They reached the northern clearing after sunrise.
Golden light fell between the trees and spilled across a wide stretch of grass. At the far end stood an old oak, its trunk scarred by storms and age.
Several round targets had been attached to it.
Brianna turned towards Jamie.
“You prepared this already.”
“You knew Mama would allow me to come?”
“You mean you didn’t ask her until after you prepared everything.”
Jamie removed the musket from his shoulder.
Brianna smiled despite herself.
He positioned her approximately twenty paces from the tree. The distance was greater than she usually practised from.
“It will be, if ye decide it is.”
Jamie took the bow from her and examined the string.
“Your hands will be cold. Warm them first.”
Brianna rubbed them together, then blew into her palms.
Jamie selected an arrow and held it out to her.
She placed her feet apart and raised the bow.
Brianna relaxed her knees.
“Because you’re watching me.”
“A deer will watch ye too.”
“A deer doesn’t criticise everything I do.”
“No. It simply runs away.”
Brianna gave him an irritated look.
She turned towards the target and placed the arrow against the string. She breathed in, pulled back and tried to quiet her thoughts.
The bow trembled slightly beneath the strain.
“Do not fight it,” Jamie said.
“I can feel you staring.”
“I am standing behind ye. How can ye feel my eyes?”
Brianna released the string.
The arrow flew across the clearing and struck the outer edge of the wooden target.
She lowered the bow, disappointed.
“I was aiming for the centre.”
“Could you pretend to be impressed?”
“You don’t look impressed.”
Jamie walked towards the target and pulled out the arrow.
“The wind comes from the west,” he said. “Ye felt it against your cheek?”
“But ye did not allow for it.”
He handed the arrow back.
“The target does not move. The world around it does.”
Brianna returned to her position.
She raised the bow again and felt the breeze. It moved softly from left to right, carrying the smell of pine needles.
This time, the arrow landed closer to the centre.
She shot until her fingers ached.
Some arrows struck the target. Others disappeared into the grass, forcing her to search for them while Jamie stood with his arms crossed, refusing to help.
“You lost them,” he said. “Ye find them.”
By the time they stopped to eat, Brianna’s shoulders burned and the tips of her fingers had turned red.
They sat beneath the oak tree with their backs against its trunk. Jamie divided the bread and cheese while Brianna examined the blisters beginning to form on her hand.
“Do not show those to your mother,” he said.
“Then why shouldn’t I show her?”
“Because she will see them angrily.”
Brianna accepted a piece of bread.
Jamie handed her the larger apple.
“I have reconsidered which one belongs to me.”
Brianna laughed and bit into it.
For a while, they ate in companionable silence.
Birdsong filled the clearing, and somewhere nearby, water moved over stones. Brianna tipped her head back against the oak and watched pale clouds drift across the blue sky.
“Tell me about Scotland,” she said.
Jamie looked towards her.
“Something you haven’t told me before.”
“When I was perhaps a year younger than you, I stole a horse.”
“You have your mother’s troublesome devotion to exact language.”
“The horse belonged to a man visiting Lallybroch. A proud beast, black as night, and ill-tempered enough to bite any hand that came near him.”
“And you decided to ride it?”
“I decided the horse merely required a person of suitable courage.”
“You mean a person foolish enough to try.”
“Aye, well. Courage and foolishness are cousins.”
Brianna nearly choked on her bread.
Jamie smiled at the memory.
“But eventually, the beast allowed me upon his back. I rode across the fields as though the Devil himself followed me. For one perfect minute, I believed I had conquered the world.”
“What happened after the minute?”
“The horse ran beneath a low branch.”
Brianna laughed so loudly that several birds fled from the nearby trees.
“I was unconscious when they carried me home.”
“What did Grandfather say?”
“He asked whether the horse was injured.”
“Then what happened to you?”
“I could not sit comfortably for a week.”
Brianna wiped tears of laughter from her eyes.
She rested her head against the trunk again.
The humour faded from Jamie’s face.
He looked across the clearing.
He picked up a fallen leaf and turned it slowly between his fingers.
“A man may love the place where he was born and still build his heart elsewhere. Scotland made me. But this land gave me the chance to begin again.”
Jamie’s expression softened immediately.
“Your mother is my home, wherever we may be.”
Brianna considered the answer.
Jamie looked at her then, startled.
He placed the leaf aside and reached for her hand.
“Aye,” he said quietly. “Ye are.”
His thumb brushed across her knuckles.
Brianna squeezed his hand.
She did not know why she had asked. Perhaps because everyone on the Ridge seemed to carry memories of another home. Scotland. Ireland. England. France. Places spoken of with longing around fires at night.
Brianna had only ever known the mountains of North Carolina.
Still, she sometimes felt homesick for somewhere she had never been