Je Suis Prest || Outlander

Chapter 12

Dearest Marsali,

We have arrived in Lallybroch. I must first tell you of our time in Inverness. Seònaid and the baby were well. We spent the night in an inn, planning to leave the next morning for her aunt and uncle's house. Seònaid said she needed to make a quick trip to a place nearby, and so we agreed to take her before heading back to Lallybroch. Your father was very grave on the trip. We rode near where the battle of Culloden took place, but I do not think it was because of that. We continued on to a hill, where a ring of standing stones stood. He told me to wait with the horses while he walked up the hill with Seònaid and the baby. A long time passed before he came back alone, and I could tell he had been crying. I asked what happened, and where Seònaid went, but he did not tell me. I think perhaps he could not tell me. We never saw her again though. 

It is good to be back in a place I called home for many years. Young Jamie's wife has given birth to a healthy baby boy. Michael is expecting their first child any month now. It is a beautiful thing. The ladies in Paris were always having babies, and I loved each of them as a brother or sister. I never had a family of my own, and so I would pretend they were all my family. I would brag to everyone how many brothers and sisters I had, not realizing everyone would know the truth behind it. Anyways, Jenny is happy to have Jamie home.

I miss you greatly. I have never cared so much for Hogmanay— you Highlanders and your superstitious holidays—but I am happy it is so close now. When you arrive, I do not want to anger your mother by meeting you at the front of the house. I will be waiting below the tower that gives Lallybroch its name. I hope you do not mind that I slipped this letter in with your father's. I thought your mother would be displeased to see a letter coming from me. It is good that I am an expert at removing and replacing wax seals after working for Milord in Paris.

Yours,

Fergus

I read over the letter countless times. I should have burned it, but I could not bring myself to do it. I slept with the letter under my pillow, and during the day I tucked it into my clothing. I developed a habit of always checking it was still there, the rough paper pressed against my skin. I convinced our mother to allow us a few extra days at Lallybroch under the guise of missing the Murray family so that we could leave earlier. I thought the ride to Lallybroch would never end; even when I knew we still had a great distance to cover, I scanned the hills for the shape of Lallybroch's tower.

Da and Auntie Jenny greeted us at the door. Playing the part of devoted daughter and niece who arrived early just to see them was the most difficult thing I had ever done. In my mind, what I really wanted was to run right past them to the meeting spot Fergus arranged. Over an hour of greetings and conversation I had to endure before I had my moment to slip away. I prepared Joanie by telling her of my plan, and she created a wonderful distraction by pretending one of the bairns had hurt her in their play. While everyone rushed to my screaming sister, I snuck out the back door to the garden and ran around the house to where I knew Fergus would be waiting under the tower.

He was pacing back and forth in the tall grass with a small parcel in his hand. When he saw me, he smiled and raced towards me. "Marsali!" With one hand still holding the parcel behind his back, he picked me up with his other arm and swung me around. "I have missed you," he said over and over again, while pecking at my face over and over again. "I have missed your eyes, and your freckles, and your funny little ears."

"Funny little ears? Is that any way to greet a woman?"

"Oh but I love them, the way they stick out from your hair." He kissed both of my ears and finally stopped to hand me what he had been hiding behind his back.