[Discontinued] the love of the earth || Outlander

vii. the major-general

CHAPTER SEVEN
↳ the major-general

━━━━━━ ◦ Faith ◦ ━━━━━━

There was a slight shuffling made by the Major-General before he said "So...Faith Fraser you are?" Faith stayed silent keeping her gaze down. Her heart was pounding beneath her chest. she trembled and felt terrible pain as if someone had hit her in the stomach.

She swallowed down the queasiness and spoke "Aye," was all she managed to say

"Aye such an interesting tongue you highlanders have, you are lucky I've spent quite some time in this blasted country otherwise It would have no idea what you're saying," He laughed heartily at his joke, Faith just nodded. He looked at her and sighed "So, we may as well get down to business, I will ask you questions and I expect you to answer honestly and truthfully. You know the punishment for lying,"

"Well, then why dinna ye Punish me now, Sir?" She asked finally looking at him though she avoided eye contact

"We are giving you the benefit of the doubt, Faith, I'm not the bad guy here and I believe your family convinced you that you were Isla Crook because they were ashamed of your father and what he did, Am I correct? or is giving the benefit of the doubt to highlanders something I should do less of?" He said. Faith had two options, either she would either disagree with him and get flogged or she would agree with him and save her and her family. the only problem with agreeing with his statement is that if they ever even as though suspected her as lying everyone she loves would be dead.

"Aye, 'tis close. I didn't ken it at the time but my family did it because they knew many people didna agree with the Jacobites and it woulda ruined my life if I had to live with the mistakes Jamie made," she explained

"Okay," He said processing what she had said, he took a sip of the tea and reeled in disgusted "It's cold" he put it down and stood up "MRS MACNEE!" he yelled out causing Faith to flinch slightly, Not a second later a plump older looking Scottish woman opened the door, she wore clothes typical of a maid that would have worked for someone high up in society. Her stringy white hair was pulled up in a white bonnet, she had a kind face one of an old woman who would have many grandchildren that would sit around her listening to tales about her youth or listening to her read a book aloud to them.

"Sir," she said not looking up to make eye contact with him

"My tea has gone cold, Fetch me a fresh pot," he demanded, she nodded "And make it quick, I don't want to have to wait,"

"Yes sir," Mrs Macnee said hurriedly putting his pot and other things on the tray before walking out of the room.

The Major-General watched her walk out, he huffed sitting back down "Bloody Useless," Faith heard him mumble before he turned back to her "Let us continue," Faith nodded "So your family didn't want you to live with your father's mistakes?" He asked Faith nodded, and he scribbled something down on a fresh piece of parchment "So you went by Isla crook. I believe your Aunt and Uncle's last name is Murray?" Faith nodded "so How did the name Crook come into place? why not go by Murray and pretend to be one of their own?"