New Year Excerpt A from An Echo in the Bone

"You've been dreaming of them, haven't you?" I said.

He glanced at me and nodded slowly, a small frown between his brows. That made me uneasy; the occasional dreams he had of Bree or the children normally left him peaceful and happy.

"What?" I demanded. "What happened?"

He shrugged, still frowning.

"Nothing, Sassenach. I saw Jem and the wee lass--" a smile came over his face at that, "--God, she's a feisty wee baggage! She minds me o' you, Sassenach."

This was a dubious compliment as phrased, but I felt a deep glow at the thought. I'd spent hours looking at Mandy and Jem, memorizing every small feature and gesture, trying to extrapolate, imagine what they would look like as they grew--and I was almost sure that Mandy had my mouth. I knew for a fact that she had my eyes--and my hair, poor child, for all it was inky black.

"What were they doing?"

He rubbed a finger between his brows as though his forehead itched.

"They were outside," he said slowly. "Jem told her to do something and she kicked him in the shin and ran away from him, so he chased her. I think it was summer, for the yellow was on the broom." He smiled, eyes fixed on whatever he'd seen in his dream. "I mind the wee flowers, caught in her hair, and lying in drifts across the stones."

"What stones?" I asked sharply.

"Oh. The gravestones," he answered, readily enough. "That's it--they were playing among the stones on the hill behind Lallybroch."

I sighed happily. This was the third dream that he'd had, seeing them at Lallybroch. It might be only wishful thinking, but I knew it made him as happy as it made me, to feel that they had made a home there.

"They could be," I said. "Roger went there--when we were looking for you. He said the place was standing vacant, for sale. Bree would have money; they might have bought it. They could be there!" I'd told him that before, but he nodded, pleased.

"Aye, they could be," he said, his eyes still soft with his memory of the children on the hill, chasing through the yellow broom and the worn gray stones that marked his family's rest.

"A flutterby came with them," he said suddenly. "I'd forgot that. A blue one."

"Blue? Are there blue butterflies in Scotland?" I frowned, trying to remember. Such butterflies as I'd ever noticed had tended to be white or yellow, I thought.

Jamie gave me a look of mild exasperation.

"It's a dream, Sassenach. I could have flutterbys wi' tartan wings, and I liked."

I laughed, but refused to be distracted.

"Right. What was it that bothered you, though?"

He glanced curiously at me.

"How did ye ken I was troubled?"

I looked at him down my nose--or as much down my nose as was possible, given the disparity of height.

"You may not have a glass face, but I have been married to you for thirty-odd years."

He let the fact that I hadn't actually been with him for twenty of those years pass without comment, and only smiled.

"Aye. Well, it wasna anything, really. Only that they went into the broch."

"The broch?" I said, uncertainly. The ancient tower for which Lallybroch was named did stand on the hill behind the house, its shadow passing daily through the burying-ground like the stately march of a giant sundial. Jamie and I had gone up there often of an evening in our early days at Lallybroch, to sit on the bench that stood against the broch's wall, and be away from the hubbub of the house, enjoying the peaceful sight of the estate and its grounds spread white and green below us, soft with twilight.

The small frown was back between his brows.

"The broch," he repeated, and looked at me, helpless. "I dinna ken what it was. Only that I didna want them to go in. It..felt as though there was something inside. Waiting. And I didna like it at all."