Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on Outlander, I'm only borrowing them for the story.

Authors' notes: Hi everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to start writing another story about Lottie but life is very busy and also my muse told me to start a story from another television show a while ago and wouldn't leave me alone so I felt I just couldn't let that opportunity pass. I will try to update both stories now for a while. Anyway, Lottie has gotten settled at Lallybroch and is now taking on school, with everything that means and has to bring to her life. I hope you enjoy this story and that you'll let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Chapter 1

Lottie Dawson stared out at the fields behind the tall building that was called Lallybroch. The big, pale shape with red on the top moving out in the field was Jamie. He was inspecting the growth on the field and moving determinedly through them, unbothered by the midday sun coming down on his shirtless torso. In a couple of weeks it would be time to harvest the wheat.

Lottie heard Jenny call out at the top of her lungs that it was time for lunch. Her voice could certainly carry, which was good, she had to be pretty loud for everyone spread out to hear her. Ian was in the stable, Claire somewhere out back collecting herbs and Lottie and Jamie in the fields.

Lottie whistled for Mathanas and he came tumbling towards her as fast as he could, struggling to keep all four paws under control as he moved. He had grown in the past two months but was still very much a puppy with the clumsiness that meant. He would occasionally lose control and trip and then get up again shaking his head in confusion and completely unaware of why he had struck the ground so suddenly.

Life at Lallybroch was simple, but also hard work. Lottie and Claire had spent the first two months learning about life on a farm and all the work it meant. It hadn't been difficult for them to accommodate but life here was very different than life at castle Leoch had been. There they had had servants waiting on them. Here at Lallybroch there were servants too, but they weren't there to serve so much as to help out, which was what everyone on the farm would do. Everyone had to contribute in their own way and help each other, and children were taught that early on. Even wee Jamie was involved in chores occasionally when Jenny would try to teach him how to wash clothes in a bucket or clean the vegetables.

For Lottie the days started and ended pretty much the same way every day. It was up early in the morning to do chores and have breakfast with the family. Bed time was sometime right around the time it would start to get dark. That was after dinner and family time in the parlor. Lottie wasn't one for going to bed early but she had learned that it usually was no use in protesting, she would get sent to her room anyway while the adults usually had some alone time with some more glasses of wine or whiskey. Quite often she would get obstinate and keep a candle lit by her bed and just sit in the window and think or attempt some drawing for an extra hour or so before going to sleep. Occasionally Jamie would catch her, usually when she had gotten so caught up in her thoughts or what she was doing that she forgot to listen for the creaking steps that would signal his arrival up the stairs. He would sigh, give her a swat and send her to bed.

She had never known a place that was so easy to love and where it was so easy to feel at home since she had lived with her father in London. She felt like she truly belonged at Lallybroch. It was home.

There was only one thing that could change Lottie's positive approach to life at this time, and it was a subject which inevitability all the adults at Lallybroch were in agreement over: school. Jamie had brought the subject up the first time after a couple of weeks of getting settled at Lallybroch. It was one night at the dinner table that he asked his sister whether or not school was in session at the moment and if they had a schoolmaster or not because sometimes it would take a while before they found a new one after the current one had quit.

"How come they quit so regularly?" Claire had asked and Ian had answered her that the job as schoolmaster paid very little and they often chose to become farmers instead, or move to richer parts and try to get another employment there, either as a schoolmaster or try another profession if possible.

"The school here is small and usually has different schoolmasters each year. And as a matter of fact, yes, the school has a schoolmaster now," Jenny said and reached for the bread.

Jamie's sandy brows went up in question.

"Oh, who?"

"His name is Patrick Fordyce. He's only been employed the past two months but from what I've heard he's supposed to be good at keeping order and discipline."

"What about teaching?" Claire asked.

"That usually follows if there is discipline," Jenny answered firmly.

Over the weeks that followed Jamie quickly noticed that Lottie seemed very inclined to change the subject every time school came up and could clearly detect a pattern. She seemed suddenly very interested in bringing up how much work she did on the farm and how important it was that she'd be there as much as possible to care for Seoc and Mathanas so that the adults wouldn't have to take on that responsibility too, since they were already so busy and all.

Jamie thought schooling was important and Claire agreed heartily. Lottie on the other hand scrunched up her face and tried to act very casual and indifferent around the subject. It was clear she had no interest in attending school and when Claire confronted her openly asking her for her opinion on the matter one evening when it was just the two of them and Jamie Lottie even went so far as to claim that she didn't need schooling since they were in the 18th century. Both Claire and Jamie had stared very puzzled at her and she had then explained that she obviously already knew everything that the adults here knew. She had already attended school in the 20th century after all, and that must mean that she had the same knowledge as the adults here already.

Claire had hid her face in the palms of her hands and looked like she tried to suppress laughter. As a slightly uncomfortable tension grew Jamie had taken a breath, pursed his lips and put his hands on his knees. The bench the three of them were seated on creaked a little under his shifting weight and Lottie waited patiently for whatever response she was going to get. Jamie had then asked her if she was fluent in four languages? And if she could calculate how much rent every tenant should pay to Lallybroch using fractions, depending on how much money the year's harvest would bring them? He had also asked if she knew all the names of each country and capitals that Scotland traded with and the relationships between the countries in case she ever wanted to travel there and do business of some sort?

When Lottie's mouth had opened and closed a few times without getting out an acceptable response or come back Jamie had settled the matter of schooling with a final decision that she would be starting school the following week, and the matter was settled.

To be continued

A/N: Please let me know your thoughts and wishes in a review. What do you think should happen when Lottie starts school?