We’ll rise up
Chapter 14. Seeking Safety
Previously Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13
AO3
Paris was quietly immersed in the night’s darkness, its stillness disrupted only by the ticking and tocking of the heavy clocks hanging above lavish fireplaces in the houses around the Royal Palace. At moments like these, Paris could fool any ignorant person that it was just another city in the world, sleeping under the moonlight. A cool breeze was sweeping away the sun’s heat from the streets’ cobblestones and the dirt had finally found some peace lying serenely on the earth, undisturbed by feet, hoofs and carriages. The city’s people though, were another matter altogether. The people were breathing in the same air from two different sides and that made peace nothing but a wishful thought.
Claire knew that this calmness was a delusion, like the silent seconds when breaths are held in people’s chests before the deafening war cries lurking behind push free again. Still, she found herself calming down as she brought the cloth from the cold water to Jamie’s forehead again and again, trying to fight his fever with the meagre means she had.
With Jamie’s heavy breathing as the only sound in the room, Claire silently praised God for the transient reprieve he found. His respite didn’t last long though, before his sleep became restless and he woke up gasping, hands furiously gripping the sheets.
Nightmares took him by the hand and lead him back to reality. Back to the terror, back to helplessness and self-condemnation. A boy’s face, stricken with tears, moments before the last of his voice was heard among men’s shouts.
Swallowing, Claire tenderly held Jamie’s mangled hand between hers to protect it from his own instincts and ran her fingers through his sweaty locks. She wanted to bring him back to her, even though she knew that a present where the fire had already eaten everything and the boy was dead was not a welcome thought. But she was there and he was alive. There were things that couldn’t be changed, no matter how hard one tried to relieve the world of pain.
When Jamie’s breathing became even and his eyelids closed from fatigue, she focused her attention on the street outside, trying to listen for the steps bringing Murtagh back. It took her only a moment to realize that in fact, she didn’t want to listen to anything. If she could hear Murtagh other people would too and it was never a good thing to find a man walking alone after midnight, no matter if he carried a medicine kit or three kittens with him.
It was more than an hour later when Murtagh came back from St. Antoine with Claire’s medicine kit and a wee stubborn curly-haired with sleepy eyes behind him.
Claire’s bulged eyes were answered by a taciturn “Mmphm,” from Murtagh.
“Fergus!” The surprise was evident in her whisper. “Why aren’t you at home?” Her eyes moved from the boy to Murtagh and back as she bent to her knees to hold Fergus tight from his upper arms.
“The lad didna take no for an answer. I told him ye’d go back tomorrow morning but the wee gomerel followed me and I didna have time to go back and lock him in.”
Claire shook her head in dismay and tilted the boy’s head with a finger under his chin so she could look into his eyes. “What you did was very dangerous, you surely know that. You should stay at home.” Her tone was strict but she knew that Murtagh, who had spent many hours raising another stubborn lad, could listen to the concern woven in it.
“I go where you go, Milady. I have to protect you!” Fergus exclaimed, and Claire hushed him before he could continue.
“We have to be quiet. We’re not supposed to be here.”
Fergus’s repeated nods, together with his tightly pressed lips made Claire smile, and she petted the boy’s head.
“And I brought this!” Fergus gave the louder most excited whisper possible, with glinting eyes and a huge smile as he presented Jamie’s snake. “I took care of Sawny, but I thought Milord might want him back.”
“Milord?” Claire questioned but couldn’t hide her smile at the boy’s conclusions.
“Oui, Milady.” Fergus’ cheeks adopted an adorable rosy hue and his eyes focused on his worn shoes. “Is he sick?” he asked glancing at Jamie lying on the bed.
“He’ll be alright, don’t worry, mon chou,” Claire reassured him, fervently wishing that she wasn’t lying.
“Oh, I don’t Milady. I know you’ll heal him!” the boy said with a broad smile, sure of her capability.
Fergus’s positivity brought some light in Claire’s heart. “Alright, then. Keep Sawny so you can give it to Jamie later. Are you tired?”
“Oui. It was a long way Milady.” Fergus stretched his limbs, as he always did before falling on his palette.
“Dinna fash, lass. The laddie can sleep in my room. Aye?” Murtagh intervened and nodded towards his room.
“Aaaaaye,” Fergus agreed with a yawn and followed Murtagh to his room. Just as Claire turned to retrieve her medicine kit from the floor, Fergus ran and trapped her in his little arms, hugging her as tight as he could.
With a kiss on his forehead, Claire bade her little rascal goodnight and walked to Jamie’s side.
She replaced the cloth on his forehead with a colder one and extended his arm to the side, taking his hand tenderly in hers. Murtagh came in with a basin of boiled water and more candles.
“I’ll be next door for everything else ye might need, lass,” he said and squeezed Claire’s hand.
Claire turned abruptly to look at him, surprised by his gesture. Seeing the concern in his eyes, she knew. Jamie meant a lot to this grumpy man, and he had all his hopes in her for mending him.
Thanking him, she turned her attention to Jamie and took the bottle of laudanum from her kit.
It would be a long night.
***
It wasn’t easy to work on Jamie’s smashed hand. It wasn’t only the difficulty of setting each bone correctly. It was his pain that troubled Claire the most because she could feel it as her own. She couldn’t compartmentalize as she usually did while working. No matter how much focused she was, with her hands stable and every move deliberate, she could still sense him. The laudanum was helping, but Claire couldn’t miss the fine line of his white, pressed lips, almost disappearing from his face. Every time Jamie flinched from the pain, her heart sank a little deeper in her chest.
She was soaked in her own sweat when she was done, Jamie’s hand nicely splinted and dressed in clean boiled cloths. The darkness had subsided, giving its place to a light grey before the sun would burn the sky red. A new day, a new beginning. If she was to return to St. Antoine she should wake Fergus up and leave. With the day’s light it would be far too dangerous to move across the city.
But how could she go? How could she leave Jamie, still in fever and pain?
With a final look at his supine form on the bed, Claire set her jaw and made a decision.
She wouldn’t leave, she would find a way to stay hidden in Jamie’s room throughout the day. Going back to St. Antoine was not safe anyway. The moment she’d run out of lack, Frank’s servant would find her.
Frank and his persistence were a lose around her neck, getting tighter with each passing day. She needed to breathe and she couldn’t breathe away from Jamie. At least not anymore.
It was almost an hour later that Jamie moved, slowly opening his eyes.
“I’m here,” she whispered and ran her fingers against his high cheekbones.
“Ye’re here.” He let out a breath and a tiny smile tugged his lips up as his eyes shut again, reassured that she was by his side. A moment later he opened them again, terrified, and almost popped out of the bed. “Why are ye still here, Sassenach? ‘Tis morning!”
“Yes, thank you, Jamie. I noticed.” Her eyes moved to the sunbeams entering from the cleft between the heavy curtains bringing their magic in, a trail of dust flying in the room like golden flakes.
“Ye should have left, Claire!” Jamie brought her out from her reverie. “If someone sees ye here…” She placed a hand on his chest easing him back on the mattress. “Tis no safe, Claire,” he insisted with his back was on the bed once more.
“Nothing is safe anymore, Jamie,” Claire stated with a rueful smile.
“Aye, but here – ”
Her lips were on his before he could finish. “I’m not leaving you. You’re still feverish and I’m sure this hand is making you suffer.”
Jamie huffed a resigned sigh. “I canna convince ye otherwise, can I?” At her negation, his eyebrows almost touched the spot above his straight nose. “And it’s already late. Dinna leave this room, mo chridhe. Please?”
“I won’t.” Claire smiled and placed a cold, wet cloth on his forehead. “I wonder how we can get some broth in here, though,” she murmured.
When she looked at him again, his gaze was fixed on her lips. Smiling, she bent above him on the bed and kissed his good morning.
“Milord! Milord!” A happy voice filled the room and a hoping Fergus got in, his smile so broad it almost reached his ears.
The question in Jamie’s eyes was obvious, but all Claire did was to shrug apologetically.
“I brought Sawny!” Fergus explained, coming next to Jamie’s bed with the wooden snake in hand.
“Aye, ye’re a bonnie lad Fergus. Thank ye for taking care of him.” His smile was warm, lightening the pain in his face. “Seeing as I am a wee bit injured at the moment, d’ye see fit to keep him a little more?”
“Aye!” The boy mimicked Jamie. “But you feel better, right?” he asked eagerly. “Milady healed you?!” he half-declared, half-asked.
“Aye, lad. She did.” Jamie's eyes trailed back to Claire, carrying along with his admiration and a thousand silent thanks.
Fergus turned to Claire, his big eyes full of hope. “Will we stay here, Milady?”
“Yes we are, Fergus. For today.” The disappointment her words brought to the boy was clear, but she didn’t want him to think that they could live with Jamie forever.
“So we will go back?” Fergus asked, his face scrunched up at the thought.
“Of course we will.” Claire swallowed hard. She knew exactly what Fergus was thinking. Living at St. Antoine meant they were risking their lives every day, especially if someone found they would be missing today. But it wasn’t as if they had another choice.
“And the man?” the boy asked, his deep frown making him look much older than he really was.
Claire glared at Fergus hoping that he wouldn’t divulge any more information, but it was already too late.
“What man?” Jamie’s eyes, red from fever but alert, sought Claire’s.
“No one. Fergus, where is Murtagh?” Claire tried to change the subject.
“He left. He said since we didn’t leave at night you decided that we’d stay. He then told me not to leave the room and left,” Fergus informed Claire. “He had business to attend to,” he added, like a proper gentleman.
“Yet, you left the room,” Claire scorned.
“Just to come here! I’m going back right now, Milady!” Fergus announced and before Claire could utter a word, he ran to the door. He opened it slightly, checking out at the corridor, and left the room leaving Jamie and Claire alone.
“What man?” Jamie asked again, with a frown on his face similar to the one that Fergus carried.
“Jamie, this can wait. You really need to rest.” Claire moved to the bed, gingerly sitting on Jamie’s side.
“No, it can’t,” Jamie stated with bloodshot eyes.
“You’re hurt. You need sleep,” Claire repeated, determined to stop the conversation.
“I willna have my rest until ye tell me, Sassenach.” His eyes were burning in hers.
“Stubborn – ”
“Scot,” he finished for her. “Aye. Tell me.” The tiny smile on his lips made his demand softer, but not weaker.
Claire swallowed the lump that rose in her throat and told him about Frank’s servant and how he found where she lived and pursued her, day after day.
Jamie’s face darkened, a shadow hiding the blue of his eyes, making them almost black. His stare was glued on the tapestry on the wall.
“Jamie? What is it? Do you feel unwell?” The inside of her wrist was already on his forehead, her other hand reaching for a wet cloth. When she moved the cloth to his forehead, he jerked away from her, creating a distance between them.
“Jamie?”
Jamie lowered his eyes on his mangled hand. “First the lad and now this. I canna believe what a fool I am.”
“What?” Claire asked in her thick English accent, unsure how the lad was related to Frank’s servant.
“I left ye here, alone, even though I knew. I knew ye were in danger, I’ve seen the man wi’ my own eyes and yet, I left ye alone. I went to Comte’s estate risking yer life here and even there, I couldn’t save the boy. I did nothing, nothing.” It was a torrent of whispers, tumbling out of his chapped lips while his eyes never rose to find her. “And now I came back and ye take care of me instead of the other way around.”
“Jamie.” Claire cupped his face with her hands, bringing his eyes level with hers. “You did right to go and you did everything you could to help the boy. Don’t cross yourself thinking of something that couldn’t change. As for me, I’ve been alone for quite a while, you know. I can fend for myself. I’ve done this before.” Her voice was sure and strong, even though she knew that no one was safe in the madness they were living.
“But that was before…” Jamie trailed off.
“Before?”
“Before I met ye.” Jamie looked deep in her eyes, so much that Claire thought he could see her soul. “I wanta take care of ye, Claire,” he whispered. “And now…” His eyes left hers and he stared on his hand. “I canna.”
“Of course you can! And you know what, you stubborn Scot?” Claire said with half a smile. “I want to take care of you, too!”
That brought a smile on his coarse lips. “And ye do, Sassenach.”
“And I intend to continue, if that’s alright with you.” Claire kissed his burning forehead. “We’ll find a way. I’m staying here, for now, under your protection, until you decide you’re stronger than this fever and get better!”
“For now? Ye canna possibly wanta go back to St. Antoine!” Jamie exclaimed, his eyes almost glinting with rage.
Claire had never thought that a man in so much pain could feel enraged, but apparently, she was wrong. “I don’t want to, Jamie. But that’s my house. I’m not abandoning my house again for Frank Randall! I won’t run away from him my whole life.”
“So ye’ll wait there, till he finds ye?” Jamie was furious at her decision.
“He… He won’t find me,” Claire tried for her most affirmative tone.
“Sassenach,” he started but winced as he moved his hand. “Claire, dinna go back there.”
“I can’t stay here either. I’m not supposed to be here!”
“Claire,” Jamie gulped. “If ye go back, and he takes ye… What am I supposed to do, Sassenach? I canna leave ye wi’ him! I canna leave ye at all!”
“Oh, you won’t leave me. He won’t find me. Fergus and I have a plan. I don’t leave my room when Frank’s servant is around. He never saw me.”
“Aye, that’s verra wise Sassenach.” The irony in his voice stung Claire deep in her heart. She withdrew, her turn now to create some distance between them.
Jamie felt her cold stare and uneven breath, the temperature in the room falling with every second. He raised his hand in an attempt to reach her, but she stood up and walked to the window. “Mo nighean donn,” he whispered regretfully, as her brown curls got lit by the sun, a million hues of brown filling the room that reminded him of the brown highland cliffs under a grey sky; they reminded him of home. “This plan doesna guarantee that he’ll not find you, eventually,” he said in a much softer tone.
“I know.” Claire’s jaw was still set, but the frown on her face softened. “It’s the best I can do.”
“Sassenach…” Jamie didn’t continue, his thoughts about his incompetence too loud in his head. He should protect her but they only thing he could do now was lie in bed, helpless.
“Get some sleep, Jamie.” Claire didn’t move from the window and her tone was more professional than he was used to. Cold.
“Claire…” he tried again, wishing that she’d come back to sit next to him.
She didn’t.
He rose, then, the pain running through his body like fire, burning him to the core and causing a grunt to leave his lips. That drew her attention.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I need ye to see me, lass. I need to show ye. I didna mean to offend ye before. I’m sorry for what I said. I didna mean it that way. Ye just scared me, is all.”
Claire’s eyes softened and she moved towards him, slowly lowering him back to bed. When his back touched the sheets again, Jamie wrapped an arm around her, holding her in place.
“Forgive me?”
A touch of a smile came to settle on her face. “Forgiven. I’m just tired of men telling me what to do. I knew you didn’t say it that way, I just…” She shook her head, dismissing her thoughts. “Forgive me, too?”
“Ah, lass. There is nothing to forgive.” Jamie gave her a warm smile before adding, “Come here?”
It was a few inches that kept them apart and Claire lowered her face, taking his lips in hers. She kissed him softly, trying not to hurt him, but he was reckless and deepened the kiss, welcoming the pain it brought.
He’d welcome any pain coming from her.
He ached for her to lie next to him, tangle her feet with his in bed and feel his heartbeat under her fingertips.
But she could do none of these yet.
Instead, she sat on the bed next to him and leaned in to kiss his broken hand. His forehead. His cheekbones. His jaw. And finally, his hungry lips that ached for her.
As Claire felt his tongue grazing her bottom lip and her heart beating erratically in her chest, she wished they’d met in another era, where people would be less blood-thirsty.
If that time would ever come.
Chapter 15
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