"Previously..." "Colum doesna travel, so visiting the tenants and tacksmen that can't come to the Gathering, that falls to me." "Have you seen any of your Scottish companions raise funds for the rebellion?" "Let's get on with it." "Why would Dougal MacKenzie rather adopt you as one of his own than allow me to question you?" "I was wondering if you had a potion that might open a lad's heart to a lassie." " What's his name?" " Ha." "Horrocks?" "There's a chance to get the price lifted from my head." "A Redcoat deserter claims he was there, saw who actually killed the sergeant." "I knew where we were going without having to ask." "The province of a man I unfortunately knew all too well." "I'll thank ye to take yer hands off my wife." "Strange, the things you remember." "The people, the places, the moments in time burned into your heart forever while others fade in the mist." "I've always known I've lived a life different from other men." "When I was a lad, I saw no path before me." "I simply took a step and then another, ever forward, ever onward, rushing toward someplace," "I knew not where." "And one day I turned around and looked back and saw that each step I'd taken was a choice." "To go left, to go right, to go forward, or even not go at all." "Every day, every man has a choice between right and wrong, between love and hate, sometimes between life and death." "And the sum of those choices becomes your life." "The day I realized that is the day I became a man." "Where's your mind, lad?" "Horrocks is waiting." "Give him the gold." "I'll trust his word." "The British army trusted him, too." "Perhaps today's not such a good day for business after all." "Whether you deserted is no concern of ours, Mr. Horrocks." "We commend ye for it." "I've come a long way at considerable danger to myself, eluding Redcoat patrols." "The man who shot the sergeant was Captain Jonathan Randall himself." "You expect us to believe that a captain, even one as vile as black Jack, would shoot his own man?" "You know Randall." "I suppose you can answer that." "I canna use Randall's name to clear my own." "You bargained for a name." "A name is what you received." "Good day, lads." " Let him go." " Jamie!" "Jamie!" "Claire." "I was minding her, I swear." "I went for a piss and... where is she?" "She must have wandered off." "When I caught up, the Redcoats had her." "She was fighting and thrashing about, but they took her." "They were headed south." "_" " Where is the English woman?" " I don't know who you mean." "My friend here isna best pleased with yer answer." "Pray, I don't know." "Pray that you do, or your next words will be in a lassie's voice." "Commander's office." "In the tower." "Thank you." "Murtagh, dinna wait too long." "Help!" "I'll thank ye to take yer hands off my wife." "Good god." "Dougal MacKenzie neglected to mention that you married the stripe-backed thief." "How's my handiwork looking these days?" "Very well." "Despite your effort." "I don't suppose you'd... you'd show me." "Be the last thing you ever saw." "Well, only risk brings the possibility of reward, hmm?" "Just shoot this bastard, Jamie." "Do." "Shoot me." "Shoot us both." "And alarm the entire Fort to your presence." "Oh, it appears we're to have an audience, madam." "I think we should endeavor to enjoy ourselves." "I certainly shall." "Now, lay that pistol on the table, and let us commence with the evening's entertainments." "Do it." "Slowly." "I will slit her throat, I swear to god." "Slowly." "That wasn't too hard." "Back you go." "Do it!" "Get out of here, Jamie." "Just go." "Go." "Everyone keep calm." "Easy does it." "Oh, first she orders you to fire, now she orders you to flee." "Who's the man in this marriage, Fraser?" "I'll cut off your balls, I swear." "You are a foulmouthed scold." "For the life of me, I cannot understand why any man would..." "Would pledge himself to a... to a woman, especially such a mendacious slut as this one." "Would you like your husband to join us maybe?" "What do you say, Fraser, hmm?" "Huh?" "Or do you prefer to watch?" "You bluffed your way in here with an empty pistol?" "Ned said not to kill anyone, so I had all the weapons unloaded." "This way." "Wait." "Sometimes I wonder why I chose not to take his life." "But at that moment, I only thought to make certain he wasna about to raise the alarm." "It never occurred to me to kill a helpless man, even one such as Randall." "Alarms!" "Turn on the alarm!" " Get ready!" " Fire!" "Up here." "You are sure there's water down there, aren't you?" "Aye, I think so." "Still a couple hours' ride from the drover." "We should water the horses." "Give him a drink of water, will ye?" "Aye." "Are you all right?" "Randall..." "He... he didna hurt you?" "No, he didn't have time, thanks to you." "I'm waiting for you to say something, anything that approaches an apology." "An apology?" "I was taken hostage by Jack Randall." "Are you trying to say that's somehow my fault?" "Well, it is your fault." "Had you stayed put where I ordered you to stay, none of this would have happened." "Ah, but no." "No, you won't listen to me." "Why mind me?" "I am no but yer husband." "Ye take it into yer mind to do as ye damn please, and next I ken, I find ye flat on yer back with yer skirts up and the worst scum of the land between yer legs about to take ye before my very eyes." "I begged you to take me with you." "I told you there was no danger in me going along." "Would you listen to me?" "No." "No, I'm only a woman." "Now, why should you pay any attention to what I have to say?" "Women are only fit to... to do as they're told and obey orders." "If ye'd done that, we wouldn't be on the run now with a hundred Redcoats on our tail." "Try that again, and I'll slap you until yer ears ring." "You're a brute and a fool!" "Do you think I went and got captured by the English on purpose?" "Aye, I do think ye did it on purpose to get back at me for what happened at the glade." "At the glade?" "With the British deserters?" "You think, to punish you, I went for a walk in the woods on..." "On the chance that some British soldiers would be going by?" "Christ, Jamie, I went for a walk!" "I ordered you to stay put." "I don't have to do what you tell me to." "Aye, you do." "You are my wife." "Oh, your wife." "Your wife." "Oh, you think I'm your property, don't you?" "You think I belong to you, and you can't stand for someone to have something else that belongs to you." "You do belong to me, and you are my wife whether you like it or not." "Well, I don't like it!" "I don't like it one bit!" "But that doesn't matter to you either, does it?" "As long as I'm there to warm your bed, you don't care what I think or how I feel." "That's all a wife is to you, something to stick your cock into whenever you feel the urge." "Let go of me, you... you fucking bastard!" "You foulmouthed bitch!" "You'll no speak to me that way!" "I went to ye at Fort William armed with an empty pistol and my bare hands." "When you screamed..." "Ye're tearing my guts out, Claire." "I'm sorry." "Jamie..." "Forgive me." "Forgiven." "I'm sorry, too." "I ask your pardon for what I said." "I was sore." "I said more than I meant." "Will ye forgive me, too?" "Forgiven." "She asked forgiveness, and I gave it." "But the truth is, I'd forgiven everything she'd done and everything she could do long before that day." "For me, that was no choice." "That was falling in love." "Looks like we'll be needing a few more plates, then." "So... so while Murtagh was footering about, setting the fuses on the gunpowder," "I sent three of the bloody Jessies to meet the almighty." "I am not hearing this." "When I heard the explosion, I thought the walls of the Fort were going to come down." "Did ye use yer breath or yer farts to subdue them?" "Are ye calling me a liar?" "Aye, because ye are lying." "Ye kilt nobody." "Oh, oh, for god's sake, Angus, sit down." "Stop flapping yer gums." "Use it for something useful for a change." "Yeah, I'm not gonna tell it if you're taking that tone." "I don't believe I've properly thanked all of you." "What you did last night..." "Ned, ye got any wine down there?" "Yeah, well, they do actually have some Rhenish." "Quite nice, if I may say." "It's been a long day." "Think I'll go upstairs." "She doesna understand what she nearly cost us." "Aye." "And she needs to." "Do you think they'll ever speak to me again?" "Aye." "They will." "Come to bed, Jamie." "I'm afraid we've a matter still to settle between us before we sleep tonight." "What is it?" "If a man among us had put the rest in danger as ye did, he'd have likely had his ears cropped or been flogged, if not killed outright." "I..." "I didn't know." "Well, I ken ye're not yet familiar with our ways, and that's some excuse." "Still, I did tell ye to stay hid." "If ye'd done so, none of this would have happened." "Now the British will be looking high and low for us." "As for Captain Randall, eh, that's something else again." "He'll be looking for you, especially now that he knows you're here." "Aye." "He..." "It's personal with him." "I am so sorry, Jamie." "Eh, if it were just me, ye'd hurt by it," "I wouldna say more about it." "But your actions put all the men in jeopardy." "Right." "Best get on with it." "Ye've done considerable damage disobeying my orders, and I'm gonna punish ye for it." "What do you mean?" "Oh, you know fine well what I mean." "Now, get down by the bed and lift yer shift, lass." "I'll do no such thing." "Now, Claire..." "I have said I'm sorry, and I am, and I will never do such a thing again." "That's just the point." "Ye might." "Ye come from a place where things are easier, I think." "Where's it's... it's no a matter of life and death if ye..." "Ye disobey orders or take matters into yer own hands." "But it's the hard truth in places and times like these that a... a light action can have very serious consequences." "All right, you..." "You're right, of course." "I will obey your orders even if I don't agree with them." "Good." "Now, then, get off the bed and we'll get this over with." "What?" "I..." "I said I would follow your orders." "There's a difference between understanding something in yer mind and really knowing it, deep down." "I can tell ye from my own experience that a good hiding makes ye understand things in a more serious light." "But as I said, if it was just me ye put in danger..." "But it wasn't." "Such a thing is justice, Claire." "Ye've done wrong to all the men, and ye must suffer for it." "I'm yer husband." "It's my duty to attend to it." "I will not let you beat me!" "Ye won't?" "I doubt ye'll have much to say about it." "Ow!" " The lad's getting on with it." " Seems so." "'Tis his duty." " Ye're my wife, like it or not." " I'll scream." "Likely if not before, certainly during." "I expect they'll hear ye in the next village." "Ye've got good lungs." "This'll go faster if ye just yield, woman." "I'm gonna make you suffer!" " Oh!" " Ye already are." "You're taking pleasure in this, you barbarian." "Sounds like holy hell up there." "I'm not sure who's punishing who." "I'll never forgive you." "Well, if I can forgive ye for what you did, ye can forgive me, too, soon as ye can sit down again." "Aah!" "You sadist!" "I dinna ken what's a sadist." "As for my pleasure," " I said I was gonna punish you." " No!" "I didna say I wasna gonna enjoy it." "I hope that Jamie wasn't too harsh on ye last night." "A skelped arse never did anyone permanent damage." "Looks like she gave as good as she got." "Ah, it may no be permanent, but it hurts like hell." "She'll no make that mistake again." "Indeed, yes." "Come and have a seat here next to me, lassie." "No, thank you." "Think I'll stand." "Over there." "Ooh!" "Justice done, problem solved." "I thought the page had turned on an unpleasant chapter." "But I had precious little experience as a husband, or I would never have had such naive expectations." "If anything, returning to Castle Leoch only heightened the tensions and strains on my newfound marriage and presented me with more choices that would affect our lives for years still to come." "Hooray!" "Welcome home, my dears." "Well done." "Congratulations to ye both." "I look forward to hearing all about yer nuptials." "It's been some time since we've had a wedding here." "My profound good wishes for a long and happy marriage, lady Broch Tuarach." "Why?" "Why did you do it?" "I waited for you, Jamie." "I was counting the days till you'd return." "I had no notion about yerself and..." "It wasna something I planned." "Then why?" "Why did you do it?" "'Twas Dougal's arrangement, ye see." "It's no simple story, I can tell ye that much, but an explanation will have to wait." "Colum summons me." "I must go." "Aye, ye canna keep a MacKenzie waiting." "But we'll speak again?" "Aye." "You have my word." "Ah, it's the bridegroom." "Aye." "Now that I have all three of you weasels gathered together, who would like to explain Fort William?" "Is clan MacKenzie going to have to answer for yer..." "Yer little raid, hmm?" "No." "Any repercussions will land solely on me." "Captain Randall will make sure of that." "Fine." "Now, back to the rents." "Oh, as I said, it's been a lean year for some of the tenants, but we do have much of the stock still to sell off, which should help to tip the scales." "What about the other money you collected?" "The money for the Bonnie Stuart Prince across the water, hmm?" "'Tis for the Jacobites, is it not?" "Did you not think that one among the rent party would remain loyal to his laird?" "Or at least young Jamie here... he does me the honor of looking fittingly guilty." "You mistake concern for guilt." "My conscience is clear." "I owe no loyalty to... to Charlie or James." "He speaks truth, brother." "We merely used the welts on his back to illustrate British justice." "We raised that gold honorably." "We never concealed the fact from anybody that we were raising money to restore the rightful king to his throne." "That, I might remind ye, is a cause more important than any clan or man." "Is that so?" "Well, this clan remains under the charge of this man." "It is still my pleasure to choose what causes are supported, and clan MacKenzie's welfare comes before any king or country." "I've proved my loyalty to you time and again." "I've collected yer rents." "I've fought yer battles." "I've protected yer person." "For the love of Christ, I've even assured your bloodline." "Now, I think that such fealty is worth a mere bag of gold, don't you?" "Leave my sight." "I shall try to calm his distemper." "Either that, or I will calm it for him." "Perhaps ye'd rather chastise me at a later time." "Stay." "I opened my home to you as sanctuary from the British." "I gave my food." "I gave my hospitality." "Even when you refused to pledge fealty to me," "I continued to grant ye quarter and protection." "And how am I recompensed?" "You marry a sassenach, knowing well enough that none in the clan will support ye now as my successor." "I meant no such betrayal, uncle." "Get out." "I knew it that first time I saw Dougal and Hamish playing together in the courtyard." "Aye." "Many have gossiped about it in whispers, and every one of us in the room already Kent it well, but that's the first time I've ever heard" "Dougal proclaim he's Hamish's father." "I thought Colum was gonna run him through right there." "That would solve a few problems." "Aye, if the storm canna be calmed between the brothers," "I'll be the one to pay the price." "It's hardly the first time he and Dougal have been at odds, god knows." "I'm sure it'll be fine in the morning." "Aye." "What are you doing?" " I thought..." " Think again." "Dougal tells ye something, it's as if it's law." "Ye'll do well to remember that." "Devil, man, he's just a lad." "His mouth has been in Colum's ear and his lips half up his ass." "He gave Colum the moneys collected for the Jacobites." "And it wasna his to give." "And wasna Colum's to take." "The MacKenzie ordered me to do it." "I was just serving my oath to himself as given." "Would you have me lie to the laird?" "If the MacKenzie asked ye the same, ye'd do it, would ye no?" "Not after what he did to Dougal, no." "And what about you, Jamie?" "Where does your loyalty lie between the chief and the war chief, huh?" "There is but one laird of the clan, is there no?" "Enough of this blather." "The issue needs no debate." "The lad shoulda come to us for counsel afore taking action." "For his disobedience, he's getting a due course of punishment." "Besides, this is MacKenzie business." "You Frasers should mind to yer own." "Now stand aside and let us get back to ours." "Hey." "What's all this, then?" "I thought we were hunting stag." "Aye." "Who's with me?" "It's getting a wee bit uncomfortable around here for my taste." "Rupert's right." "This is not our fight." "I'll saddle the horses." "You take hold of Claire." "We'll be away from here this very night." "And how would we live?" "Horrocks was my best chance." "Now I may be an outlaw for good." "We'll live off the land." "Or has castle life made ye soft?" "Would ye have me sleeping under a tree, come winter, with my wife?" "Leave her, then." "We can send for the lass when we find safe beds." "Aye, spoken like the unwed man ye are." "For pity's sake, Jamie, it's either uptail and away, or we stay and pick a side." "It's not like Colum's gonna give Dougal back the gold." "Not that I see that it matters much either way." "The Bonnie Prince isna sailing from Italy anytime soon." "No." "No, he isna, is he?" "Peace, you say?" "Peace?" "You come here and tell me that clansman brawls with clansman, that my own brother defies me." "How can there be peace until such disloyalty is punished?" "Chastising the guilty might soothe your anger, but I doubt it'll accomplish anything more." "The bad blood will only fester, leading to more violence, until the clan explodes into open warfare." "What would you have me do?" "Make yer brother a gift of the Jacobite gold." "Ye'd have me commit treason to the crown?" "Sanction a Stuart restoration to the throne?" "Stuart restoration is but an airy hope, my laird." "There is no Jacobite army." "The highland clans are too busy reiving each other's cattle to even consider uniting, while Bonnie Prince Charlie lounges idly, being pampered by the pope." "Aye, aye." "Aye, all that is true." "But in the meanwhile, my own clan teeters on the brink of civil war." "Then remove the source of the immediate conflict." "Give Dougal back the gold, and you pacify him and his companions." "Let your brother play the rebel, as long as he does it quietly." "Let him whisper of a free Scotland for now, while you bide yer time and wait to see how events transpire." "If Bonnie Prince Charlie ever returns with a coat of arms, you can decide then which side to back." "Dougal may be war chief, but he knows only you can cry for war." "Bring my brother and Ned Gowan here." "Are we to stand here all day, or is there a purpose to this summons?" "One day, brother, ye'll talk yer head off yer shoulders and right onto a pike." "A month ago, ye swore an oath to me on this dirk." "Ye recall?" "Aye." "So tell me, brother, what's a man's word worth these days?" "A bag of gold, perhaps?" "My oath to you is an oath to Scotland." "I've not broken it nor will I ever." "We'll see." "Go on, then." "Play the rebel." "See where it leads ye." "I thank you, brother." "Ned, send a missive to the duke of Sandringham inviting him to a banquet in his honor." "Best warn the men of the household to keep their arses out of his reach." "Sweet Christ, man, can you not keep that tongue of yours from wagging?" "Very wise, laird, to get the measure of the Jacobite cause from an Englishman's perspective." "It will take more than your approval to get back in my good graces, Ned Gowan." "Get out of my sight, all three of you." "I should have been happy that the MacKenzie clan wasna about to tear itself apart and that I'd repaired my relationship with Colum and Dougal." "But I wasn't." "The rift with Claire was an open wound that would not heal." "I needed to do something, make a decision, choose a course of action." "But what?" "I Kent I'd find ye here." "This has been yer secret place since ye were a lad." "Not so secret, if ye found me so easily." "Ye promised we would speak." "Aye." "I remember the first time I saw you, James Fraser, coming through the gates of Leoch." "I was only seven years old, still a child." "Ye didn't notice back then how my heart leapt when you were near." "You went away, all those years, I never forgot you." "I'm wed now." "And 'twas a gallant thing ye did, marrying the sassenach to spare her from the British." "'Tis true, the marriage was Dougal's arrangement, but..." "Ye dinna look very happy." "Ye look like ye're carrying the world on your back." "Laoghaire..." "When you returned, when you took the beating for me in the Great Hall," "I knew I wasn't wrong, that you felt the same." "And then, that day in the alcove, the way you kissed me..." "She was married before." "But I've lain with no one." "I want ye..." "To be the first and only one to have me." "No, I made a vow, and I'll no break it." "Even for a lass as bonny as you." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry!" "For the first time since I was a lad, I felt uncertain about my next step." "All I knew is I had to find a way forward, one step at a time." "Colum and Dougal have mended fences." "Our lives in the Highlands are steeped in tradition, custom, and ritual." "So I've seen." "And Colum chose to risk looking weak, publicly changing his position, because peace was more important than custom." "I saw a rigid man bend." "It made me mindful." "About what?" "Wives obey their husbands." "Husbands discipline them when they don't." "Now, that's how it was with my father and his father on and on and on, back." "But maybe for you and me it has to go a different way." "I swear on the cross of my Lord Jesus, and by the holy iron which I hold, that I give you my fealty and pledge you my loyalty." "If ever my hand is raised in rebellion against you again, then I ask that this holy iron may pierce my heart." "Is that not enough, Claire?" "Do you not want me anymore?" "Do ye wish to live separately?" "I feel that's what I should want." "But I don't." "The key to Lallybroch." "What?" "Yer ring." "I had the blacksmith fashion yer ring from my key." "Why didn't you tell me that before, when you gave it to me?" "I wanted to wait until I took ye back to Lallybroch, so ye'd know the place was as much yours as mine." "Now, I dinna ken when, if ever, we'll get back there." " Jamie..." " That..." "That thought doesna pain me as much as it once might have." "You are my home now." "I want ye, Claire." "I want ye so much, I can scarcely breathe." "Will ye have me?" "Yes." "Yes, I'll have you." "Listen to me." "If you ever raise a hand to me again, James Fraser," "I will cut your heart out and have it for breakfast." "Do you understand me?" "Do you?" "Aye, you have my word." "You're mine, mo nighean Donn." "Mine, now and forever." "And I mean to make you call me master." "I am your master, and you're mine." "Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own." "Sassenach." "Yes, master?" "What does "fucking" mean?" " What?" " Fucking." "After Fort William, ye called me a "fucking bastard."" "Um... well, it means what we just did." "Ah." "What about "sadist"?" "You called me that as well." "Well, that means someone who takes sexual pleasure in hurting someone." "Oh, well, ye dinna flatter me overmuch, but I canna fault your observations." "Oh." "Was I too rough on you?" "Well, if you bed a vixen, you have to expect to get bit." "Come here and bite me some more." " I'm ravenous." " So am I." " You meant food." " Mm-hmm." "I'll go to the kitchen, fetch us something to eat." "What on Earth is this?" " Where'd you get that?" " It was just there." "What's wrong?" "What is it?" "It's an ill wish." "Which is?" "It's meant to bring pain or harm or even death." "Well, who'd put such a thing under our bed?" "Jamie?" "Laoghaire."