Outlander

Jamie, Jenny, Ian, and Claire share supper together. After an initial awkward period, Claire and Jenny begin to bond. Claire notes that, built in 1702, Lallybroch is very modern for its time. She notices that Lallybroch is a busy place, symbolic of the Scottish work ethic.

As Jamie and Claire look at family portraits in Lallybroch, Jamie comes behind her and puts his arms around her. He admits that there was another reason he married her: “Because I wanted you,” he tells her, “[m]ore than I ever wanted anything in my life” (834). Jamie leads Claire to find a haystack. Claire clarifies that he means that he married her for love, and he confirms, reaching for her. The pair are interrupted by Jenny, who jokingly insists that Jamie find a more suitable place to bed his wife.

Later, as Jamie and Claire enjoy a moment of fresh air outside, Jamie admits that he did not want to tell Claire he loved her on their wedding day because he did not want to burden her since he knew she did not want to marry him. Jamie reaches for Claire again, saying that he wants her. Claire states that there is a difference between desire and love, and Jamie replies that the two are very similar.

Claire escorts Jamie to the mill to inspect a problem. Claire encounters an old widow called Mrs. MacNab, who relays a favor she wants to ask of Jamie. Mrs. MacNab’s son is a drunk, who beats her grandson Rabbie. She wishes to ask Jamie to give Rabbie a job in the Lallybroch stables so that Rabbie can escape the violence of his father. When English soldiers stop by the mill, Jamie must hide under water to avoid them, losing his swimming trunks in the process and forcing him to emerge from the water naked. As Jamie comes out of the water, Mrs. MacNab attempts to repeat her favor request to Jamie, who replies, “Grannie MacNab […] whatever your wish is, I’ll do it. Provided only that ye’ll give me back my shirt before my parts fall off wi cold” (859).

After dinner, Jamie, Claire, Ian, and Jenny retire to the drawing room. Ian recalls a time that Jamie’s protests to his father Brian against his and Ian’s corporal punishment, calling it uncivilized, resulted in an even more grueling task: cleaning the 60-foot broch tower from top to bottom, which took the boys five days. Jenny and Claire leave the drawing room to fetch biscuits and port. As Claire comes back down the hall with a tray of refreshments, she overhears a conversation between Ian and Jamie. Ian apologizes for not asking for Jamie’s blessing before marrying Jenny, especially due to his disability. Jamie replies immediately that Jenny could not have found a better husband. Ian and Jamie bond over how much they love their wives.

Over port and biscuits, Jenny recalls to Ian, Claire, and Jamie that Jamie was a very sweet baby. She is quick to add that this sweetness did not last long, guessing that Jamie got his first beating when he was seven. Jamie corrects her that he was eight. He recalls what his father told him after his first beating: that sometimes he would enjoy beating Jamie but most times he would not, but either way if Jamie was to get into mischief, his backside was going to pay. Jamie then grows sad, sharing with the group his guilt that witnessing Jamie’s flogging at the hands of Captain Randall killed his father. Jenny corrects him that she was in fact the death of their father.

Jenny admits to taunting Randall when he unsuccessfully tried to rape her. In response, Randall hit Jenny’s head against a bedpost, knocking her unconscious. When she awoke, Randall had disappeared with Jamie. Ian grows quiet at this revelation. Jenny tells him that she did not reveal the incident to Ian because she did not want to lose him, especially after losing her father and brother. Jenny concludes that it was her fault that their father died, having agitated Randall into lashing out at Jamie. Jamie replies that their father’s death was not Jenny’s fault and perhaps not his either.

Jamie reflects on the positive influence his father had on him. Claire tells Jamie that she was never hit as a child. Jamie jokes, “That accounts for the defects in your character” (874). In the dark, Jamie reminisces about the last beating his father ever gave him.

By the following evening, Jenny and Ian have made amends. Ian and Jamie sit in the parlor talking about farm business while Claire helps Jenny write down receipts. At Jamie’s prompting, Jenny describes what it is like to carry a child. In the beginning, Jenny says, one’s skin feels very thin and the tops of one’s breasts are very sensitive. In the last month of pregnancy Jenny attests that her body is hard, round, and “swollen all over” (883). She describes her breasts filling with milk and aching to be suckled. She says that late pregnancy sometimes feels like being penetrated by a man, as if a throbbing deep inside of oneself ripples the walls of one’s womb. Jenny turns and states that men sometimes want to return to the womb during sex.

After Jenny and Ian retire to bed, Claire points out that Ian and Jenny forgot small Jamie sleeping by the fire. Jamie replies that Jenny and Ian never forget anything and guesses that they left their son in he and Claire’s care to have some private time in the bedroom together. Jamie reaches for Claire’s bodice despite Claire’s protests about the boy’s presence. Jamie responds that the boy will have to learn his duty as a husband some time or other.

Claire asks Jamie if Jenny is right that men have sex with women to seek the safety of the pre-natal womb. Jamie replies, “Sometimes…aye, sometimes it would be good, to be inside again, safe and…one” (886).

Claire tells Jenny that she lost the pearls Jamie gave her, which had been Jamie and Jenny’s mother’s. Jamie overhears this and tells Claire that Murtagh had brought the pearls for her. Claire again questions Murtagh’s connection to the Fraser family. Jamie tells Claire the backstory of why he carries a man named Alexander William Roderick MacGregor’s Bible around with him. MacGregor was an 18-year-old fellow prisoner at Fort William, who died by suicide. Jamie recalls that Captain Randall had had a private conversation with the boy the week prior. Jamie suspected Randall of physically or sexually harming MacGregor, driving him to suicide. Jamie carried around MacGregor’s Bible so he could send it back to MacGregor’s mother when he finally avenged MacGregor.

Ronald MacNab arrives to Lallybroch with his young son Rabbie. Claire observes that MacNab looks greasy and bedraggled. Rabbie appears scruffy and dirty. In the kitchen, Jenny and Claire feed Rabbie. After taking Rabbie’s clothes off to wash him, Jenny and Claire see the welts and scabs as a result of MacNab’s beatings. Meanwhile, in the study, Jamie asks MacNab to allow Rabbie to work in the stables, a request that MacNab refuses. A while later, Claire witnesses Jamie with his arm slung around MacNab’s neck, heading towards the pig shed. A minute or two later, MacNab and Jamie re-emerge. MacNab’s face is grey, and he walks slowly. He is unable to straighten all the way. Jamie cheerfully informs Rabbie that his father has given him permission to work in the Lallybroch stables.

As Claire takes Jamie’s arm to go in to supper, she asks him how he managed to convince MacNab to let Rabbie work. Jamie replies that he took MacNab behind the shed, hit him in his “soft parts,” and asked him if he’d rather part with his son or his liver (908). Jamie reflects on MacNab’s brutal beating of his son Rabbie. Jamie recalls his own father’s beatings, but he wagers that Rabbie would not be able to lay in bed with his wife and joke about MacNab’s beatings as Jamie does with Claire about his. Jamie proclaims, “It’s a damn thin line between justice and brutality, Sassenach. I only hope I’ve come down on the right side of it” (909).

Claire ascertains that Jamie was born to be master of Lallybroch. Jamie asks Claire what she was born to do. Claire replies that she was born for Jamie. Jamie tells Claire that he had wanted her from the first time he saw her. Claire tells Jamie that she is afraid that if she tells him she loves him, she will never stop. She tells him she loves him.

A few days later, at sunset, Claire notices a change in Jamie’s demeanor. Claire asks Jamie if they will have to leave soon. Jamie replies that they will have to leave within several days as there are English soldiers within 20 miles.

After harvesting all day, Jamie and Ian fall asleep in their chairs after supper. Jenny sees Jamie smiling in his sleep and recalls that Jamie used to do the same thing as a small boy. Claire asks Jenny what she thinks it means. Jenny replies, “I imagine it means he’s happy” (914).

Jamie and Claire do not leave the next day as planned since Jenny goes into labor. Jenny encounters a complication in delivering her child. Jenny instructs Claire to tell Ian that if the child lives it should be called Margaret Ellen. Claire firmly replies that Jenny will be able to tell Ian herself. Claire helps the midwife to turn the child in Jenny’s womb, and finally the baby arrives. Claire notices how competent Jamie is at holding Jenny’s newborn daughter Margaret. In encountering Ian and Jamie drinking in the study, Claire grows angry, thinking that Ian had gotten drunk in the face of Jenny’s pain. However, upon taking a closer look at Ian’s face, she sees that he has been in emotional torture, believing that his wife would die in childbirth.

Jamie tells Claire that she is glad she is barren—a fact divulged to him by Geillis—since she will not have to suffer as Jenny did in childbirth. “I can bear pain myself,” Jamie says softly, “but I couldna bear yours” (924).

Jenny recovers quickly from her difficult childbirth and is soon back to work at Lallybroch. Small Jamie helps Claire to garden. Ian returns to the house, tattered and dirty, relaying that he and Jamie had been attacked by the English Watch and Jamie has been kidnapped. Jenny instructs Claire to attend to Ian’s wounds while she gives the baby to the housekeeper and fetches the horses for the two of them to find Jamie. Claire exclaims to Ian that Jenny cannot possibly leave her baby. Ian replies that Jenny also will not stand to see the English hang her brother.

Jenny and Claire reach the spot that Jamie and Ian were ambushed by the English Watch. Jenny makes a camp for her and Claire, claiming that she learned these skills from Ian and Jamie when they were growing up. Jenny expels the milk from her breast, sighing that it is a shame to waste it. Jenny comments that she will have to go home soon to take care of her newborn. Jenny exclaims that having children is a nuisance, but, “ye’d never choose not to have them” (930). Claire confirms this. Jenny comforts Claire that Claire will one day have her own children.

Claire recalls that Jenny was right, they did find the Watch the next day. Jenny and Claire trap a British soldier, Robert MacDonald, who claims that Jamie is dead. He tells them that Jamie threw himself into deep water and never resurfaced as they fired at him. However, Jenny does not believe this story, as she knows that Jamie “swims like a fish” (933). Jenny finds Jamie’s leather strap in the river. Claire sees blood on the nearby bark and ascertains that Jamie is hurt.

Murtagh finds Jenny and Claire, taking Jenny’s place in their search for Jamie so Jenny can go home and care for her infant. Murtagh tells Jenny and Claire that it was the widow MacNab that told the English about Jamie’s whereabouts.

Jenny gives Claire the money from the rents in case she needs it. Before Jenny departs back home, Jenny apprehensively tells Claire that Jamie had informed her that Claire might tell her things. Claire knows that Jamie refers to her insights about the future. Claire tells Jenny to start planting potatoes ahead of Scotland’s upcoming famine and create a priest-hole in the house for hiding.