Ellen Fraser

Chapter 3 (Unfinished Business)

Claire was in disbelief. She knew that Jamie might have remarried in the twenty years since she had been gone. She accepted that possibility. But to Laoghrie? To the girl who almost had her burned for witchcraft? She couldn't think clearly. She wanted nothing more than to beat the man in the room with her. 

Thankfully, Jenny stopped them before any real damage was done. So now Claire sat on the couch, wrapped in a blanket trying to think through all she had just learned. But before she could do that, Jenny walked into the room holding two mugs of tea.

I was woken up by all the shouting, and nearly ran into Marslie when I went to investigate with a knife in my hand, hair a mess and in my nightdress. After she quickly explained to me what was going on, and having to assure Marslie that my mother wasn't a whore and that if she ever called her that again I'd have to cut out her tongue. 

Auntie Jenny rushed up and put a stop to what sounded like my parents about to murder one another. I watched Claire stomp down the stairs with Jenny following her before I burst into the room where my Da was pacing in his nightshirt. 

"You dinna tell her?!" I shouted, my hands clenching into fists, my right hand still firmly clasped around the hilt of my knife. 

"Ellen go back to bed this doesn't concern you" he said, jaw clenched turning to face me with his finger pointed at the door. 

"Doesna concern me?! I only just met my mother and now you might have just driven her away for good! Why didn't you tell her you had gotten married?!" I shouted stepping forward, absentmindedly waving my knife around for emphasis. I had half a mind to swing it at him.

"Because I didn't want her to leave! I was gonna tell her but I was gonna sort it out with Ned first" he explained. 

"Well that's idiotic! You better find a way to fix this Da. I dinna just go through the hell of accepting my Mother's return only for you to mess it up" I snapped at him, pointing my knife at his chest before moving towards the door. 

"Now where do ye think you're going?" 

"I'm going to clean up the mess you created!" I yelled, slamming the door closed behind me. 

"You told her to come here? Didn't you?" Claire asked Jenny as she handed her her mug. 

"Aye, I did. I thought she should know that her husband was home" Jenny replied, unashamed taking a seat in the chair opposite Claire. 

"I know you're not happy I'm back, but what I don't understand is why? I thought we'd gotten over whatever had come between us when I first came to Lallybroch?" Claire sighed, taking a sip of her tea, and biting back a smile when she tasted the splash of whiskey in it. 

"You're right, I havena been kind to you since you came back. But you have no idea what it's been like" 

"I can imagine-"

"Can ye? Can ye imagine Fergus as a wee lad knocking on your door with a fresh bairn in his arms screaming for her ma? With no explanation for as to where you were or what had happened. I assumed you were dead, and like any family would do I swore to see to it that your child was taken care of, and when Jamie was wheeled home I saw to it that he would be alright as well. Because that's what family does. But now to hear that you've merely been gone for twenty years, it starts I fire in me that I canna explain. I raised yer child, and don't get me wrong I loved doing it, Ellen is my blood and bone just as much as she is Jamie's, but it was hard. Ye ken she called me Ma for a time? But Jamie put a stop to it because he dinna think it was right. Well, to see you now, having abandoned your husband and child, and us I can say that he was wrong. You may have given birth to Ellen but she's more mine than she will ever be yours. I had her for years. Who do ye think taught her how to walk? Or her prayers? Who was there to tell her stories and answer her questions because it wasnna you Claire"