Evie's POV
Scotland-1700s
Brianna and I walked into the tavern and noticed a young girl appearing to be arguing with her Da. Moose stands at my side almost clinging to me but look on guard and ready to attack if needed.
They seem to be arguing over her promised marriage to a gentleman who wanted to make her concubine.
Her father approaches Brianna, "Excuse me miss, I'm Joseph Wemyss. Can I have a minute on ye time?" He asked anxiously eyes goofing back and forth from me to Evie.
"Sure" Bri says begrudgingly.
"Should ye be in need of a servant, might ye consider my daughter?"
Bri starts to speak but is quickly interrupted.
He goes on to say, "The lass is one fine cook and a rare hand wi' a needle."
"I have no need of one." I look at Evie with unease.
"I've beg of you please. There is a man that desires her as a concubine."
That must be awful for her father to be in that position. The girl really needs Bri's help. Bri seems be annoyed and uninterested in the conversation going forward. I look at him sympathetically.
"Then don't let him have her."
"I have no choice. Her contract and mine have been brought by a broker who plans to sell her to the man unless I find someone else willing to secure her passage." He exclaimed.
The girl is attentively listening to the conversation unfold and looks to be patiently waiting for Bri's response.
"We're not going to the Atlantic. We staying in North Carolina."
"Please, just...Just meet her. This is Elizabeth"
The girl, Lizzie approaches and immediately says, "Your servant, Mistress."
Brianna goes to a man who appears to accountant for ship travels. Sighing while looking and smiling to Lizzie, she takes out a couple of coins and hands to the man.
"I would like to buy passage on the Phillip Alonzo for three."
"Your name?" The man asks.
"Brianna Randall".
Brianna, Elizabeth, and I walk out of the tavern.
Lizzie's father walks out and says, "Lizzie, don't forget to say your prayers.
Lizzie smiles and we head to the ship and set sail to North Carolina.
Roger's POV
Somewhere in North Carolina
I have looking for Bri for days. It seems like I'm heading dead end after dead end but I've refused to given up.
"Excuse sir, have you seen this lady? She recently arrived on Phillip Alonzo. I've made inquires but no one seen her" I ask another local. I show the man a sketched picture of Brianna.
"No I haven't" says the man.
Another man comes out, speaking with the gentleman about business. And I leave to have to have a drink at tavern.
While drinking some mead, I hear a familiar voice.
Brianna's POV
Evie, Lizzie, and I have come a long way to North Carolina. Although I was hesitant to bring Lizzie with us, I'm glad she's here. Maybe we'll all become great friends. I need to find a way to find my parents more specifically meet my Da. This has been a strange and wild trip but I'm glad that I made the journey here.
I couldn't did it without Evie. Even though I've only known her for short number of days, she's becoming more like a sister. She has been through so much and always has a smile on her face. During our travels to America, we learned a little about Lizzie.
"Mistress, do you need anything?" We had just got off the ship and entered a tavern in North Carolina. I wanted to go there to see if there is any information about my parents.
"No Lizzie, I'm fine." I say. Evie smiles and feeds Moose some leftover bread that she saved.
Evie and her dog Moose walk along side Lizzie while we make our way to a man at the table.
"Excuse me. Do you know where I might be able to buy passage to Cross Creek? I'll like to leave tomorrow." I ask the man hopefully.
"The Sally Ann is in port. It makes the journey every week or so. You can ask Captain Freeman."
I turn around and notice a familiar face. Roger. He's here. I can't believe that he's here.
"Brianna." Roger says with a smile on his face. We both pause and look at each other, still in shock of this moment.
"It's you." I say. I thought I'd never see him again.
We both run to each other and I hug him tightly. I almost don't want to let go.
"Oh thank god. Oh, thank god I've find you."
"What are you doing here?" I ask foolishly.
"Looking for you. At no small risk to life and limb, I might add."
"You weren't supposed to come here. That wasn't the plan." He had helped me cross over and search for my parents' whereabouts but I was only supposed to time travel here, not him. It wasn't the plan. Although I miss him, I cannot bear for him to give up his life for me. I don't want him to resent me for it.
"What, and you call tearing off into bloody nowhere a plan." His strong Scottish accent comes out stronger with anger shown in his words.
"No. I wouldn't told you but I didn't know where we stood after the last time we talked."
"What you mean you don't know where we stood. You didn't know how you feel about me?" He asked hurt disguised in his words.
As he spoke those words, we noticed that people were looking at us.
"Let's go outside." He says. As he grabs my hands, we go outside.
I look at the window of the tavern and notice Evie and Lizzie watching us from window. Lizzie looks worried but I can't really read Evie's expression. It was a mix between confusion and worry.
I look back at Roger and say, "How did you even know where I was?"
"I spoke to Gayle. She told me you were going to visit your mum. So, I went to find you in Inverness."
I look up at him in realization. "You read my letter."
"Of course I read your letter. And that's all I got, a letter? You could have called me." He says and grabs my arm to pull in closer, anger in his eyes.
I push away. Irritated at the whole situation.
"I wanted to call you but I didn't know how to tell you that I love you, and I thought that if I told you I was coming her, you tried to stop me."
"Do you tell me you love me?" Roger says happily.
"Come here with me." Roger says and he brings to the back of a inn. He grabs and kisses me feverishly but stops to open the door.
"Close the door." I say with a assertiveness in my voice. He closes the door and we talking kissing each other with passion and desire in our eyes.
Realizing where this was going, I say "Stop. We're not engaged." He wanted to be married to me before we were intimate. That was one of things were argued about before my trip here. He didn't want to continue the relationship without getting married to me first.
"That seem to very important to you. At the festival you said..." I say.
He exhales sharply and says, "I said I would have all of you or none at all."
"Have you changed you mind?" I ask.
"No." He says.
"We'll then. You have all of me." I say with no hesitation. Evie helped me realize that I couldn't live with him and I realize that I should get out of my own and stop self-sabotaging myself.
He looks deeply into my eyes full of disbelief.
"You'll marry me?" He asked with a smile.
"How could I say no to a man who pursued me for 200 years?" I say, wrapping my hands around his neck as he brought me into a kiss.
We have decided to use the bracelet that he gave me as a wedding ring. Before we went any further, we got hand-fasted which served as our unofficial wedding for now.
Time Skip*
As we basked in the afterglow of our naked bodies, we held each other and watched the fire burn out. Everything was so nice and peaceful until we had our first fight as a married couple.
"We should start looking for gems to get back through the stones after we help your parents."
"Yeah. It's just so frustrating not knowing the exact date of the fire...I could kill that printer." I traveled here to stop my parents' deaths from happening. Before my journey here, Roger found out that my parents died in a fire at Fraser's Ridge but we could never find out the exact date. My sole purpose for coming here is to stop their deaths from happening.
Roger chuckles, "When I met him, I was tempted to tell him off."
"Who?" I ask curiously.
"The printer who smudged the date." He says with certainty.
I furrow my eyebrows. Confused on how he knows this information.
"How did you know?"
"Hmm."
"I just told about the obituary today. How could you know...unless you already knew?"
Roger sighs and turns to look at me, "Don't angry...I knew about the obituary before you did."
I turn to pick on my clothes, wanting to leave.
"You found out my mother died, and you didn't think that I should know about it?"
"I thought you should know but I felt there was no point in breaking your heart. Even Fiona agreed."
"Fiona...She consulted about this and not me? And The two of you thought I shouldn't known that my own mother was dead." I say feeling betrayed.
Roger gets up and puts on his pants on.
"You knew she was dead. She's been dead for 200 years. What could you do?"
"Why did you take that choice away from me?" I yelled with anger.
"Brianna, I didn't want to break your heart!" Roger yells back.
Roger turns to look at me and says, "Maybe this was a mistake!"
"Fine. If you believe that, maybe you should go." I say.
"Look me in the eye and tell me to go." Roger says sounding defeated.
"Nobody's stopping you!" I say.
Roger leaves and I burst into tears, not knowing that this will become one of almost the worse nights of life.
A/N: Hey guys, soon you'll meet Stephen Bonnet in the next chapter!