The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the immense help (to say nothing of patience, grit, and sheer endurance) of
The Contributors
… Terry Dresbach, who kindly lent me several of her brilliant blog entries and sketches regarding her work as head of costume on the Outlander TV show.
… Dr. Claire MacKay, herbalist and consultant to the TV show, for her excellent paper on historical Highland herbal medicine.
… Bear McCreary, composer for the TV show, for his delightful and insightful essay on the philosophy and passion of creating music with bagpipes.
… Àdhamh Ó Broin, Gaelic consultant and tutor to the show, for his witty and erudite “Gaelic Glossary,” which covers all the Gaelic in all eight of the so-far-published books of the main Outlander series.
… Susan Pittman-Butler, who compiled the entire mind-boggling “Cast of Characters” section—a work of superhuman endurance and thoroughness.
… Theresa Carle-Sanders, author of the popular Outlander Kitchen website (and soon-to-be cookbook), for her entertaining essay on eighteenth-century Scottish cookery.
… Grant O’Rourke, for his brilliant Super Rupert cartoon.
… and Barbara Schnell (my invaluable German translator), who contributed a number of her beautiful photos of Scotland to the illustrations in this book.
The Readers
… Huge thanks to all of the people who, over the last fifteen years, have not only kept asking for another Companion, but have also suggested a lot of things they’d like to see in it, many of them going so far as to contribute such things. In particular—
… The Cadre of Genealogical Nitpickers: Sandy Parker, Vicki Pack, Mandy Tidwell, and Rita Meistrell, who are responsible for the high degree of accuracy in the beautiful family tree.
… Willemina, who not only produced the Grey Family Tree, but also provided a helpful list of errors in the Kindle editions of the books.
… Robert Wealleans, for a list of Kindle errors.
… Karen Henry, Chief of Eyeball-Numbing Nitpickery, who kindly read all of the manuscript pieces for this book, with the exception of the “Cast of Characters” (only Kathy the copy editor had the guts to deal with that one). Her catches and suggestions saved me innumerable hours in the later phases of copyediting and proofreading.
… Sandy the archivist, Jari Backman, and several other helpful people who keep track of things that I post, and can usually locate any message or excerpt needed.
The Production Team
… Like Abou ben Adhem, Kathy Lord’s name leads all the rest. I take nothing away from the many other wonderful and hardworking people on the Penguin Random Housefn1 production team by praising Kathy—the copy editor on this, as on many of my previous books—for her limitless knowledge, persistence, artistry, goodwill … and did I mention persistence? A good copy editor is prized above rubies, and Kathy is stainless steel and iridium, diamonds and platinum.
… Also let us celebrate the gloriousness of Virginia Norey’s (aka the Book Goddess) design. While the hundreds of moving parts in a book like this are a major challenge to everybody involved, they also offer Virginia full scope for the exercise of her genius.
… And, of course, editors Jennifer Hershey and Anne Speyer for their endless patience, tact, and persistence (if I seem to keep mentioning persistence, it’s because that’s the sine qua non in getting one of my books to press).
… And the many, many other unsung heroes of production, art, publicity, and marketing, who have so much to do with the quality and success of my books.
My Thanks Also To …
… The several kind medical professionals who have helped me over the years with advice regarding the various medical and surgical scenes in the books. Some of these good people are nameless (having been recruited by other physician friends of mine, and having then modestly declined to be specifically acknowledged) and some I have undoubtedly forgotten. But special thanks to Dr. Gary Hoff, Dr. Amarilis Iscold, and Dr. Merih O’Donaghue, and to Sarah Meyer, midwife (aka Metpatpetet).
… Assorted military personnel, male and female, for their deeply felt responses to various elements of the books, and their contributions to the depictions of people in combat and those whose job it is to risk their lives in the protection of others.
… The personal testimony, given to me over the last twenty years, of people who have suffered assault in various forms, and their stories of heroism and healing.
… The kind assistance of Tamara Burke, Beth and Matthew Shope, and Jo Bourne, in explaining the beliefs and historical background of the Society of Friends.
… The Gaelic experts: Ian MacKinnon Taylor, Catherine MacGregor, Catherine-Ann MacPhee, Àdhamh Ó Broin, and Michael Newton, who have been of inestimable help over the years, both in providing translation and commentary on this beautiful language.
… Philippe Safavi, Valeria Galassi, and Barbara Schnell (respectively, my French, Italian, and German translators), for their sensitive and faithful translations. My thanks also to all the other translators that I haven’t met personally.
… And as always: the many inhabitants of the Compuserve Books and Writers Community who have been my constant companions on this journey since I stumbled into the place in 1985. Thank you for the wonderful discussions, thought-provoking questions, bizarre suggestions, and weird bits of random information that have added so much to my books over the years!
__________
fn1 Though, like every other author contracted to this publishing house, I think it should have been Random Penguin. Just the thought of random penguins lends cheer to the most ordinary of days.
OUTLANDER
DRAGONFLY IN AMBER
VOYAGER
DRUMS OF AUTUMN
THE FIERY CROSS
A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES
AN ECHO IN THE BONE
WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD
THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION (nonfiction)
THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION, VOLUME TWO (nonfiction)
THE EXILE (GRAPHIC NOVEL)
LORD JOHN AND THE HELLFIRE CLUB (novella)
LORD JOHN AND THE PRIVATE MATTER
LORD JOHN AND THE SUCCUBUS (novella)
LORD JOHN AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE
LORD JOHN AND THE HAUNTED SOLDIER (novella)
THE CUSTOM OF THE ARMY (novella)
LORD JOHN AND THE HAND OF DEVILS (collected novellas)
THE SCOTTISH PRISONER
A PLAGUE OF ZOMBIES (novella)
A LEAF ON THE WIND OF ALL HALLOWS
THE SPACE BETWEEN
THE OUTLANDER SERIES includes three kinds of stories:
The Big, Enormous Books, which have no discernible genre (or all of them).
The Shorter, Less Indescribable Novels, which are more or less historical mysteries (though dealing also with battles, eels, and mildly deviant sexual practices).
And
The Bulges, these being short(er) pieces that fit somewhere inside the story lines of the novels, much in the nature of squirming prey swallowed by a large snake. These deal frequently—but not exclusively—with secondary characters, are prequels or sequels, and/or fill some lacuna left in the original story lines.
Now. Most of the shorter novels (so far) fit within a large lacuna left in the middle of Voyager, in the years between 1756 and 1761. Some of the Bulges also fall in this period; others don’t.
So, for the reader’s convenience, here is a detailed chronology, showing the sequence of the various elements in terms of the story line. However, it should be noted that the shorter novels and novellas are all designed suchly that they may be read alone, without reference either to one another or to the Big, Enormous Books—should you be in the mood for a light literary snack instead of the nine-course meal with wine pairings and dessert trolley.
Outlander (novel)—If you’ve never read any of the series, I’d suggest starting here. If you’re unsure about it, open the book anywhere and read three pages; if you can put it down again, I’ll give you a dollar. (1946/1743)
Dragonfly in Amber (novel)—It doesn’t start where you think it’s going to. And it doesn’t end how you think it’s going to, either. Just keep reading; it’ll be fine. (1968/1744—46)
Voyager (novel)—This won an award from EW magazine for “Best Opening Line.” (To save you having to find a copy just to read the opening, it was: He was dead. However, his nose throbbed painfully, which he thought odd in the circumstances.) If you’re reading the series in order rather than piecemeal, you do want to read this book before tackling the novellas. (1968/1746—67)
Lord John and the Hand of Devils, “Lord John and the Hellfire Club” (novella)—Just to add an extra layer of confusion, The Hand of Devils is a collection that includes three novellas. The first one, “Lord John and the Hellfire Club,” is set in London in 1756 and deals with a red-haired man who approaches Lord John Grey with an urgent plea for help, just before dying in front of him. [Originally published in the anthology Past Poisons, ed. Maxim Jakubowski, 1998.]
Lord John and the Private Matter (novel)—Set in London in 1757, this is a historical mystery steeped in blood and even less-savory substances, in which Lord John meets (in short order) a valet, a traitor, an apothecary with a sure cure for syphilis, a bumptious German, and an unscrupulous merchant prince.
Lord John and the Hand of Devils, “Lord John and the Succubus” (novella)—The second novella in the Hand of Devils collection finds Lord John in Germany in 1757, having unsettling dreams about Jamie Fraser, unsettling encounters with Saxon princesses, night hags, and a really disturbing encounter with a big blond Hanoverian graf. [Originally published in the anthology Legends II, ed. Robert Silverberg, 2003.]
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (novel)—The second full-length novel focused on Lord John (but it does include Jamie Fraser) is set in 1758, deals with a twenty-year-old family scandal, and sees Lord John engaged at close range with exploding cannon and even more dangerously explosive emotions.
Lord John and the Hand of Devils, “Lord John and the Haunted Soldier” (novella)—The third novella in this collection is set in 1758, in London and the Woolwich Arsenal. In which Lord John faces a court of inquiry into the explosion of a cannon and learns that there are more dangerous things in the world than gunpowder.
“The Custom of the Army” (novella)—Set in 1759. In which his lordship attends an electric-eel party in London and ends up at the Battle of Quebec. He’s just the sort of person things like that happen to. [Originally published in Warriors, eds. George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, 2010.]
The Scottish Prisoner (novel)—This one’s set in 1760, in the Lake District, London, and Ireland. A sort of hybrid novel, it’s divided evenly between Jamie Fraser and Lord John Grey, who are recounting their different perspectives in a tale of politics, corruption, murder, opium dreams, horses, and illegitimate sons.
“A Plague of Zombies” (novella)—Set in 1761 in Jamaica, when Lord John is sent in command of a battalion to put down a slave rebellion and discovers a hitherto unsuspected affinity for snakes, cockroaches, and zombies. [Originally published in Down These Strange Streets, eds. George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, 2011.]
Drums of Autumn (novel)—This one begins in 1767, in the New World, where Jamie and Claire find a foothold in the mountains of North Carolina, and their daughter, Brianna, finds a whole lot of things she didn’t expect, when a sinister newspaper clipping sends her in search of her parents. (1969—1970/1767—1770)
The Fiery Cross (novel)—The historical background to this one is the War of the Regulation in North Carolina (1767—1771), which was more or less a dress rehearsal for the oncoming Revolution. In which Jamie Fraser becomes a reluctant Rebel, his wife, Claire, becomes a conjure-woman, and their grandson, Jeremiah, gets drunk on cherry bounce. Something Much Worse happens to Brianna’s husband, Roger, but I’m not telling you what. This won several awards for “Best Last Line,” but I’m not telling you that, either. (1770—1772)
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (novel)—Winner of the 2006 Corine International Prize for Fiction and of a Quill Award (this book beat novels by both George R. R. Martin and Stephen King, which I thought Very Entertaining Indeed). All the books have an internal “shape” that I see while I’m writing them. This one looks like the Hokusai print titled “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” Think tsunami—two of them. (1773—1776/1980)
An Echo in the Bone (novel)—Set in America, London, Canada, and Scotland. The book’s cover image reflects the internal shape of the novel: a caltrop. That’s an ancient military weapon that looks like a child’s jack with sharp points; the Romans used them to deter elephants, and the highway patrol still uses them to stop fleeing perps in cars. This book has four major story lines: Jamie and Claire; Roger and Brianna (and family); Lord John and William; and Young Ian, all intersecting in the nexus of the American Revolution—and all of them with sharp points. (1776—1778/1980)
Written in My Own Heart’s Blood (novel)—The eighth of the Big, Enormous Books, it begins where An Echo in the Bone leaves off, in the summer of 1778 (and the autumn of 1980).
“A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows” (novella)—Set (mostly) in 1941—43, this is the story of What Really Happened to Roger MacKenzie’s parents. [Originally published in the anthology Songs of Love and Death, eds. George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, 2010.]
“The Space Between” (novella)—Set in 1778, mostly in Paris, this novella deals with Michael Murray (Young Ian’s elder brother), Joan MacKimmie (Marsali’s younger sister), the Comte St. Germain (who is Not Dead After All), Mother Hildegarde, and a few other persons of interest. The space between what? It depends who you’re talking to. [Originally published in 2013 in the anthology The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, ed. John Joseph Adams.]
“Virgins” (novella)—Set in 1740 in France. In which Jamie Fraser (aged nineteen) and his friend Ian Murray (aged twenty) become young mercenaries. [Originally published in 2013 in the anthology Dangerous Women, eds. George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.]
NOW, REMEMBER …
You can read the short novels and novellas by themselves, or in any order you like. I would recommend reading the Big, Enormous Books in order, though.
I woke to the patter of rain on canvas,
with the feel of my first husband’s kiss on my lips.
IT’S OCTOBER OF 1770, and the Frasers of Fraser’s Ridge have come to a great Gathering on Mount Helicon (now known as Grandfather Mountain). In the morning, Claire wakes in a tent beside her husband, Jamie, from a dream of her first husband, Frank. It’s her daughter Brianna’s wedding day, and as Claire admits to herself, what could be more natural than that both her daughter’s fathers should be there?
Brianna’s wedding to Roger MacKenzie is not the only notable occurrence of the day. Claire has barely got her stockings on before a company of Highland soldiers, sent by the governor of the colony, William Tryon, is drawn up by the creek to issue a proclamation from the governor, demanding the surrender of persons known to have taken part in the Hillsborough riots—some of whom are in fact at the Gathering.
Thus begins a Very Long Day, during which all of the events and story lines that will be carried on through the book begin:
1. Brianna and Roger’s relationship. They love each other madly and want nothing more than to be married and together forever. But. Brianna is hesitant about having more children; she doesn’t know for sure who her son Jemmy’s father is—it could be Roger, but she’s terribly afraid that it might be Stephen Bonnet, the pirate who raped her. Roger has claimed Jemmy as his own—but he desperately wants another child, one he knows is his. Orphaned in infancy, he’s been alone in the world for a long time.
Brianna’s hesitation is twofold: She’s a young woman; Jemmy would be self-sufficient in fifteen years; she could at that point try to return to the future, to the twentieth-century world that is hers by right. But not if she has more children, who would anchor her to the past. Also, childbirth is dangerous; one of the women at the Gathering has kindly given her some embroidery silk—with which to adorn her shroud, which by tradition she should begin making the day after the wedding. “That way, I’ll have it woven and embroidered by the time I die in childbirth. And if I’m a fast worker, I’ll have time to make one for you, too—otherwise, your next wife will have to finish it!”
But how can she deny Roger what she knows he wants so badly?
2. Jamie’s relationship with Governor Tryon, which is delicate to begin with. The governor has given Jamie a large grant of land, on condition that he people it with settlers. One of Jamie’s reasons for attending the Gathering is to recruit suitable immigrants from Scotland to come and homestead on his land—he’s looking particularly for ex-Jacobite prisoners, especially men who were imprisoned with him at Ardsmuir after Culloden and who may have survived transportation.
The delicate bit is that Jamie is a Catholic and thus not allowed to own land grants under English law. Governor Tryon knows this but has chosen to look the other way, for the sake of getting the backcountry—always a volatile trouble spot, full of discontented hunters, trappers, and small farmers, all pushing against the Indian Treaty Line and none of them paying taxes regularly—settled and stabilized.
However, the unspoken fact of Jamie’s Catholicism hangs over their dealings, and when Archie Hayes, commander of the company of Highland soldiers, presents Jamie with a letter from Tryon, appointing him colonel of militia and ordering him to collect “so many Men as you Judge suitable to serve in a Regiment of Militia, and make Report to me as soon as possible of the Number of Volunteers that are willing to turn out in the Service of their King and Country, when called upon, and also what Number of effective Men belong to your Regiment who can be ordered out in case of an Emergency, and in case any further Violence should be attempted to be committed by the Insurgents,” Jamie has no good way to refuse. As he tells Claire, “I must. Tryon’s got my ballocks in his hand, and I’m no inclined to see whether he’ll squeeze.”
Tryon’s concern with assembling a mi litia is the “Insurgents”—the Regulation, a growing movement of disaffected men in the mountainous western part of the state. What the Regulators want to regulate is government, which they see as abusive, non-representative, and generally a big nuisance. The governor, rather naturally, feels otherwise about the matter, but has no regular troops with which to impose his will.
3. Claire’s expanding medical practice and the conflicts engendered thereby. After a successful morning removing nasal polyps, stitching up a mauled dog, and butting heads with one Murray MacLeod, a rival practitioner, Claire is somewhat taken aback when Jamie tells her that he’s promised that she will remove Josiah Beardsley’s tonsils.
Josiah is very young but a capable hunter. Jamie wants to recruit him to the new settlement at Fraser’s Ridge, because of his youth. Men between sixteen and sixty are obliged to serve in the militia when summoned; Josiah is only fourteen and thus could remain behind to help provide the women and children of the Ridge with food and a stock of hides for later trading. Claire is a little dubious about performing a tonsillectomy sans anesthesia or operating facilities but agrees to try, once they’re back home.
Her medical practice has other side benefits. She mends the arm and draws the tooth of a Mr. Goodwin, a solid citizen hurt in the Hillsborough riot, who later is of use to her in obtaining access to the priest, Father Kenneth. For Claire, her relationship with Jamie is drawing her further and further from her life in the modern world and her sense of identity; her ties to medicine and her destiny as a healer are what enable her to make that transition.
4. The brewing unrest in the back-country. Several of the men who rioted in Hillsborough—tearing down houses, beating men who held public office, and driving the chief justice out of his courthouse and into hiding—are at the Gathering, and we hear their stories of dispossession for unpaid taxes (taxes must be paid in coin—despite the fact that there is virtually no cash money in the colony and most business is done by barter), oppression by the Crown (in the person of Governor Tryon), and death. This ferment will eventually erupt into what’s known as the War of the Regulation, where “Regulators” from the mountain backcountry (taxes and representation being what they want to regulate) clash with the governor and the prosperous merchants and plantation owners of the coast.
The War of the Regulation is the beginning of the breakdown of law in the colony of North Carolina—and will provide fertile soil for the later Revolution.
5. Lizzie Wemyss and her father. Lizzie is the very young bond servant that Brianna brought from Scotland; Jamie has found her father—sold as an indentured servant—and purchased his indenture. He releases Joseph Wemyss from his bond but chooses not to make that fact publicly known, so that Mr. Wemyss will be not required to serve in the militia and can stay at home to help mind the property and people of the Ridge.
Lizzie has become a woman—i.e., had her menarche—at the Gathering and is thus now a prospect for love and marriage, as witnessed by her shy flirtation with one of the young soldiers.
6. Rosamund Lindsay and Ronnie Sinclair. Ronnie Sinclair is a cooper and one of the ex-Ardsmuir men whom Jamie invites to settle on the Ridge. Fiercely loyal to Jamie, he is constantly on the lookout for a wife and constantly at odds with Rosamund, a Bostonian lady of some two hundred pounds and decided opinions on most things, especially the proper way to cook barbecue.
7. Roger’s relationship with Jamie. This has been strained, ever since Jamie and his nephew Young Ian gave Roger to the Mohawk as a slave (in Drums of Autumn), under the mistaken impression that he had raped Brianna. Roger was rescued and apologies given and accepted—but as a result of the unfortunate affair, Young Ian remained with the Mohawk, to be adopted by the Indians in replacement of a man Roger had killed. Jamie bitterly regrets the loss of his beloved nephew, and while he struggles to accept that it was not Roger’s fault, the awareness lingers.
Beyond that—and the undeniable fact that Roger did take Brianna’s virginity, albeit with her full consent (Jamie being somewhat more protective than the average eighteenth-century father, which is saying something)—Roger is keenly aware that he is a poor substitute for Young Ian, lacking most of the skills that are useful or valued in the eighteenth century. This is brought home to him forcefully when he learns that Jamie has engaged a man to be factor for the Ridge—the man who will take care of affairs there in Jamie’s absence—and it isn’t Roger. Normally, the “son of the house,” whether true son, foster son, or son-in-law, would perform this office, and the fact that Roger has been passed over in this way seems a deliberate insult.
The only thing Roger has that seems useful in this present time is his ability to sing. A natural performer with a beautiful voice, he’s called A Smeòraich (“Singing Thrush”) by the Scots of the Ridge.
Jamie is not slow to exploit this ability of Roger’s, but Roger can’t help feeling that Jamie regards him as a hopeless numpty. Already sensitive about his lack of property and skill, Roger also finds himself in conflict with Jocasta Cameron, Jamie’s aunt, who wants to make Brianna her heir. (Brianna’s having none of it, as she refuses to own slaves—a good proportion of River Run plantation’s wealth.)
8. Jocasta MacKenzie Cameron Cameron Cameron and Duncan Innes. Jamie’s aunt Jocasta is the very rich, thrice-widowed owner of River Run Plantation. Blind and childless, she requires both a man to help with negotiations with the Royal Navy—who are the primary customers for River Run’s valuable tar and timber—and an heir to whom the property can be bequeathed. A marriage has been arranged between Jocasta and Duncan Innes, a one-armed fisherman from Scotland, an ex-Jacobite comrade of Jamie’s. It’s principally a business arrangement, but there seems to be a true affection between Jo-casta and Duncan, as well. This still leaves the question of inheritance, though.
Jocasta is the daughter and sister of MacKenzie chieftains and as proud—and as sly—as any of her clan. When Roger goes to call on her, to ask her help in providing for a family in dire poverty, she tells him she proposes to make Brianna’s son, Jemmy, her heir, and then she goads Roger with remarks about fortune hunters, clearly implying that she thinks (or pretends to think) that Roger’s chief motive in marrying Brianna is Jocasta’s property and that Roger’s only interest in Jem is the lad’s prospects.
“Oh, I ken how it is,” she assured him. “It’s only to be understood that a man might not feel just so kindly toward a bairn his wife’s borne to another. But if—”
He stepped forward then and gripped her hard by the shoulder, startling her. She jerked, blinking, and the candle flames flashed from the cairngorm brooch.
“Madam,” he said, speaking very softly into her face. “I do not want your money. My wife does not want it. And my son will not have it. Cram it up your hole, aye?”
He let her go, turned, and strode out of the tent, brushing past Ulysses, who looked after him in puzzlement.
9. Ulysses. Jocasta’s black butler, Ulysses is the true brains of River Run. Were he not black and a slave, he could manage everything—but since he is, Duncan Innes is needed to handle things like contracts with the Royal Navy and the external business of the plantation. Still, Ulysses is devoted to his mistress and has been her right hand for twenty years or more. He knows everything that happens at River Run—and controls almost everything.
10. Conflict between Claire and Jamie, Roger and Brianna, over Stephen Bonnet. Stephen Bonnet is the notorious pirate whose life Jamie saved (in Drums of Autumn) and who promptly repaid this debt by robbing the Frasers and later raping Brianna—thus causing doubt and friction between Bree and Roger, as they don’t know for sure which man fathered little Jemmy.
Brianna reveals to Roger that she told Bonnet—facing imminent execution—that he was Jemmy’s father, she thinking this likely at the time and wishing to give a doomed man some comfort in knowing that he left something of himself behind. Roger is angry—and alarmed—at the news. He feels that he is Jem’s father and is disturbed to think that Bonnet, who escaped the noose, might at some point come to try to claim the child.
When Claire learns that Jamie is spreading the word through the Gathering that he wants to find Bonnet, she’s both alarmed and annoyed, too. What is he doing, asking for the sort of trouble that’s likely to result from finding Bonnet? He has more than enough trouble pending, what with the governor’s appointment of him as a colonel of militia, the needs of the Ridge, and his quest for more settlers. And there’s the question of Roger’s feelings, too: it’s one thing for Jamie to plan coldly to kill Bonnet; Roger is a man of peace, raised by a clergyman, and has never even thought of killing anyone. What will it do to him if Jamie either kills Bonnet himself (thus indicating that he doesn’t think Roger can protect his family) or gets Roger killed in the process of hunting Bonnet?
Jamie is not swayed by Claire’s arguments, stubbornly insisting that he needs to find and exterminate the man who not only raped his daughter and robbed the Frasers but who is also a continuing threat to the welfare of Brianna and little Jem—to say nothing of society as a whole.
Claire is not convinced, but neither can she sway Jamie from his path.
11. Religion. One of the further awk-wardnesses between Jamie and Roger is the fact that Roger is a Presbyterian.
“… well, you see, we’re Catholics, and Catholics have priests, but Uncle Roger is a Presbyterian—”
“That’s a heretic,” Jamie put in helpfully.
“It is not a heretic, darling, Grand-père is being funny—or thinks he is. Presbyterians are …”
Regardless, Father Kenneth, a Catholic priest who has come to the Gathering to attend to the spiritual needs of the Catholic Highlanders there, has agreed to marry Roger and Brianna. The good father is not the only clergyman at the Gathering; there are preachers galore, of one persuasion or another, including the Rev. Mr. David Caldwell, a prominent (and real) Presbyterian.
In the midst of the Gathering, Jamie gets word that Father Kenneth has been arrested. Going to discover the difficulty, he finds that the priest has been arrested by David Anstruther, a county sheriff, and is being held in the tent of one Randall Lillywhite, a magistrate from Hillsborough. This is baffling; while it’s true that Catholics are officially discriminated against and that it is technically illegal for a Catholic priest to perform “ceremonials” in the colony, this isn’t a legality that’s often enforced—mostly because there are very few priests in the colony; in fact, Father Kenneth has been imported for the occasion, asked by Jocasta to come and perform both her marriage to Duncan and the marriage of Roger and Brianna.
The matter becomes still more baffling when Mr. Lillywhite refuses to release the priest into Jamie’s custody—an apparently pointless insult to a prominent man. Jamie, however, has a greater concern than his daughter’s or his aunt’s marriage: he wants his grandchildren baptized. With considerable guile and Claire’s help, he persuades the magistrate to allow him to speak privately with the priest, in order to have his confession heard, and then he smuggles in Jemmy, Germain, and Joan, whom the priest hastily baptizes in whisky, the “water of life” being all that’s available.
Brianna and Roger, meanwhile, have spoken privately to the Rev. Mr. Caldwell and are married that evening after all—in a Presbyterian ceremony.
“You had your way over the baptism,” I whispered. He lifted his chin slightly. Brianna glanced in our direction, looking slightly anxious.
“I havena said a word, have I?”
“It’s a perfectly respectable Christian marriage.”
“Did I say it was not?”
“Then look happy, damn you!” I hissed. He exhaled once more, and assumed an expression of benevolence one degree short of outright imbecility.
“Better?” he asked, teeth clenched in a genial smile.
* * *
Germain was paying no attention to my explanation, but instead had tilted his head back, viewing Jamie with fascination.
“Why Grand-père is making faces?”
“We’re verra happy,” Jamie explained, expression still fixed in a rictus of amiability.
“Oh.” Germain at once stretched his own extraordinarily mobile face into a crude facsimile of the same expression—a jack-o’-lantern grin, teeth clenched and eyes popping. “Like this?”
“Yes, darling,” I said, in a marked tone. “Just like that.”
Marsali looked at us, blinked, and tugged at Fergus’s sleeve. He turned, squinting at us.
“Look happy, Papa!” Germain pointed to his gigantic smile. “See?”
Fergus’s mouth twitched, as he glanced from his offspring to Jamie. His face went blank for a moment, then adjusted itself into an enormous smile of white-toothed insincerity. Marsali kicked him in the ankle. He winced, but the smile didn’t waver.
* * *
Reverend Caldwell stepped forward, a finger in his book at the proper place, put his spectacles on his nose, and smiled genially at the assemblage, blinking only slightly when he encountered the row of leering countenances.
12. Fergus, Jamie’s adopted French son, his wife, Marsali (daughter of Jamie’s ex-wife, Laoghaire), and their two children, Germain and Joan. Fergus, like Roger, has a few problems in finding status and self-worth in the environment where he finds himself. Intelligent, inventive, and artistic, but lacking one hand, he can’t do many of the chores necessary on a frontier homestead, thus throwing a lot of the work onto his young wife. This causes him to feel guilty and creates friction between him and Marsali.
Still, in the present situation, Fergus’s handicap is an advantage; lacking a hand, he is not obliged to serve with the militia, and while he will help in gathering the militia volunteers, if and when the militia is called to serve, he can remain on the Ridge to help defend and organize.
13. The Bugs. Jamie introduces Roger to an elderly but still strong and vigorous Highlander named Arch Bug, a recent immigrant to the colony with his wife, Murdina. Arch, Jamie informs Roger, will be the new factor for the Ridge, while Murdina will help with the cooking and household chores at the Big House.
Roger is outwardly cordial but inwardly fumes, This attitude undergoes an abrupt change when Jamie tells Roger why he’s made Arch Bug factor:
“’Twas luck I should have come across auld Arch Bug and his wife today. If it comes to the fighting—and it will, I suppose, later, if not now—then Claire will ride with us. I shouldna like to leave Brianna to manage on her own, and it can be helped.”
Roger felt the small nagging weight of doubt drop away, as all became suddenly clear.
“On her own. You mean—ye want me to come? To help raise men for the militia?”
Jamie gave him a puzzled look.
“Aye, who else?”
He pulled the edges of his plaid higher about his shoulders, hunched against the rising wind. “Come along, then, Captain MacKenzie,” he said, a wry note in his voice. “We’ve work to do before you’re wed.”
14. The McGillivrays. Another of Jamie’s Ardsmuir companions, Robin McGillivray is a talented gunsmith, married to an indomitable German lady named Ute, whose life is dedicated to making good matches for her children: her son, Manfred, but, more important, her three daughters, Hilda, Inga, and Senga. We meet the McGillivrays first at the Gathering, when John Quincy Myers, a trapping acquaintance, comes to tell Jamie that there is a certain amount of trouble with a thief-taker, who has just tried to arrest Manfred McGillivray for taking part in the Hillsborough riot. Manfred was in Hillsborough, his sisters admit, but they insist that he had nothing to do with the riots.
Going to investigate, Claire and Jamie find Manfred and a pair of manacles—but no thief-taker. Investigating more closely, they discover the thief-taker, one Harley Boble by name. He has been overpowered by the McGillivray women, who have him bound and gagged but are at something of a loss as to how to proceed.
Jamie deals with the immediate problem in his own inimitable fashion:
“Exactly what did Jamie tell him?” I asked Myers.
“Oh. Well.” The mountain man gave me a broad, gap-toothed grin. “Jamie Roy told him serious-like that it was surely luck for the thief-taker—his name’s Boble, by the way, Harley Boble—that we done come upon y’all when we did. He give him to understand that if we hadn’t, then this lady here”—he bowed toward Ute—”would likely have taken him home in her wagon, and slaughtered him like a hog, safe out of sight.”
Myers rubbed a knuckle under his red-veined nose and chortled softly in his beard.
“Boble said as how he didn’t believe it, he thought she was only a-tryin’ to scare him with that knife. But then Jamie Roy leaned down close, confidential-like, and said he mighta thought the same—only that he’d heard so much about Frau McGillivray’s reputation as a famous sausage-maker, and had had the privilege of bein’ served some of it to his breakfast this morning. Right about then, Boble started to lose the color in his face, and when Jamie Roy pulled out a bit of sausage to show him—”
The problem of the thief-taker thus disposed of, the McGillivrays accept Jamie’s invitation to come and settle on the Ridge.
Once returned to the Ridge, Claire deals with a houseful of new immigrants—all staying with the Frasers while new cabins are hastily built—and pursues her most pressing order of business: the development of a usable form of penicillin. Jamie is busy settling his new tenants, drawing up property deeds, organizing labor, and—somehow—finding the money to supply those tenants with the basic tools needed to carve homesteads out of the wilderness. As Claire pursues her chemical researches, so does Jamie: “somehow” is the clandestine making and selling of whisky.
Meanwhile, Roger and Brianna settle in the old cabin near the Big House, where Claire and Jamie live, and begin the adventurous if sometimes awkwardly bruising business of making a life together.
All this industry is abruptly interrupted by Governor Tryon’s letter, sent to all the colonels of militia: There is a gathering of Regulators near Salisbury, and one General Waddell is heading there to disperse them. Jamie and the other militia commanders are to gather as many men as they can and join him.
Jamie begins the matter with a ceremonial supper, to which he summons all his tenants, inviting also the German settlers who live nearby. He erects a large wooden cross in the yard, causing Brianna to ask with nervous facetiousness whether he is starting his own religion. He explains the tradition of the “fiery cross”—a symbol used by the ancient clan chieftains to summon men to war—and gives Roger careful instruction as to which songs to sing and in what order. The event is carefully orchestrated, and when the cross blazes up, Jamie has the core of his militia, eager to follow him.
More men are needed, though, and Jamie (with Claire, Roger, and Fergus) sets out with a party of forty men, intending to raise further recruits from the country through which they pass.
While Jamie and Roger are absent (with Claire as medico), Bree is left in charge of the teeming—and frequently riotous—household. Herself, if you would.
Herself flung open the study door and glowered at the mob. Mrs. Bug, red in the face—as usual—and brimming with accusation. Mrs. Chisholm, ditto, overflowing with maternal outrage. Little Mrs. Aberfeldy, the color of an eggplant, clutching her two-year-old daughter, Ruth, protectively to her bosom. Tony and Toby Chisholm, both in tears and covered with snot. Toby had a red handprint on the side of his face; little Ruthie’s wispy hair appeared to be oddly shorter on one side than the other. They all began to talk at once.
“… Red savages!”
“… My baby’s beautiful hair!”
“She started it!”
“… dare to strike my son!”
“We was just playin’ at scalpin’, ma’am … ”
“… EEEEEEEEEEE!”
“… and torn a great hole in my feather bed, the wee spawn!”
“Look what she’s done, the wicked auld besom!”
“Look what they’ve done!”
“Look ye, ma’am, it’s only … “
“AAAAAAAAAAA!”
Escaping momentarily from the tumult, she shuts herself in her father’s study and, while picking up a fallen ledger, discovers a letter from Lord John Grey, in which he tells Jamie of his inquiries regarding the whereabouts of Stephen Bonnet. He has news not only of Bonnet’s continued presence in the Carolinas but also recounts a horrible incident in which Bonnet has maimed and blinded a man with whom he fought a duel. The news leaves Brianna chilled and shaking.
While camped one night, Jamie’s militia are unexpectedly joined by Josiah Beardsley, the young hunter to whom Jamie had offered a place on the Ridge. Josiah is having an asthma attack, which Claire treats with hot coffee and breathing exercises. When recovered, Josiah says he will travel with the militia party for a bit, having “business” to conduct nearby.
The “business” turns out to be his twin brother, Keziah, whom Josiah has stolen from Aaron Beardsley’s farm, where the two brothers were indentured servants—having been sold as such at the age of two, after their entire family died on the passage from England to the colonies.
Hearing this, Jamie is naturally reluctant to approach the Beardsley place but has to inquire whether Beardsley will join the militia. He and Claire decide to approach Mr. Beardsley on their own, in order to avoid Beardsley inadvertently learning of the boys having taken refuge with Jamie. They leave the rest of the party to continue to Browns-ville, a nearby settlement, under Roger’s command.
Roger is pleased—if a little nervous—at this sign of Jamie’s confidence and rides into Brownsville at the head of his men, only to be confronted by the barrel of a gun sticking out the window of the house he’s approached.
Isaiah Morton, one of the militiamen with Roger, has seduced Alicia, daughter of Lionel Brown, one of the two Brown brothers who founded the settlement. Hearing that Isaiah is unable to make an honest woman of Alicia, owing to his having a wife in Granite Falls, they’re inclined to take Alicia’s honor out of his hide—but Isaiah, with rare presence of mind, has vanished. Headed for the hills, Roger hopes—and, with the aid of Fergus and a barrel of whisky, pitches in to hold the Browns at bay, at least until Jamie can get there.
Meanwhile, Claire and Jamie discover an equally fraught situation at the Beardsley farm. They are greeted by Fanny Beardsley, who tells them that her husband is ill and tries to send them away. Claire’s medical nose detects something rotten in the state of Denmark, though, and she insists on coming inside, where they discover Aaron Beardsley, helpless in the loft.
He has had a serious stroke and can neither move nor talk. His wife has made no effort to care for him—quite the opposite, as Claire can tell at once by the marks of torture on the man’s wasted, filthy body. Fanny Beardsley claims that her husband has cruelly abused her—and she has clearly been getting a bit of her own back, wreaking vengeance on the helpless man, allowing him to die by inches.
Beardsley can’t talk but indicates to Jamie that he wishes to die. Claire tells Jamie that he will certainly die; aside from the effects of the stroke that felled him, he has developed gangrene. Jamie reluctantly agrees and shoots Beardsley through the eye. He buries Beardsley, and Claire sees him first vomit and then weep silently, disturbed not only by the violence of what he’s felt obliged to do but by thought of his own father, who died some days after a stroke many years before, with Jamie not present. Was his father in such dreadful case? he wonders. But he is estranged from his sister—the only one who could tell him—because of his having lost her youngest son to the Mohawk.
With Fanny Beardsley and the goats, the Frasers leave the ghastly farm, and on the way Fanny tells them about her dreadful marriage—revealing in the process that Aaron Beardsley had been married several times before and had (she says) killed his previous wives, whom he buried under a rowan tree in the yard. One of the dead wives appeared to her, she says casually, and urged her to flee. Disturbed by the woman’s talk, the Frasers bed down some distance from her that night and discover in the morning that she has fled—but has left something behind: a small baby, newborn and bearing a Mongol spot—a pigmented mark at the base of the spine, common to children of African extraction. Whoever fathered Fanny’s child, it wasn’t her husband.
Back in Brownsville, Roger has succeeded in pacifying the Browns, at least to an extent, and is both proud and pleased when Jamie, arriving and assessing the situation, tells him he’s done well. Jamie arranges for the Beardsley baby—now heir to Aaron Beardsley’s farm and prosperous trading post—to be cared for by the Browns, and all looks good for an orderly recruitment and getaway, when Alicia Beardsley comes to talk with Claire privately. The girl is pregnant by the bigamous Isaiah and is on the verge of begging Claire to help her to terminate her pregnancy, when they are interrupted.
Later that night, Jamie and Claire are surprised in the makeshift stable by Isaiah himself; he’s been lurking nearby, desperate to see Alicia. He attempts to hold Jamie at gunpoint, telling Claire to go get the girl, but Jamie is having no nonsense of that kind:
“Put it down, idiot,” he said, almost kindly. “Ye ken fine ye willna shoot me, and so do I.”
Claire sneaks into the house and up to Alicia’s small room, where she finds the girl lying stark naked on the floor beneath an open window, letting snow drift in upon her.
“I’ve heard of a number of novel ways of inducing miscarriage,” I told her, picking up a quilt from the cot and dropping it over her shoulders, “but freezing to death isn’t one of them.”