My life is yours // [Jamie/Claire AU]

It was, appropriately, a dreary, wet, miserable Christmas Day at Castle Leoch. He'd spent the morning hauling wood, splitting it, and then trying to find a dry place to store it. No one wanted to be trying to find the last dry branch after a grand Christmas feast! He had more than one splinter lodged into his fingertips which was ostensibly his excuse to seek out his bride in the apothecary.

Down into the bowels of the dripping Castle he went, a warm smile and polite nod offered to any he passed. In the last corridor he paused, ducking under the stairwell. Dougal Mackenzie stalked by; Jamie had no quarrel with his kinsman but neither did he must feel like getting into a discussion about his choice of wife.

With the coast clear, Jamie silently descended into Claire's domain. He fished a small offering - a bundle of ribbons and lace - out of his pocket before approaching her from behind.