An Outlandish Tale: An Outlander Fanfic

Chapter One

              For the first time in his short life, Claudel was certain that Saint Agnes was finally hearing his prayers. He stared at the red haired man with a mix of relief and fear. He was large and carried a sausage as a club. Upon seeing the two children the man fully entered the room, his gaze moving between the children and patrons and the half naked women. He was clearly displeased, he was scowling at the adults and clearly daring them to move towards the children. 

    "Whose children are they?" He asked, his voice thick with a accent that he couldn't place. At once the matron of the brothel came forward, opening her mouth to say something, but Claudel cut him off, his gaze locked on the large man. 

   "We are orphans mi'lord, born here. I wish for your help. This man wishes to pay for my sister's service." He said quickly, ignoring the strangled gasp that came from the madam. At once the large red haired man moved closed the distance between himself and children. 

    "They will come with me." He declared, scowling when the man in question came rushing forward. He was much smaller than the red haired on, with short black hair and watery blue eyes. He stood his ground though, pushing himself up against the man, his watery blue eyes meeting hard green ones. 

     "I have paid for the girl, she will not go anywhere."  The larger man stood still, moving silently to pull a small bag of money from his pocket. Without a word he held it out the man, his other arm reaching out for one of the children. It wasn't until a small hand wrapped around his own, that he lead the way out brothel, pausing only briefly to pick up the half forgotten sausage from where he had dropped it.  

    "First things first, I need to get out of here fast, or I can't help either of you." Jamie said as he exited the room, pausing so he could face the children. It was the boy that had grabbed his hand, his other wrapped tightly around his sisters. She was hiding behind him, peeking out at him from behind her brother. 

    "The roof mi'lord, this way." Claudel answer, turning to his sister and pulling her out from behind him.  "I must lead this man to the roof, you hold his hand as I lead." She nodded and dropped her brother's hand, silently reaching out for Jamie's hand. At once Jamie smiled, allowing Claudel to lead the way.  The boy was quick, leading him up the stairs and towards the small landing. Once he was there, he waited long enough to Jamie to catch up to him than opened a large panel, just large enough for the fully grown man to climb into. "You go first, Rosa." The girl nodded, dropping the hand and crawled into the panel. Jamie waited until she was far enough in to follow, the young boy came behind him, pausing long enough to replace the panel door before crawling after them.   

      It took a few moments of crawling through the small tunnel before they finally arrived on the roof, which was thankfully flat. Once on it, Rosa moved to the side, allowing Jamie and Claudel to crawl out.  Once standing, Jamie moved to the edge of the roof, the two children following quietly behind him, and looked over the edge. Two men stood in the alley, both of them conversing silently in French. They were clearly looking for someone and were displeased that they couldn't find whoever it was. The sight of the men, caused Jamie to curse silently under his breath, shaking his head as he moved away from the edge. 

    "Are those men looking for you?" Rosa asked, eyeing the men with disinterest before turning to face Jamie. 

   "It would seem so, I believe they are hired by a man who wishes to seek justice for something my wife had done. She is a healer and announced loudly that his crew had smallpox, he promised to seek revenge. It seems that this is way of doing so. "

    "The man should not be mad, she did the right thing. Smallpox is a horrible illness." Claudel scoffed, turning to glare down at the two men.