By the end of her first cup of coffee Elle had at least stopped yawning, and after coffee number two she managed to string together a few words. But it was the fresh air which greeted her like a slap across the face as she walked outside that really woke her up. She was definitely having second thoughts about a career as a farmhand. What would Claire do? The Outlander heroine had managed to overcome plenty of unpleasant hurdles after being sent back in time in the books. If Claire could survive Scotland in 1743, then surely Elle could handle this. Suitably fortified, she embraced her inner Claire and headed outside.

‘Here, you’re going to need these,’ Stuart said, handing her a pair of black gum boots at least two sizes too big.

‘I’ve got my sneakers. These kind of look a bit big.’ She eyed them warily.

‘Trust me. Wear the boots,’ he told her, before putting them next to her.

Elle trudged as quickly as she could behind him, around the back of the house and through the gate in the low stone wall. She hadn’t ventured out this way before and now she saw that there were three huge sheds. Two were newer, much like the large farming sheds back home made of Colorbond-type tin, but the other older one was built from stone. Between the sheds stood a combination of old timber and newer steel stockyards, and as the two of them sloshed towards the yards through ankle-deep, smelly mud, Elle saw why she needed gum boots.

Bleating noises grew louder as they entered one of the newer sheds and Elle found herself looking at a complex system of stockyards—called, Stuart informed her, a fank—set up inside.

An older man with a salt-and-pepper beard and dark green beanie covering his shaggy grey hair was already working and glanced over as they came in, giving a brief nod.

‘Elle, this is Geordie,’ Stuart introduced her.

‘Hello, Geordie,’ Elle said with a smile that wavered a little when the man barely glanced at her. ‘Hard at work,’ she added cheerfully before he turned his back on her to continue whatever it was he was doing.

Stuart hid a grin as he took her arm and led her away. ‘Don’t mind him,’ he said in a low tone. ‘He takes a while to warm up to people.’

‘Hmm.’ Somehow she didn’t think there was going to be enough time for Geordie to get around to warming up to her. If this were Outlander, then she’d just found her Murtagh, Jamie Fraser’s stony-faced godfather. She tried to imagine him in a kilt with a sword, and surprisingly had no trouble doing so.