The Strength of a High and Noble Hill (An Outlander Story)

Chapter 34: First Sight

October 1770

Sixteen-year-old Inga McGillivray looks wide-eyed at all those around her. Despite living in Cross Creek, she stares in wonderment at the amount of people around her. The Gathering at Mount Helicon is awash with many varieties of people from different settlements. She anxiously tucks strands of her blonde hair that had come loose from the plait her mother had done for her that morning behind her ears.

"Come, come, Inga, yer mother does no' want us te be waylaid, does she?"

Inga smiles slightly at the sound of her Father's Scottish accent. She and her father are close as they are both good-tempered unlike most of their family. Her Father is rather a handsome man in Inga's opinion, with close-clipped, dark bottle-brush hair and a chiseled face, he was also fine-boned as a sparrow. Looking like a Roman-coin.

"Here, have some of our whiskey."

Inga watches on wide-eyed as a tall young man with red ginger hair, sharp, dark and slanted blue eyes and high cheekbones, hands her father a bottle of whiskey.

"Wha' yer name son?" Her father asks.

"Brian." He looks to Inga, opening his mouth to speak when another voice interrupts. 

"Named after my father, Mister McGillivray."

Inga's father spins around. "Mister Fraser! Yer a sight fer sore eyes."

The man who approaches them has Brian's eyes and hair and is also tall with the same high cheekbones, but Inga notes that his nose is different.

"Aye, I'm glad t' see ye weel. And who's this?"

Inga flushes shyly as her father urges her forward. "This is Inga, my second youngest. I ha' four children, Mister Fraser, two more daughters and a son."

"Aye, quite a brood." Mister Fraser grins. "This is my son, Brian," he gestures to Brian who flashes them a crooked grin (Inga does not blush), "and I ha' a daughter, Ellen."

Brian, like Inga, looks between the two men curiously. "How do you two know each other?"

"Aye, we go way back, don't we Mister Fraser?" Father remarks.

"Aye, we were at Ardsmuir for a few years together before Mister McGillivray was sent t' the colonies." Mister Fraser explains to his son, who nods solemnly.

"I work as a gunsmith in Cross Creek, Mister Fraser," Father explains, chest puffed up as if he's trying to impress the other father. Clearly, Inga's father has a lot of respect for Mister Fraser. Must be a good man. 

"Aye, good man. 'Tis good te hear o' our countrymen doin' weel." Mister Fraser grins.

As their fathers continue to talk of old memories and what has happened to them since Ardsmuir, Brian turns to Inga with a sly smirk. "Here, have some whiskey while they're not looking."

Inga blushes, her eyes darting over to where her father stands. "Oh, I shouldn't. My Mother wouldn't be pleased."

While her father is the man of the family, Inga's Mother is the one to fear. Robin McGillivray is quiet and serious and comes across as timider than Inga's mother, Ute, who's like a Valkyrie on a starch diet; tall, very blonde and broadly powerful. Her father is a small and wiry man in contrast to his wife. 

"Oh, come on. They should know it's part of growing up to rebel a little." Brian urges.

Inga thinks of her younger sister, Senga, who would have already taken it without thinking, not caring what either of their parents thought. Senga is the youngest out of the four of them, aged fifteen. Like their mother, Senga is exceptionally strong-willed and opinionated. Opposite to Inga but not always...

Inga reaches forward and takes the bottle of whiskey. A quick glance over to their fathers tells her that it had remained unnoticed.

Brian flashes her a pleased grin. Maybe it wasn't all about trying to be more like her rebellious sister, maybe she had wanted to look grown up in front of this attractive young man.

——

"Ow, Mama!" Manfred whines as she dabs his wound with a cloth that has been dipped in whiskey. While Inga and her sisters took after their Mother, Manfred, however, bares such a marked resemblance to their Father that his identity could scarcely be in doubt. As the eldest child and only son of the McGillivray clan, Manfred, at nineteen, is always described as a handsome boy, with tanned skin and dark, curly hair.

However, his face is currently quite bruised and bleeding. Harley Boble, a short man with a pudgy face, and otherwise undistinguished had accosted Manfred of taking part in the recent Hillsborough riots, trying to arrest him for his supposed involvement. Mother had large the charge, which resulted in Inga, along with her two sisters, subduing Harley Boble by sitting on him, with Father bringing up the rear. He called upon Mister Fraser to resolve the issue before Mother tried to take it into her own hands. Inga spoke on her brother's behalf when Mister Fraser questioned the family about her brother's whereabouts during the Hillsborough riots. In the end, Boble gets told that if he doesn't leave Manfred alone, the McGillivray matriarch will kill him.

Mistress Fraser had offered to treat him, but Ute McGillivray was determined to treat her only son herself.

"Sorry, Mein Liebling." Ute apologises. Like her father, Inga's Mother, Ute, has never lost her German accent. She looks at her husband in disbelief, turning back to the conversation that Manfred had interrupted with his complaints, the invitation to settle on Frasers' Ridge. "You're not serious."

"I am." Father retorts determinedly.

Inga smiles slightly as she watches on with Hilda and Senga.

"Why did you say yes?" Mother questions. Her Mother looks ready to tower over him in some form of intimidation, which would not be hard as Inga's Father is some inches shorter than his wife, reaching approximately to the level of her brawny shoulder.

"Mister Fraser is a good man and I believe this could be a real opportunity fer us, fer our children." Father argues.

"Even after what happened? What if this gets back to the Morrisons?" Ute questions frantically. Her distraction causes more complaints from Manfred.

Hilda sighs. "Mama, you know Davey will not break the betrothal."

Like Inga and Senga, Hilda, seventeen and the second oldest, is also a smaller version of their tall and blonde mother. Hilda, like Inga and their father, is good-tempered and friendly.

Mother huffs. "He might not have a say. That mother of his—"

"He's invitin' men from Ardsmuir." Father interrupts before she goes on a tangent. "Geordie Chisholm as weel. The Lindsay brothers, Ronnie Sinclair and Robert MacLeod are already there."

Mother is still unconvinced. "What about your work?"

"Obviously no' yet, there's much te prepare. But I could ha' my own shop. Brian Fraser has already offered te help build it." Father argues.

"Brian Fraser?"

Inga blushes slightly as she answers, "Son of Mister Fraser who owns Frasers' Ridge. Ten thousand acres of land they have."

"Mm. Sounds prosperous."

One thing can be said about Ute McGillivray is determined to make sure her children have good marriages. Already she's thinking of Brian Fraser as a possible suitor.

"But Mama!" Senga whines. "What about my friends?"

"No need to be selfish Senga." Hilda chides.

Manfred scoffs. "It's all she knows." Mother slaps his head. "Ow!"

"Du Schweinehund. All of you behave." Mother admonishes. "We are moving to that Ridge."

——

A/N: Mein Liebling = My darling

Schweinehund = Someone who behaves crassly (typically a man) can be called a "pig" or a "dog." German combines both.

The next chapter will focus on the wedding.

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