𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐁𝐞 | 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 ✅

24 - Captain Jonathan Randall, Esquire, Captain of His Majesty's Eighth Dragoons

The wind blowing behind me blew my hair from its normally well kept curls into a tired tangled mess, and the mud from the roads splattered up and coated the hem of my dress and my shoes, but I found that I didn't care at all. I had goose flesh because of how cold it was, but all I could think about was my beloved Jamie and what I could do for him; nothing, but his father might be able to.

I reached the town in record time, my horse entirely spent and worn out. I gave it over to an ostler at the stable, promising that Brian Fraser would pay the bill when he could. I ran over to the inn and inside of it, going straight for the innkeeper. "Brian Fraser, Laird Broch Tuarach - what room is he?" The innkeeper, the same who had given Jamie and I a room eight months previously, dropped his jaw when he saw me. I must have looked quite a sight, but I didn't care. "Now!"

"T-the top, mistress." I sighed and hiked my skirts up in my hands, running for the stairs and going to the very top one.

I pounded on the door as soon as I got to it, "Mr Fraser! Mr Fraser! Mr -"
He opened the door. I had been about to punch him in the chest, but I stopped myself. "Eira?" He looked around the hallway, "what ever is the matter?"

"It's Jamie!" I sobbed, falling into his arms as I finally let myself succumb to the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. Why had Jamie been arrested? For protecting his sister from the English soldiers?

"Jamie? What's happened to the lad?"
"He's been arrested!" I sobbed. He led me into the room and sat me down, "taken by the soldiers!"
"What? Why?" Brian Fraser spoke in a hurry, already putting his large overcoat on.

"I dinna ken!" I cried into my hands, "we heard Jenny screaming, so he left me with Ian. We watched from the field - they whipped him, Mr Fraser!"

"Oh my -"

"And then they threw him into the back of their cart!"
I left out the part about the English soldier taking Jenny (rather forcefully) into the house because I didn't want to stress Brian anymore than was necessary. Jenny was at home, perhaps not completely fine, but she was a trifle better than Jamie at that moment, who was most likely on his way to Fort William, the second largest settlement in all of Scotland.

"Right, my dear," Brian knelt down, wincing as his knee joints cracked, "I'll ride to intercept them, and ye head back to the house. I will return later - have the cook keep dinner warm for me."

I nodded, trying to compose myself.

"Dinna fash," he said, taking his hands in mine and, for a second, sounding so much like his son that my heart ached, "I'll bring him home to ye -"

"Please," I begged, "if ye see him, tell him that I love him!"
Brian promised that he would, and then he was gone from the room.

Third Person POV

Every jolt of the saddle caused an ache to go through Brian Fraser, but he didn't care. He had to save his only living son - and he would do anything to ensure the safety of Jamie.

It took him several hours of riding before he caught sight of the English redcoats - their party was moving a lot quicker than he had anticipated. He drew his horse to a slow pace and hid his dirk under his overcoat so they did not see him as an immediate threat. He saw the cart that they were pulling, and he saw his son tied in the back of it, looking as though he had definitely seen better days. His shirt was very dirty, and his kilt was torn in two different places. As Brian approached the English party from the back, he called out to them so that he could make himself known.

"Ho, soldiers!"

The soldier at the front, who Brian assumed was the captain of the party, looked over his shoulder at the Scot and then called out to his men, "stop!"