As I sit upon the hill gazing out across the beautiful Scottish Highlands, I realise I should feel a semblance of peace. Here I was in the most beautiful country in the world and, yet I feel nothing. There is nothing for me in this life. No one that I love or that loves me. And that is all I wanted, to love and be loved in return. A fairy-tale love.

The wind which had been just waving my hair across my face suddenly picked up and I had to hold onto the scarf I was wearing to make sure it didn't fly away. The wind sounded like a roar travelling across the land. It was followed by a buzzing, so loud that I could not even think. I stood from where I was sat and felt myself being pulled towards a tall stone which stood in the middle of the hill top. Before I reached the stone, my foot got caught on a rock in the ground and my body started to fall. The last thing I felt was a searing pain as my head hit the tall stone.

I woke to a roaring headache. I rolled from my side onto my back, stretching out, and taking some big breaths. As I tried opening my eyes, the light sent shooting pains through my head, so I covered my eyes with my hands to block it out.

What happened?

After a while I sat up and slowly let my eyes adjust to the light. Looking around I found myself on top of a hill surround by some tall stones. Slowly I sat up, clutching my aching head. I should probably go into town and find someone to check my head. I stood up and carefully made my way down the hill. Soon I began to feel lost, the forest was thick, and I could see no end in sight.

A loud noise startled me so much that I lost my balance and fell, rolling down until the ground levelled out. The noise had sounded again, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement up the hill. Looking up I saw figures running. Then one pause, turned and shot at the men behind him who were wearing bright red coats.

Shot? A gun?

One of the men being shot at raised his gun and shot back. Another man in a red coat looked down the hill right at me. I was frozen in place. Is he friend or foe I wondered. He raised his gun in my direction and fired, hitting the ground beside me.

Foe. Definitely a foe.

The shot woke me out of my frozen state and I began to run, not stopping until I reached a small stream. I leaned against a tree to catch my breath.

"Who's there?"

The voice came from man by the stream. A man in a red coat. Panicking that this red coat would try to shoot me too I began to run. As I ran I could hear the leaved crunching as the man followed me. I reached the bottom of a cliff and as I tried to turn the man caught up with me. He grabbed me and pushed me up against the cliff, pulling out his sword he held it against my throat.

"Who are you?"

I stared up into the man dark eyes, frozen in fear.

"I…um…"

"Tell me!"

Ella

"Ella."

"And where are you from?"

As I went to answer this question I realised that I didn't know the answer. In fact, I couldn't remember anything before I woke up on the hill earlier. In all the fright and confusion, I hadn't realised that I didn't know where I was or even who.

"I…I don't know?"

Before the man could continue a blur came from above and the man fell to the ground. The blur turned out to be a man. He was scruffy looking with wild hair and a beard.

Is he wearing a kilt?

The man grabbed my arm and pulled me away to hide behind a tree. I heard voices shouting nearby.

"Who is…"

Before I could ask what was happening, the man covered my mouth with his hand and all went dark.

When I woke up I was on a horse. My head ached, and my mind was muggy. I hoped I didn't have a concussion from the two bangs to my head in one day. I thought about asking where we were going, but since last time I tried to ask a question I got knocked unconscious, I decided not to risk it happening again.

It wasn't long before we came upon a small cottage. We got off the horse and he led me inside. The cottage was full of men, like the one who had brought me here. They all turned and stared at me. They began to converse in a language I didn't understand.

I started to panic. I was all alone, in a strange place, surrounded by men who were speaking a language I couldn't understand and to top it all off I had no memories of my life before today. Through the fog of my panic I faintly heard a voice.

"Lass. Calm down, lass. You're safe."

My eyes focused on a man's face in front of me. He had wild, curly red hair and deep blue eyes, which were studying my face. As I came down from my panic, I realised large warm hands were holding mine. Very large hands, in fact the man in front of me was huge and towered over me.

"There you are. You doing all right now lass?"

It seemed at some point in my panic I had been led to a chair and the man talking to me was crouched on the floor in front of me.

"Lass?"

"I'm okay. Thank you."

Another man, tall with a short grey beard, walked closer to us.

"What's your name lass?"

"Ella."

"Right, Ella, you are coming with us. You can ride with Young Jamie."

I stared up at the man. Many questions ran through my mind. Where are we going? Why are you taking me with you? Who are you? Instead of asking these out loud I felt myself nod in acceptance. At least with these men I would be reasonably safe, at least safer than wandering the woods by myself.

The man, who seemed to be in charge of the group, started giving orders to the other men and a flurry of activity began. I looked back at the young man in front of me, who I assumed was Jamie, and waited for guidance.

"Come on lass, let's go."

He stood up, pulling me with him as he did so, and led me outside. It was dark, only the light of the moon allowed me to see the men readying the horses. Jamie led me over to one of them and helped me up onto it before mounting behind me. While we waited for the other men I felt Jamie moving behind me and then warm cloth was draped around my shoulders.

"That'll help keep you warm Ella"

"Thank you, Jamie."

Sitting there, wrapped in Jamie's kilt, his arms around me, I felt safe. It was an unusual feeling. Since I woke up on that hill I had felt the opposite of safe. I couldn't help but wonder if I had felt safe before, in my forgotten life. The realistic part of me pushed those thoughts away and decided to bask in the feeling while it lasted.

Suddenly a shout rang out and we were on the move.

Some time the next day we were suddenly jerked forward as Jamie rode up to the tall man in the lead. Jamie spoke to the man in Gaelic, so I had no idea what they were saying, but it sounded serious. The man responded before calling out to the rest of the men and drawing his sword.

Before I could wrap my head around what was happening I was pushed off the horse.

"Hide yourself!"

I watched as all the men drew their swords and rode off

What on earth…

It wasn't long before the gun fire started and then in the distance I spotted men in red coats. Jamie had told me to hide and I wasn't about to wait for a red coat to find me, so I ran. The rational side of me knew I was acting foolishly, running into the woods I would easily get lost, but all I could see was the man in a red coat holding his sword to my throat.

I didn't stop running until I had to stop to catch my breath. Looking around I could see what looked like a path through the trees up ahead. I made my way to the path thinking that at least it would eventually lead somewhere, which was better than risking my luck in the forest. As I reached the path I noticed a stream on the other side. I went over to the stream and dipped my hands in the water to clean them.

"I've been looking all over for you lass."

I whipped round at the sound of Jamie's voice. He jumped down from his horse and made his way over to me. Without thinking I backed away from him.

"You're not running away from me, now are you?"

For some reason I found the idea amusing and found myself smiling. Why would I run from him when he made me feel safe? I shook my head and walked towards him.

"There's a good lass."

It wasn't until I got closer that I realised his right shoulder was covered in blood. I gasped.

"You're hurt!"

"Its not my blood. Not much of it anyway."

I felt a little ill as the reality of what he had just been doing came to me. Jamie noticed my wooziness and took my arm and guided me to the horse.

"Dougal and the others are waiting just upstream for us."

We reached the others and continued our journey; the men were cheerful and talkative after their fight.

We had been riding in the dark for what seemed like a life time, and my legs were aching, obviously not used to riding for so long and on such rough ground.

Slowly Jamie's plaid began to slip from around my shoulders and then I felt Jamie himself start to lean to one side.

"Jamie? Stop! He's falling off!"

Jamie fell to the ground and I pulled on the reins to stop the horse and slid off myself. The other men came over and lifted Jamie until he was sitting against the bank. I watched as they just stood around looking from Jamie to each other. They obviously had no idea what to do. Sighing I walked over and began to look Jamie over. Lifting his shirt, I found what I assumed was a gunshot wound going straight through his shoulder.

"He's been shot."

When I got no response, I looked back at the men. I guess it's up to me.

"Can I have some alcohol?"

"I don't think now's the time for a drink lass!"

I rolled my eyes as they laughed between themselves.

"It's to clean his wound."

Finally, a flask was passed to me and I poured some over Jamie's wound. The sudden pain woke Jamie up and he tried to get up, but I put a hand on his chest to stop him and tried to ignore the feel of his toned body beneath my fingers.

"I'm fine, just a wee dizzy is all."

"I need to bandage you up first. Does anyone have any clean cloth?"

From the lack of a response, again, I took that as a no. My scarf would have to do. I took it off, thankful it was cotton and therefore easily ripped and rather large. So, I ripped it into strips, folding two into square to cover the wounds and tied the others together to wrap around Jamie's body to the squares in place.

"Can you hold this here please?"

Jamie held the font square while I held back and wrapped the long piece of cloth around him. It was difficult, especially since the thick canopy blocked out most of the moon light, but when I had finished I felt proud of what I had accomplished.

"Okay, that's all I can do for you here."

"Thank you, Sassenach."

"Your welcome."

I had been avoiding looking Jamie in the eye as I touched his bare skin, but at his words of thanks I looked at him, only to find him gazing at me. He had a slightly odd expression on his face, I wasn't sure, but I thought he looked impressed. I looked down as I felt myself blush at his attentions.

Seeing that I had finished the men helped Jamie to his feet and once again continued our journey. I was glad that riding on the horse meant Jamie couldn't see my blushing face. It felt rather insane to be picturing the naked toned chest that was pressed up against my back when I was in this situation. Shouldn't I be worrying about where these men were taking me and what would happen to me when we got there?

We stopped once more to give the horses a short rest and to let the men stretch their legs. I felt Jamie slide off behind me.

"Do you want to get off, Sassenach?"

"No, thank you."

"Are ye sure?"

"I'm afraid if I get off now, I won't be able to get back on again."

"Suit yourself."

I could hear him chuckling as he walked away. Well, I'm glad he finds my pain funny.

For the first time in a while I was alone with my thoughts and not running for my life. I felt a strange sort of calm wash over me. I knew nothing of my life before and these men had yet to hurt me. It seemed to easy to accept that this was my life, and everything would work out, but I had always believed that everything happened for a reason. With a new sense of purpose, I relaxed, a small smile gracing my lips, as I waited for the men to once again mount their horses.

"Not long now."

And it wasn't long before I could see a building up ahead.

"Jamie is that where we're going?"

"Aye, Sassenach. That's Castle Leoch, the home of the Laird of Clan MacKenzie and our destination."

As we got closer I realise the building was in fact a Castle. My nerves began to grow as I though about all the people that would be present at the castle. Jamie must not have been oblivious to my sudden fear as his arms tightened around me briefly and he whispered in my ear.

"Do not worry Sassenach. You will be safe here, you have my word."

With Jamie's assurances I braced myself for the adventure I was sure was about to begin.

I am ready.