The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [68]
It will be all right, Roger assures her; there is another way—Geilie Duncan’s way. He has seen gemstones, in Stephen Bonnet’s possession aboard the Gloriana. He knows roughly where the Gloriana was going—he will find the ship, and get the gems, by whatever means are necessary.
Brianna is more than dubious; beyond the simple difficulties of finding the gems is the risk entailed. As she says, “They hang people for stealing in this time, Roger!”
He is insistent, though; he must act now, while the gems can be found—for what other chance might there be, in a place like this? One thing he wants, though, before he leaves.
Handfasting is an old and honorable Highland tradition; a couple may wed by this means, for a year and a day. At the end of that time, if they are well-suited, they may wed more formally, by kirk and Book; if not, they may part. Both Roger and Brianna are sure of themselves and their love—but with no minister at hand, and time so short…
If I make a vow like that, I’ll keep it— no matter what it costs me. Was she thinking of that now?
She brought their linked hands down together, and spoke with great deliberation.
“I, Brianna Ellen, take thee, Roger Jeremiah …” Her voice was scarcely louder than the beating of his own heart, but he heard every word. A breeze came through the tree, rattling the leaves, lifting her hair.
“… as long as we both shall live.”
The phrase meant a good bit more to each of them now, he thought, than it would have even a few months before. The passage through the stones was enough to impress anyone with the fragility of life.
There was a moment’s silence, broken only by the rustle of the leaves overhead and a distant murmur of voices from the tavern’s taproom. He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed it, on the knuckle of her fourth finger, where one day—God willing—her ring would be.
A BRIEF AND PASSIONATE wedding night, spent in a shed behind the inn, comes to an even more passionate end, when Brianna discovers accidentally just what it was that led Roger to find her in North Carolina. Finding that he had learned of the death notice months earlier, and had suppressed it, Brianna is enraged. How dare he presume to keep such a thing from her? she demands. He might have deprived her of the only chance ever to find the father she has never known!
Given that this was precisely what Roger intended to do, he finds himself with no defense but the—in her eyes, quite inadequate—truth: He wished to protect her from the dangers of the stones, from the risks of the past. At its simplest and most ignoble—he was afraid to lose her. Beyond that, he wished to save her pain; the future can’t be changed, he is convinced of it. She cannot save her parents.
Brianna’s response to this is immediate and furious. She will find her parents, she will save them from the fire—and as for Roger … he can bloody well go and get hanged if he wants to!
Stomping back into the inn, Brianna dashes the candlestick to the floor, flings off her clothes, and crashes closed the shutters, as her terrified maid cowers in bed, hearing a voice outside roar, “Brianna! I will come for you!”
Brianna says nothing of what has passed, and after a long time, falls asleep, leaving Lizzie wide-eyed in the dark. The dark wicked man named MacKenzie took her mistress out of the inn with him, and now she has come back, disheveled and upset, with MacKenzie outside, vowing to return. What in the name of God has happened?
Unable to sleep, Lizzie creeps out of bed at dawn, and tries to order her mind by setting the tumbled room to rights. Picking up Brianna’s discarded, dirtied clothing, Lizzie is appalled to find the rank scent of a man upon it—and the stain of fresh blood in the breeks. But with the daylight, Lizzie’s fever comes once more, and she cannot ask her mistress anything; only shiver and moan, and hope not to die in this strange place.
For her part, Brianna’s turbulent feelings are further exacerbated by this delay. She wants nothing but to leave this place, put aside