turned the parcel over in my lap and stared at it, imagining my beloved Jamie painstakingly wrapping it.

For a few moments, I wondered if I daren't open it until he returned. I wanted us to be together...

But I knew that I could not wait.

I turned the parcel over again and pulled one end of the string and the bow came undone. I slipped one finger under the rough brown paper and slid it along, gently prying the paper away from itself.

Inside, there were two gifts; a book, and a wooden Scottish rose that I knew he had carved himself with just a glance at the intricate work.

I wondered if he knew that the Scottish rose was my favourite flower, or if he had picked the flower because it was a wildflower that grew thickly across the whole of Lallybroch land.

Had he carved a rose because it reminded him of me, or because it reminded him of home?

I picked the rose up and turned it over slowly in my hands.

On the back, he had etched my name into the wood.

Eira.

I could almost hear him incorrectly pronouncing it in my ear. I wished that he was beside me at that moment.

I wished that I was tucked up in bed and he was holding my hand, slowly whispering to me in Gaelic until I drifted off to sleep.

I wished that I was sitting by the fire and reading to him.

I even wished that I was throwing a bannock at his head.

I wished that he could join us for Christmas.

Feeling my face wet with tears that I had not realised I was crying, put the wooden rose in the top drawer of my bedside table, and then I looked at the book. It was a title in French, and not one that I had heard of before. I opened the front cover and saw the piece of paper sandwiched in there immediately.

10th November 1738

Dearest Eira,

If this does not arrive before Christmas, then I want to say happy Christmas, mo chridhe. I so wish that I could be home to celebrate with you, and hope that next year I will be. It feels like too long since I've been at home for Christmas - and too long since I have seen you. Paris is wet and cold at this time of year, so I feel quite at home. Jared is doing his best to keep me entertained, and in my free time is also trying to teach me a little about the wine business.

I carved the rose for you because I know how you like them, but also because they remind me so much of home and of you. I wish that I had taken the liberty of bringing one to France with me, because then I could hold it to my nose and feel that you were alongside me. They remind me of you, my home, and I hope that your rose reminds you of me.

And the book. The book is one that I read in my first few weeks here, and one that I enjoyed immensely. I devoured it, and loved it so that I wanted to share it with you. This is my own copy. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I, and when I return, I hope that we may enjoy it together.

Please write back, darling Eira, for the thought of you is what drives me every day.

Faithfully,

James Fraser

I rose from my bed, the book still clutched in one hand. I sat at the bureau in the corner of the room and set the book down out of my way before getting out a pot of ink, a pen and some paper. I dipped the pen nib into the ink and began to write.

24th December 1738

Darling Jamie,

I got no further in my reply before there was a knock at the door. I turned, my pen hovering over the paper. Jenny had opened my bedroom door and was watching me, a small smile on her face, "da's asking for ye." She paused, "he's had Mr Faulkner in his ear for nigh on the last hour talking about how Willie wants ye for his wife."

I dropped the pen onto the paper and scrambled up from my chair, not caring about how uncouth or unladylike I looked. "No!" I exclaimed.

"I ken!" Jenny replied as she hurried over to me and took my hands in hers, immediately calming me down.

"But Jamie -"

"I dinna think he will agree to anything," Jenny paused, "but he wants ye wed and taken care of. If ye truly care for Jamie the way that I ken ye do, then ye both need to set something in stone -"

"Set something in stone?" I echoed. Jenny nodded, "what? I could hardly ask him to take me as his wife -"

"It doesna have to be that!" She led us over to the bed and pulled me down to sit beside her again. She still held my hands, "Jamie just has to ask father to hold off Willie and his da until he returns." She paused, "ye have to ask him to do it, though."
"Me?" I echoed, "why me?"

"Because if I do it, he'll think that I'm troubling myself where I ought not to -"

We both looked up to see Ian Murray standing in the doorway to my bedroom. Despite Ian being one of my best friends, I blushed a deep red because he was seeing my bedroom, a room where the only man who had seen it was Jamie, and Brian Fraser when he had first given it to me. Ian was handsome; strong and tall, and Jamie's righthand man - literally. Jamie was lefthanded, and so his right was the weaker side... Ian was always on his right.

"Jenny, Eira, I've been sent to -"

"Aye, we ken." Jenny sighed and stood up, letting go of my hands. "We'd best be going afore da comes up to get us himself."
I nodded, knowing that she was right.

It would be a whole lot worst if Brian Fraser came up to get us.

Jenny went over to Ian. He offered her his arm and she took it with a besotted smile, leaving me to follow behind. I made a mental note to write to Jamie tomorrow, and to pick a Scottish rose to send in the envelope for him.