#moonbeams chapter preview

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I have returned from the grave. :)

And with a new chapter! It’s up on AO3 right now. Here’s a snippet:

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The moonlight was bright enough to show her the mountains. They rippled into the distance, an undulating line on the horizon, and from this point on the Ridge she could see it all. Jamie’s house was there, a small blip nestled into the trees, glowing soft like a small pulsar. The river curved on and on into the distance, the moon turning water silver, the water itself hardly moving--like a landscape portrait, the earth frozen in time. The trees were bare, yes, but some struck her as silver, too, the way their pale trunks absorbed light and cast it back at her. At them. "I told you it was bonnie," Jamie said. "I thought maybe it'd be... helpful to come here. After the week you've had."

Jamie was only an inch or two away, his hands cradling his own little thermos, his eyes fixed on the world before them as if he’d never seen it before. Claire found herself staring at him, and the way the moon turned the lightest of his hairs silver, like the river water and the trees. He caught her out of the corner of his eye, she saw, but he said nothing.

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Chapter 6: Jenny

Chapter 6 is posted! It’s a big ol’ chapter with lots of important things going on; in a very angsty fashion, we meet some new faces, see the Fraser Murray home, and learn some new things about the Fraser clan. I had so much fun writing this one and can only hope I’ve done these newly introduced characters justice. Here’s a preview:

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The trudge up the lane was both the longest journey of Claire’s life and the shortest. With each step she felt the heat of Jenny’s gaze increase tenfold, and she felt like she was moving through water. By the time she stood two feet from Jenny she wanted to be back in the truck, curled up in the passenger seat next to Jamie doing his best Frankie Valli like he had on the brief ride over, and no amount of time could’ve prepared Claire for this kind of scrutiny.

Except, when she reached Jenny Fraser Murray, the woman did nothing but look at Claire from the ground up (Claire was quite tired of being sized up, truth be told), spin on her heels, snap “Come,” and whoosh away in a flurry of woolen skirting.

Claire looked at Jamie, eyebrows raised. Jamie shrugged. As he crossed in front of her, he leaned in and said, “Her strength is in her silence. That’s how she wreaks terror.” His eyes glittered with bemusement and he crossed the threshold into the house.

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Moonbeams: a glimpse at chapter 4

Chapter 4 of Moonbeams likely won’t grace your screens until next week, as I’ve many a research paper to write for university and it’s taking up all of my time, bUT I wanted to give you a piece of the (draft of the) chapter’s start to hopefully quell a bit of your curiosity. :) Here you go!

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By the time Claire bid Joe goodbye and placed the phone back on its receiver, Jamie had vanished into the depths of his greenhouse.

The physician within: stay inside, ankle raised, rest for a day or two. Stop hobbling around, Ms. Randall. Give it time.

If there was one thing Claire knew she excelled at, it was giving medical advice--but following it? Well, she never claimed to be good at that. Besides, once she made it to the greenhouse, she could sit.

It was a small glass castle.

A damp heat greeted her at the door, thickening the air from above and warming the soles of her feet from below. The floor was a tapestry of diamond tiles in hues of lead and rust. Wooden shelves stretched around the entire perimeter, overflowing with greenery and rows of seedlings. Claire recognized a few of the plants--basil and mint, the common kitchen strains--but likewise there were many she didn’t know by name. Overhead, rubbery green petals as big as banana leaves overlapped one another in a lush knit, and long chartreuse fronds danced a sort of waltz in a breeze generated by small ceiling fans. If she leaned close enough, she could spot lingering dew magnifying plant veins like tiny wet spectacles. The moisture tickled her nose. She inhaled. The scent was earthy and rare. You couldn’t find this in the city, Claire thought, nor in the wilderness. This was an aroma that was cultivated, cared for, raised and nourished from infancy like a child.

Once, she’d read that mothers could smell the downy crowns of their babies’ heads and recognize something familiar there--something sweet and living. Of course, Claire had never known that for herself, but maybe it was like that with plants, too. 

Again she breathed deep and long and held the sweet earth in her lungs. Yes, this was living. This was okay. Beautiful, even.

From above, a fine mist rained down on her head. Instinctively, Claire drew back and yelped in surprise. Blinked. And leaned back into the mist, welcoming it.

It stopped as suddenly as it had started. “I’ll be changing the irrigation system to a drip one soon,” hummed a voice from deep inside the greenhouse--somewhere behind a cluster of hanging plants, Claire thought.

Jamie.

She’d almost forgotten he was there. She licked water from her lips and was reminded of how thirsty she was.

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Moonbeams: a glimpse at chapter 3

Wee sneak peek at this week’s chapter of Where the Moonbeams Go. :) Posting tomorrow!

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The night before, Claire had been unable to see the world. It had been concealed in a shadow like molasses she couldn’t swim through, her only life ring the tall brick-red barn at the end of her footsteps and the mare that stood inside of it, and the foal that slept inside of the mare. But this world in the light of morning was something else entirely. The long footpath back to Jamie’s house weaved through a vast yard peppered with tall trees and wide spaces of grass and plots of dirt where things had yet to grow.

A small pen of chickens and a coop marked the halfway point; Jamie had built a greenhouse-like sunroom along the side, and the birds still huddled inside peered out at them with questions. “It gives them more space to roam in winter, should they not want to go outside,” Jamie explained. “They dinna like the snow.”

“I hadn’t pegged you for a bird fanatic.” Claire was practically wheezing from trying to match Jamie’s long strides.

“Aye, well, ‘fanatic’ is a strong word. They’re awfully annoying, truthfully. Painful, sometimes.” Jamie closed his eyes and rubbed his neck, as if reliving a past confrontation. “But we kept a few and Scotland, so I ken how to care for them, and there’s nothing like fresh eggs in the morning.” He scrutinized her reddened face. “Would ye like to sit for a moment?”

Claire wiped a hand across her damp forehead. “No,” she said. “No, it’s fine. This is just… harder than it looks. The crutches, I mean. They’re a little tall for me.”

Jamie nodded earnestly. Blinked like a solemn red owl. “I can slow down.”

“I can keep up.”

A smile crossed his face. “Of course you can,” he said, then turned his attention back to the footpath and briskly continued on toward the house. Claire was certain he’d tripled his speed.