To Heart and Home
Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - AO3
Thank you once again to @pulveremcomedesligulas and @toinfinityandisengard who, despite both being in school and working and generally being busy people, have put up with my constant questions and ramblings and insecurities (”guess what I’ve written 6000 words now!” “ok but does the dialogue really sound like a kid?” “guess what it’s 6100 words long now!” etc etc etc. Bless you both.)
And thank you to those of you who have left such dear sweet comments; you have no idea how much your encouragements have meant to me. Truly. ❤❤
Chapter Three
Jamie, Late April, 1754
“Where’s yer Mam lass? Does it no’ concern her for ye to be wandering about the grounds?” Jamie didn’t mind the girl coming to watch the horses, and he couldn’t deny that she was a fair hand with them. But he also didn’t want to get on the wrong side of her mother. He had been at the estate barely a week, and the last thing he needed was to stir up trouble among the residents, especially if this girl’s mother was as strong headed as she sounded.
Bree shrugged, brush in hand, trying to peer over a stall door to get a glimpse of a new foal. “Mama doesn’t mind, as long as I’m done my studies in the mornings and have finished helping with the chores. She says it’s good for me to learn about the horses and things.” She squinted as she turned to look up at him consideringly. “You’re much nicer than Crusoe though. He doesn’t let me help much. Mama calls him an old grump.”
Jamie couldn’t hold back a laugh as she clapped a hand over her mouth. “You can’t tell him I said so though! Mama said not to say!”
Oh, dinna fash. I willna say a thing to Crusoe or to your mother.” He hesitated a moment, his hands pausing over the bridle he was mending, before asking his next question, “Where is this mam of yours? She sounds like she has quite a bit to say on all kinds o’ things.” Indeed, Jamie had lost count in the last few days of the number of Brianna’s sentences that started with the phrase “my Mama says.”
Brianna’s face fell for a moment, distracted from her perusal of the new foal. “Oh, Mama’s away right now. She went away with Lord John when he came with you last week. She said he had a job for her and she’ll be gone for a bit.” Her mouth turned up a bit at the corners as she tried to encourage herself, “But she’ll be back! She said she would be, and Mama says we’ll have each other always. So she’ll be back.”
Jamie could tell that the lass was trying to put a brave face on a situation that obviously frightened her. He bent his head over a tricky part of the bridle, giving her a moment to pull herself together. His curiosity soon took over however.
What on earth could the Englishman want with this woman? What task could she possibly perform for him?
“Ye said he went with Lord John, lassie?”
“Mmmhmm,” Bree murmured, now more interested in exploring the space behind the feed barrels.
“Do ye ken what job he had for her?” Despite the… understanding… he and John had come to, Jamie still didn’t completely trust the man. And he found himself feeling oddly protective of this strange woman who seemed to be all alone except for a young daughter.
Brianna shrugged again. “I dunno really. Somebody’s probably sick. That’s usually why Mama has to go places. My Mama is the best healer. Everybody says so.” This was said with the simplicity of a well-known fact, but it didn’t stop her voice from glowing with pride all the same.
This woman was a healer as well?
Before he came to this place, Jamie had been purposely and methodically attempting to push the thoughts of his wife to the back of his mind. He never ceased in his prayers for her and the child, but he did have to function day to day in the living world; he couldn’t spend the rest of his days living in the past. Or the future, as the case may be.
This mysterious woman – this Elizabeth MacTavish – seemed to have been specifically designed to thwart his plans.
Well, and wouldn’t that be just like Claire?
Brianna, meanwhile, was now too busy trying to climb into the stall with the foal and its mother to notice any lapse of attention on Jamie’s part.
“Alright then, Bree,” he said, swinging her down from the stall door. “I must be heading out to the yard, and ye canna be staying here by yourself. It’s time now ye were going back up to the house before Missus Keren comes looking for ye.”
Brianna kept right behind him as he started to collect what he would need to break in the new colt.
“But I can come with you! I don’t have to be back at the house till dinner time. And anyways, I get fussed at if I’m in the way up there. I could stay here and help you with the horses! Please Mr. Mackenzie?” She tugged on his sleeve, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet and peering up at Jamie pleadingly. “Please? I’ll do what you tell me! And I’ll listen and I won’t get underfoot I promise.”
Jamie sighed, wondering if he was setting a poor precedent by giving in to the wee lass, but knowing he wouldn’t be able to say no to those wide blue eyes.
“Come on then, wee shadow. Let’s go.”
------------------------------
Early May, 1754
Jamie had added another entry to his mental list of reasons why he wished that Brianna’s mother was not away from home. Besides the obvious nervousness the child felt at her mother being so far away, and her loneliness in having no family on the estate, Jamie had a few selfish reasons of his own. For instance, if the woman had been nearby, and able to be quickly spoken with, he could verify the many and varied things that fell under the category of “Mama said it was fine!”
As it was, nearly every time those wide blue eyes were turned on him in pleading, all his defenses fell completely away.
So here he was, taking his line of horses out to the hills. He typically looked forward to this task, as it afforded him some quiet and solitude in his thoughts. Riding on the horse in front of him today however, was Brianna. He still wasn’t entirely sure how she had managed to talk and wheedle her way into coming with him, especially since he was sure he had told her “no” at some point in the proceedings.
“Mr. Mackenzie?”
Jamie sighed. There was only so much quiet thinking one could accomplish with a precocious seven-year-old about.
“Aye?”
“What’s your friend name?”
What in God’s name…
He glanced down at her, trying to decipher what on earth she was talking about, to find her trying to turn enough on the horse to look up at his face.
“Sit still, aye? Ye canna be wriggling about like that on a horse, you’ll just confuse it. Now, what’s this about a friend name?”
“Well…” Bree stumbled a bit over the explanation, “I suppose… Are we friends now? Missus Keren said I need to have more friends to talk to, because she says I talk her ear off, but I was just thinking about it and I thought that I like talking to you. And I see you all the time, and I like helping you in the barn, so I just thought that we would be friends.”
Jamie was glad that he had already told the lass to turn around; he couldn’t have been able to keep a straight face if she had been looking up at him. As it was, he had a hard enough time keeping his voice from showing the laughter that wanted to burst out at this latest stream of child logic.
“Aye,” he had to pause again to get his voice under control, “Aye, if ye put it like that, I suppose we would be friends, wee shadow.” As much as he wanted to laugh, a part of Jamie felt sorry that the lass didn’t have other children about to play with, and his heart swelled with the honor that she trusted him enough to follow him about as she did.
Her little back relaxed as she settled back into his chest, “Oh good! But that’s why I need to know your friend name now. I want my friends to call me Bree. And most people do. It’s shorter and much more friendly! But I don’t have a friend name for you! ‘Mr. Mackenzie’ isn’t very friendly.”
He chuckled again; he couldn’t seem to ever stop laughing when she was about. “Well, lass, I suppose you must think of a more friendly name for me then. How did you come to have people start calling you Bree?”
This seemed to stump her somewhat. “Umm… Mama says she’s always called me that. Except when I’m in trouble. Then I’m Brianna. And sometimes Brianna Ellen. But that’s only if I’m for real in a lot of trouble. Like if I don’t close the door all the way and the barn cats get in her herbs. So it’s mostly Bree.”
She craned her head back again in order to squint up at him and furrowed her brows as she studied his face. “I think… I think it should be something from your last name. ‘Cause your first name… Alexander. Alex. No, those won’t do at all.” Brianna’s face wrinkled up in distaste for a moment, before settling into a mask of intense thought.
Jamie dared not ask what was so horribly wrong with his second name; he had never been very attached to it anyhow. They rode in silence for a few minutes, but Jamie was too occupied trying to keep her in the saddle as she wriggled about – nevermind wee shadow, she should really be wee eel today – to be prepared for the sudden shout that came with a seven year old mind arriving at a great discovery.
“MAC! THAT’S IT! Mac. For “Mackenzie,” see? It’s a much friendlier name! And it’s faster too!”
Jamie himself had already nearly jumped out of the saddle at the lass’s yell and was just now catching up to the point of what the yelling had actually been about.
“Mac, aye? Well, if it suits you then I suppose it suits me as well,” Jamie smiled as Bree finally settled herself down, the great Friend Name Problem appropriately solved.
“Now, do ye remember what I said yesterday about turning a horse gently? Let’s see you do it now, Bree. Time to head home.”
190 notes
·
View notes
WIP Tag Game!
rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips
Thanks for the tag @haventacluewhatimdoing Made a new post because I get stressed about adding to other people’s posts this way! Anyway! I’ve got loads of WIPs so you’re in for a treat! I’m mostly working on Classic Doctor Who these days but I’ll leave a few of my Bob’s Burgers stuff too because I intend to get back to those eventually 😅 everything appears as it’s labeled in my docs and no those are not the final titles!
Classic Doctor Who
Jamie grows old
Zoe & Jamie
Threejamie angst
SevenJamie welcome home
Jamie sick!fic
Jamie remembers
Three/jamie reunion pt 2
From my smut folder (so you know what’re getting into if you ask!)
Seven minutes in heaven twojamie
Three/Jamie Smut
Three and Jamie can’t wait
The master and three
Five times
Salamander cult application
(Let’s take a moment to say ‘holy moly Caboose you’re writing a lot of third doctor smut!’ Feel free to call me out)
Bob’s Burgers
Bosco fic
Willow
To all the boys tedmort
Tedmort aquaticism
From the tedmort smut folder
Morts praise kink
Happy new year
Fake
I’m so sorry—I have adhd and attention span issues; I jump from fic to fic quite frequently which is why it takes me weeks to finish a fic sometimes and I tend to start new fics just for the hell of it.
I’m tagging: @doctordiscosbignaturals and @babsvibes but I’d love to see anyone else’s if you’d like to do it!
5 notes
·
View notes