By such Actions as you have undertaken, you have broken my Trust and betrayed your sworn Word.
Therefore, you are, each and all, hereby Evicted from the Land you presently occupy, dispossessed of your Title to said Land, and are required to depart, with your Families, from Fraser’s Ridge within the Space of Ten Days.
You may carry away such Food, Clothing, Tools, Seedcorn, Livestock, and Personal Property as you possess. All of your Buildings, Outbuildings, Sheds, Corncribs, Pens, and other Structures are forfeit. Should these be burnt or damaged by way of Spite, you will be apprehended and your Belongings confiscated.
Should you seek to return privily to Fraser’s Ridge, you will be shot on Sight.
James Fraser, Proprietor
“CAN YE THINK OF anything I’ve left out?” Jamie asked, watching as I read this.
“No. That’s … quite thorough.” I felt a cold heaviness in my stomach. These were all men I knew well. I’d greeted them and their wives as they’d come to the Ridge, many of them with nothing save the clothes on their backs, full of hope and gratitude for a place in this wild new world. I’d visited their cabins, delivered their children, tended their ills. And now …
I could see that Jamie felt the same heaviness of heart. These were men he’d trusted, accepted, given land and tools, encouragement and friendship. I set the letter down, my fingers cold.
“Would you really shoot them if they come back?” I asked quietly.
He looked at me sharply, and I saw that while he might be heavy of heart, that heart was also burning with a deep anger.
“Sassenach,” he said, “they betrayed me, and they hunted me like a wild animal, across my own land, for the sake of what they call the King’s justice. I have had enough of that justice. Should they come within my sight, on my land, again—aye. I will kill them.”
I bit my lip. He saw and put a hand on mine.
“It must be done so,” he said quietly, looking into my eyes to make sure I understood. “Not only because they’ll make trouble themselves—but these are not the only men on the Ridge and nearby whose minds turn in that direction, and I ken that well. Many have kept quiet so far, watching to see am I weak, will I fall or be taken? Will someone come here, like Major Ferguson? They’re afraid to declare themselves one way or the other, but was I to show these”—he flicked his other hand at the notice—“mercy, allow them to keep not only their lives but their land and weapons, it would give the timid ones confidence to join them.”
Not only their lives …
I felt the world shift, just slightly, under my feet. To this point, I’d been able to think that whatever might be happening in the world outside the Ridge, the Ridge itself was a solid refuge. And it wasn’t.
Not only their lives. Ours.
He didn’t need to say that he might not command sufficient men—or guns—to stand off a larger-scale insurrection on the Ridge by himself.
“Yes, I see that,” I said, and swallowing, picked up the paper gingerly, seeing not only the names of men but the faces of women. “It’s only—I can’t help feeling for the wives.” And the children, but mostly for the wives, caught between their homes, the needs of their families, and the danger of their husbands’ politics. Now to be evicted from their homes, with nothing but what they could carry away and nowhere to go.
I had no idea how many women might share their husbands’ opinions, but share them or not, they’d be forced to live or die by the outcome.
“Bell, book, and candle,” he said, his eyes still on my face, and not without sympathy.
“What?”
“Ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle,” he said quietly, and touched the paper on my knee. “It’s the rite of excommunication and anathema, Sassenach—and that’s what I have done.”
Before I could think of anything whatever to say, I heard solid male footsteps coming up the stairs, and a moment later there was a knock at the door.
“Come,” Jamie said, his voice neutral.
The door opened, revealing Lieutenant Esterhazy, his face twenty years older than his age.
“Sir,” he said formally, and stood ramrod-straight in front of the bed. “My—that is—Lieutenant Bembridge has not returned. May I have permission to go and look for him?”
I was startled at that, and looked at Jamie, who was not startled. It hadn’t occurred to me that the lieutenant was no longer a friend of the house but rather Jamie’s prisoner—but evidently they both thought so.