--

"It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy--it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others."

Sense and Sensibility

--

The next morning dawned a bit rainy with a touch of grey fog, which was not at all uncommon for a seaside town like Gateshire. Still, Samantha set out a little early to the meeting place in order to avoid a late arrival. After all, being prompt was one of the first lessons you learned as a General's daughter.

Her mare was pleased to be out of the corral, trotting through the mud with little to no protest. The fog thinned out as she made her way up the hill, and she was momentarily surprised to see Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c already waiting, sitting astride two geldings patiently.

She had spent most of her evening the previous day preoccupied with thoughts of them. They were oddities in Gateshire, and as a long-established oddity, it was something she could appreciate. More than that, however, she wondered about their backgrounds—what motivated a man who by all accounts had been on the path for General to retire and move to the country abruptly? What kind of man did it take to inspire a foreigner to follow him across the sea and do the same? Was there a sordid history there, as some suspected, or was it just their respective wishes to cease the soldiering life—Lord knew that her father had often considered doing the same, despite his dedication to the job.

None of it really mattered, she supposed, but it weighed on her nonetheless. Still, she could be determined to think only of the present—for now, her world consisted of fences and sheep and being pleasing company.

Pulling up next to the fence easily, she nodded at her companions. "Good morning. You haven't been waiting long, I hope?"

"No, we just got here," O'Neill assured her. "So tell us, Miss Carter—which direction?"

She pointed north, where the fence stretched down the hill and into the mist. "Most of the damage is on the north side—this area was repaired not too long ago."

They set off in a companionable silence, and would have continued in that manner for some time had Teal'c not surprised her by breaking it. "You have a fine animal, Samantha Carter."

A bit taken aback by the stoic man's compliment, she replied without thinking too thoroughly. "Oh, yes. Jolinar was a gift from my fiancé."

"Fiancé?" O'Neill parroted before she had realized her slip.

"Oh. Ex-fiancé. Martin Tokra. Nice man—a barrister. Dead now, I believe." It was interesting, from a scientific perspective—she could hear herself rambling inanely, and yet, she couldn't seem to stop it.

"…Ah. Jolinar? That's an interesting name, especially for a horse," O'Neill commented, having the grace to ignore the rest of it.

Samantha couldn't help but smile, running her fingers through the thick mane. "Yes. As our courtship progressed, it became increasingly clear that Martin was in fact, still taken with his first love—a fine lady by the name of Jolinar. In the end, she married the man and I kept the horse."

The corner of his mouth tilted up ever so slightly, perhaps with a bit of bewilderment. "And yet you name your animal after her?"

For lack of any better response, Samantha shrugged. "A gesture of thanks, you might say."

If either man were the type to laugh, she thought they might have just then. As it was, she drew half-smiles from both of them, which she considered to be a fine beginning.

--

After arriving at the first place in the fencing that really needed repair, they dismounted so that Miss Carter could show them all the faults in its current construction one more time—preferably with an explanation consisting of much shorter words, because he really hadn't gotten much out of the last one: something about levers and pivots and the gravitational forces on a slope compared to a horizontal plane and after that, Jack had stopped trying to follow along.

Luckily, it seemed as though Samantha had caught on, for this time, she merely pointed to one end of a board and said, "This needs to go up here."

Now those were instructions he could follow. He looked at her and smiled. "Why didn't you say that the first time?"

"I did."

Jack was pretty sure she hadn't, but it didn't matter. If Miss Carter said the fence needed to be fixed, then he'd take her at her word—after all, she certainly had more experience with such matters than he or Teal'c did. The specifics of the situation weren't really a requirement. "As you like," he teased lightly, and was rewarded with a wide smile in response.

"Forgive me. I'll try to remember to speak more plainly for your benefit from here on," she said lightly.

"Such a gesture would certainly be appreciated. I'm not sure my constitution could handle being exposed to such serious matters on a regular basis."

In response, she rolled her eyes, a delightfully unreserved reaction that he reveled in. "Somehow, I think you would manage just fine."

"You give me too much credit," he assured her, noticing that her eyes kept trailing from his face to his throat. It wasn't much of a movement, but it was slightly distracting. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

To his surprise, the lady that had just been jesting with him so freely flushed. "Oh. It's nothing. Well…" she stepped a bit towards him, arms raising a bit. "Do you mind if I…?"

Truthfully, he hadn't the slightest clue what she was about to do, but he figured that any excuse to touch the ever increasingly attractive Miss Carter was allowable. At his nod, she stepped even closer and her hands came to rest on his…tie?

Nimble fingers picked at the knot, quickly loosening it and beginning the process of refastening it before he realized that it must have been put on incorrectly. He wasn't sure if her attention to detail was flattering or embarrassing, but at least she was kind enough not to tease him about it.

In fact, when she noticed what must have been a rather chagrined look cross his features, she merely smiled kindly. "It was a small error—I might not have noticed it all except that you did the same thing yesterday when putting it back on."

"I did?" he asked, startled at that information.

"Yes. My father has similar problems—he's so accustomed to his regimentals that he often finds pedestrian clothing more foreign to him than even Mr. Teal'c's garb might be. I can't tell you how frequently I have had to reorder some piece of his attire." A final pull and she pulled away, studying him. "There. Much better."

He touched it and found that it pinched significantly less now. Interesting. "My hero."

Delight filled him when another roll of her eyes and an exasperated sigh were her only reply.