[Discontinued] the love of the earth || Outlander

xiv. fergus

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
↳ fergus

━━ ◦ Lallybroch ◦ ━━

The grounds had felt different, ever since they had lost both Jamie and Faith it began to feel duller and duller by the day. They had heard nothing, not even a peep from the redcoats about where Faith was, what she was doing or even...even if she was still alive, though none of them dared to even consider the possibility that she wasn't.

There was always someone watching the road that lead out of Lallybroch almost every waking hour of the day, it probably wasn't healthy but they didn't care. Fergus was hit the hardest by the disappearance of the young redheaded girl, Did they hate each other's guts? well yes, but it's like any and all other sibling dynamics, they bicker and act like they hate each other but at the end of the day...well they still love one another.

Fergus had finished his chores for the day and once again sat on those dreadful stone steps staring at that harrowing dirt road that was now dusted with snow like icing sugar on fresh tarts, but the french boy couldn't appreciate its beauty. His mind was plagued with worry about Milord & Faith, every day praying they weren't injured, dead or otherwise.

There were small footsteps behind the boy coming from inside the castle, the french boy took a quick glance at who was coming outside not wanting to look away from the road. He found the footsteps to belong to Mary McNab-One of the maids/housekeepers at Lallybroch, he nodded in acknowledgement at her, shifted over so she could get past and then went back to staring down the road.

Fergus jumped slightly when he felt the hand of Mary on his shoulder in a comforting manner, of sorts, he didn't even look up at her, she sighed "She will return Mr Fergus,"

He dropped his head to look at the stone steps he sat on "It's been too long, they haven't even returned to say where they took her, or even to speak if they..." He didn't finish his sentence, he didn't have to, Mrs McNab knew what he was talking about

"Have hope," she then descended the steps, going to collect the laundry that was sitting outside on the line, probably dampening from the snow.

Fergus scoffed Have hope? is that what he should do, Have hope after weeks of no word we're supposed to have hope He made it quite obvious that he thought 'having hope' was something of utter stupidity. Fergus had suggested that they go out and look for her, Spread the word throughout the highlands that she had gone missing, taken by the redcoats...

That idea was shot down pretty quickly by Jenny, she said it was 'Too dangerous' and would require 'too much manpower to accomplish'. Fergus jeered at the memory, He knew it wouldn't require 'too much manpower', Claire and Murtagh had done it for Jamie when he was taken by the redcoats, so why couldn't they do it for Faith?

He looked at the goats sitting in their pen huddled together due to the cold, he was supposed to be feeding them. The french boy pushed himself off the stairs slowly walking towards the shed where the feed for animals was kept, Maybe doing chores would make time go faster.