The Outlander

Chapter five

Fire by Gavin Degraw

I woke up the next morning to someone knocking on my door. I got out of bed and grabbed my wrap and wrapped it around myself before opening the door. Ally stood there and I let her in.

"Mistress Murray told me to dress you and to tell you that you are leaving with the Laird."

"Did she tell you where Mr. Fraser and I are going?" I asked as she pulled out a dress that Jenny made me.

"You are going to collect rent with the Mackenzies" she said helping me into my dress.

Once I was dressed I headed down to the dinning room for breakfast. I was surprised to see just Jamie was the only one at the table.

"Good mornin lass" he said standing up and walking around the table to pull out a chair across from him. I sat down and he pushed the chair in and returned to his chair.

"Good morning, where is Jenny and Ian?"

"They already had breakfast so they are off doing other things." He said. We ate in silence for awhile till a question popped up in my head.

"Have you ever been married?" I asked making him choke on his food. I got up and ran over to him to pat his back. He got his coughing under control and look up at me.

"Nay lass, I've never been married." He said.

"Sorry for asking" I said

"Tis fine you are curious." He said "Come lass we should go." We left the castle and headed for the stables. Jamie helped me onto the horse then got on his own.

We rode to Castle Leoch and waited for the rest of our group. Angus, Rupert, Dougal, and two other men I have yet to meet walked over to Jamie and I.

"I'm Ned Gowan, clan Mackenzie's lawyer."

"And I'm Murtagh Fraser, Jamie's godfather."

"Nice to meet you I'm Claire Beauchamp."

"Enough with the introduction, let's get a move on it." Dougal said. Angus, Dougal, Rupert, and Murtagh got on their horses while Ned took the wagon.

I was told that the first village was two days ride and we wouldn't stop till we got there unless someone had to use the loo. Two days pass and we arrived at the first village, while everyone set up I went exploring. I found myself amongst the little boys and girls who were running around, boys chasing girls. Once they saw me they all started to chase me. As we ran I noticed a little boy that looked to be about six was hiding behind a tree. I ran over there and knelt down next to him.

"Hello, my name is Claire what's yours?" The little boy looked up at me with big blue eyes full of fear and curiosity.

"M-My n-name is B-Benjamin" he stuttered.

"Well Benjamin why are you hiding, why not come and play?"

"Because the other children say I'm to ugly and small to play with them." He said.

"Oh really, well that won't do will it, come here and I will sort this out." The little boy came out from behind the tree and I saw he had a pegged leg and a large scar across his right cheek. I picked him up and walked over to the kids who were huddled together. Benjamin hid his scarred cheek from the childrens view.

"Everyone this is Benjamin, he's going to be playing with us."

"But he can't run fast." One of the boys said.

"And he's ugly." One of the girls said.

"What would happen if one day you had a pegged leg and a scarred cheek and someone called you slow and ugly?" I asked. "How would you feel if you were left out because of that?"