It seems Jamie has learned from our argument. He wakes me up in the most marvelous way. I run my hands through his hair as he grips onto my thighs. There's a knock on the door but Jamie doesn't stop. There is another knock and I sit up slightly.

Jamie looks at me and shakes his head. "No. No." He grips onto my legs and pulls me closer.

God he's amazing. I swear I am seeing stars. I let out a gasp.

The knocking continues. "Jamie!"

Jamie finally let's go of my legs.

Another knock. "Wake up!"

"Enough, damn it," Jamie says.

Jamie finally relents and gets out of the bed. He puts on a pair of trousers before opening the door. I roll over on my side attempting to catch my breath.

"Has my knock grown so feeble," Murtagh says as he walks into the room. "Or have yer marriage duties made ye sluggish?" Murtagh looks at me but drops his eyes. "Mistress."

"There must be good reason for this visit," Jamie reasons.

"Aye, lad, there is," Murtagh assures. "The Duke of Sandringham has arrived to take counsel with the laird. He's taken up residence in Merlewood House."

"This is my chance, then," Jamie says with a smile. "Hell, the duke has always been partial to me."

"Some would say too much so," Murtagh remarks.

"I'm not about to offer up my hindquarters," Jamie says. "But His Grace wields a fair amount of power in court, and if so inclined, he could lift the price on my head."

"Aye, it's worth the asking," Murtagh admits. Jamie sits down on the end of the bed. "Though he's not a man to grant a favor lightly."

"It's not a favor I'm asking," Jamie argues. "I'm an innocent man seeking justice."

"Justice, from the Duke of Sandringham?" I ask.

"The name's familiar to ye?" Murtagh questions.

I nod slightly. "I've heard it before." I take a breath. "Jamie,

if I tell you something, do you promise not to ask how I know?"

"I told ye I'd never ask you for anything ye dinna wish to tell me," Jamie assures. He puts his hand on my leg. "Yes, I promise."

"The duke, you mustn't trust him," I insist.

"You mean his fondness for other men?" Jamie asks. "I ken all about that. He visited here when I was 16 or so. Very attentive to me he was, but that's as far as it went."

"I wasn't aware. That's not it," I tell him. "The duke is a close ally of Black Jack Randall."

"Did Randall tell ye that?" Murtagh asks.

I look at Jamie. "You promised."

"I made no such pledge," Murtagh tells me.

"We'll both be respecting yer wishes on that account," Jamie says.

Murtagh nods his head slightly.

"A friend of Jack Randall's can be no friend of yours," I warn.

Jamie looks at me confused and concerned and unsure of how I could even know this.

"Perhaps, before you approach the duke, It might be worth having a word with Ned Gowan," Murtagh offers. "Get his advice in light of this information."

Jamie nods. "Aye. I'll talk to the lawyer." Jamie moves up the bed, so he is sitting beside me. "But, Ava, ye must realize what this means. This is my first real opportunity to gain a pardon. I can finally return home to Lallybroch. Take my rightful place as Laird of Broch Tuarach." Jamie grabs my hand. "And you can be my Lady. We'd be happy there; I know we would." He kisses my hand.

I smile slightly. "As do I."

I sit with Claire in the surgery.

"The Duke of Sandringham has taken up residence nearby," I tell Claire.

"The Duke of Sandringham?" Claire asks.

I nod my head. "The one Frank suspected of protecting Black Jack Randall."

"Oh," Claire says.

"Jamie thinks the Duke of Sandringham is his best chance at getting a pardon," I explain.

"It is risky," Claire says.

"I know," I assure her. "But Jamie does not deserve to live the life of a criminal when he hasn't actually committed the crime he is accused of."

"Have you told him?" Claire asks.

I shake my head. "No. I only told him not to trust the Duke of Sandringham." I sigh. I hold up the ill wish that Laoghaire left under my bed. "And I thought this would be my biggest problem."

"What is that?" Claire asks.

"An ill wish," I inform her.

"From whom?" Claire asks.

"Laoghaire," I state.

Claire shakes her head. "She really thinks she is in love with Jamie."

I nod. "She does. But I am married to him, not her. I plan on talking some sense into her."

I need to find Laoghaire. She is not going to walk all over me or my marriage. I find her in the kitchen with Mrs. Fitz.

Mrs. Fitz smiles when she sees me. "Ava, do you see what my darling granddaughter here has stitched for me?" She holds up part of the apron she's wearing. "Is it not the most beautiful thing ye ever laid eyes on?"

"Mrs. Fitz, would you mind giving us a few moments?" I ask. "Laoghaire and I have something to discuss."

Mrs. Fitz's face falls. "Aye. Well, I can see by your face it's a serious matter." She turns to look at Laoghaire. "Can I be of some help?"

"No, thank you," I tell her. "This is between Laoghaire and myself."

Mrs. Fitz nods. "All right, then. I'll be just outside if ye need me." She turns to the other women in the kitchen. "Come on, girls. Shoo. Shoo."

I step closer to Laoghaire.

"If ye have something to say, say it," Laoghaire says. "I have chores to tend to."

I hold up the ill wish. "Look familiar?"

Laoghaire shakes her head. "Why should it?"

"Because you placed it under my bed," I state.

"What cause would I have to do such a thing?" Laoghaire asks.

"Look, I know you have deep feelings for Jamie, and that when tender regard is denied, it can be very hurtful, especially in one so young as yourself," I say. "I even understand why your jealousy would be directed at me, even though I never conspired to take Jamie from you. The truth is he was never yours to begin with."

"That's a lie," Laoghaire insists. "Jamie Fraser was and is mine. And you did us both a wrong past bearing when you stole him away."

"You're mistaken, child," I tell her.

"My poor Jamie, trapped in a loveless marriage, forced to share his bed with a cold English bitch," Laoghaire remarks. "He must have to get himself swine drunk every night before he can stand to plow your field."

Before I can even think about what I am doing I slap Laoghaire on the cheek.

"I shouldn't have done that," I confess.

"Aye, I did put that ill-wish 'neath yer bed in the hope it would make Jamie hate ye as much as I do," Laoghaire confesses. "He belongs with me, and one day, it will be so."

"Well, I hope the price you paid wasn't too dear," I tell her. "Because that will never happen."

"Ye're wrong," Laoghaire insists. "Ye're wrong about Jamie just as ye're wrong about yer friend Geillis. It was she who sold me the ill-wish. That surprises ye, doesn't it? Good."

"Just stay away from me and my husband," I warn before walking away from Laoghaire.

I head to find Geillis, but she isn't at home. Her housekeeper tells me that I should be able to find Geillis in the woods, north of the foothills in the hours before dawn since it's a full moon.

When I do find Geillis, she is in the woods. It appears that she is doing what I can only describe as a pagan ritual. It reminds me so much of what the pagans do at Craigh na Dun. She's dancing with a torch and rolling around on the ground half naked. Finally, she stops laying on her back.

"You can come out now, Ava," Geillis tells me. I step out from behind a tree. "I thought I heard a rustling in the bushes. But then again, I always like to imagine someone's watching me. You could have joined me, you know. But you English are a prudish people. It's really quite nice, in spite of the chill."

"Yes, you looked like you were enjoying yourself just fine," I remark.

"'Twas the icy wind whispering over my nipples," Geillis tells me. "Makes them harden like acorns."

"So I can see," I assure. "And you're pregnant. Congratulations."

Geillis stands up. "Thank you. It's been my own special secret for months now. Not even Arthur knows."

"You must be joking, surely," I reason. "How's that possible?"

"I don't recall him ever seeing my unclothed body," Geillis tells me. "Certainly not in daylight."

"I thought you two weren't having intimate relations," I state.

"We're not," Geillis says. "I have a lover." She finally slips a shift over her head covering herself.

I look at her curiously. "Anyone I know?"

Geillis nods. "Aye."

"Well, must I guess?" I ask.

"It's Dougal MacKenzie," Geillis says. She laughs lightly. "I know what ye're thinking. I'm married to another man. A child would certainly be awkward. The bairn won't be born for months yet. Plenty of time for the summoning to prove fruitful."

"Is that what I witnessed?" I ask. "A summoning, what, of some pagan spirit?"

"Mother nature, of course," Geillis tells me. "To ask for our freedom, Dougal's and mine. Ava, I must ask ye to keep my secrets. Not tell anyone. Not just about the child, about what you saw tonight."

I nod my head. "I understand."

Geillis smiles. "I knew ye would. Come on, let's put out the fires."

With the fires out Geillis and I start back towards the castle

"I promise ye, Ava, if I'd known it was for you, I would have never sold Laoghaire the ill-wish," Geillis insists. "Ye could do a lot worse to me if ye wanted, now that I've shared

all my secrets with you."

"Look, I have no wish to do you harm," I assure her. "You're my friend. The only one I've made since I've arrived here, in this part of Scotland."

"I feel much the same," Geillis tells me as she wraps her arm in mine. "If it wasn't for you and my darling Dougal... Beautiful, is it not?" She hands me a bracelet.

"Dougal gave you this?" I ask.

Geillis nods. "The Duke of Sandringham himself presented it to him for that slag of a wife, Maura. A trinket like this would be wasted on the likes of her. So he gave it to me."

"Dougal's married?" I ask.

"Aye," Geillis tells me. "But his wife has been holed up in that estate of theirs for years. She's not one for public gatherings. Don't blame her, she with such a homely countenance."

"You say it was a present from the duke?" I ask. "But I thought he came to see Colum?"

"Hmm. He meets with Colum, but it's Dougal he's fond of," Geillis tells me.

It's puzzling. An English lord, a friend of Black Jack Randall, on such good terms with a known Jacobite like Dougal MacKenzie. But there's something that Frank said while I was helping him research. That Black Jack Randall had to have a prominent and powerful man who could protect him from the censure of his superiors. Frank and Reverend Wakefield were thinking that this man could be the Duke of Sandringham.

Suddenly I hear what sounds like a baby crying. "What was that?"

"Nothing," Geillis says.

I hear it again. "No, listen, it's a baby."

"Ava, that's a fairy hill," Geillis informs me. "That baby is no human child, that's a changeling."

I look at her confused. "What the hell are you talking about? A changeling?"

"When the fairies steal a human child away, they leave one of their own in its place," Geillis explains. "You know it's a changeling because it doesn't thrive and grow."

"That's just superstitious nonsense," I insist as I turn towards the hill.

"Ava!" Geillis shouts. "If ye leave a changeling out overnight in such a place, the wee folk will come and take it back and return the child they've stolen."

"They won't," I argue, "because it's not a changeling, it's just a sick child. It might very well not survive a night out in the open. I have to go."

"You go yourself, then," Geillis tells me. "And good luck to you."

I walk in the direction the cries are coming from. I see a small crying baby in the crook of a tree.

"Oh, God. Oh, God." I grab the baby and hold it in my arms. The poor thing is blue. I sit down at the base of the tree. "Oh, you poor child. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

I hold the baby close for a long time.

"Sassenach."

I look up and see Jamie walking towards me.

"I came up here, but I was too late," I tell him. "The baby was already gone. They just left it out here to die."

"Aye. I know," Jamie tells me. "You've a kind heart, but ye've no idea what ye're dealing with." Jamie holds his hands out. "Show. Come." I hand the baby to him. He places the baby back into the crook in the tree. "Been looking all over for ye. I met Geillis Duncan on the road. She told me where ye were. It's dangerous to be out here alone, Sassenach."

"Don't tell me you believe in fairies and changelings and all that," I say.

"It's not about what I believe," Jamie tells me as he crouches down beside me. "These people, they've never been more than a day's walk from the place they were born. They hear no more of the world than what Father Bain tells them in the kirk on a Sunday. And for the parents of that child, it might comfort them a bit to think it's the changeling that died. And think of their own child, healthy and well, living forever with the fairies."

"Take me home," I tell him.

Jamie and I sit in a study. I read over the statement Ned has prepared.

"According to Ned, how did he put it?" Jamie says. "'Randall's repeated sexual provocation of a high-born Englishwoman is a black mark impossible to erase.' That's good, isn't it?" I nod slightly. "Sign yer name, just below mine." I don't pick up a quill. "I know ye have yer doubts about Sandringham. Well, I don't question the truth of them, but ye have to try, Ava. For us. For Lallybroch."

I grab the quill from Jamie and sign my name. Ava Grace Fraser. I smile slightly. I don't think I've written my name since the marriage. It's still so new to me.