WARNING: SPOILERS HIGHLY LIKELY SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE OUTLANDER SERIES AND/OR WATCHED THE SHOW!
“Euterpe,” he blurted, and I stopped dead, jarred to the backbone.“What?” I whispered. “What?”“Lost,” he said, in a voice that wasn’t his own. “Lost. With all hands.”“No,” I said, trying for reason. “No, it’s not.”He looked at me directly then, for the first time, and seized me by the forearm.“Listen to me,” he said, and the pressure of his fingers terrified me. I tried to jerk away but couldn’t.“Listen,” he said again. “I heard it this morning from a naval captain I know. I met him at the coffeehouse, and he was recounting the tragedy. He saw it.” His voice trembled, and he stopped for a moment, firming his jaw. “A storm. He had been chasing the ship, meaning to stop and board her, when the storm came upon them both. His own ship survived and limped in, badly damaged, but he saw the Euterpe swamped by a broaching wave, he said—I have no notion what that is—” He waved away his own digression, annoyed. “She went down before his eyes. The Roberts—his ship—hung about in hopes of picking up survivors.” He swallowed. “There were none.”“None,” I said blankly. I heard what he said but took no meaning from the words.“He is dead,” Lord John said softly, and let go of my arm. “He is gone.”From the kitchen came the smell of burning porridge.
Yeah, the reader know that's not a concern but... Then that jerk of an idiot Richardson decides to arrest Claire as a spy. Richardson asks if there is a personal attachment on John's part. John says she is a surgeon but that her helping of Henry has come to an end, that he respects her but no, there isn't an "attachment". And as he leaves, he realizes, " There was, after all, one more service he might perform for Jamie Fraser." And then he informs Claire of that.
“YOU MUST MARRY me,” he repeated. I’d heard him the first time, but it made no more sense upon repetition. I stuck a finger in one ear and wiggled it, then repeated the process with the other.
“You can’t possibly have said what I think you said.”
“Indeed I did,” he said, his normal dry edge returning.
The numbness of shock was beginning to wear off, and something horrible was beginning to crawl out of a small hole in my heart. I couldn’t look at that and took refuge in staring at Lord John.
“I know I’m shocked,” I told him, “but I’m sure I’m neither delusional nor hearing things. Why the bloody hell are you saying that, for God’s sake?!” I rose abruptly, wanting to strike him. He saw it and took a smart step back.
“You are going to marry me,” he said, a fierce edge in his voice. “Are you aware that you are about to be arrested as a spy?”
“I—no.” I sat down again, as abruptly as I’d stood up. “What… why?”
“You would know that better than I would,” he said coldly.
In fact, I would. I repressed the sudden flutter of panic that threatened to overwhelm me, thinking of the papers I had conveyed secretly from one pair of hands to another in the cover of my basket, feeding the secret network of the Sons of Liberty.
“Even if that were true,” I said, struggling to keep my own voice level, “why the bloody hell would I marry you? Let alone why you would want to marry me, which I don’t believe for an instant.”
“Believe it,” he advised me briefly. “I will do it because it is the last service I can render Jamie Fraser. I can protect you; as my wife, no one can touch you. And you will do it because…” He cast a bleak glance behind me, raising his chin, and I looked around to see all four of Fergus’s children huddled in the doorway, the girls and Henri-Christian watching me with huge, round eyes. Germain was looking straight at Lord John, fear and defiance plain on his long, handsome face.
“Them, too?” I asked, taking a deep breath and turning to meet his gaze. “You can protect them, too?”
“Yes.”
“I—yes. All right.” I rested both hands flat on the counter, as though that somehow could keep me from spinning off into space. “When?”
“Now,” he said, and took my elbow. “There is no time to lose.”
Willie was John's best man. Dottie immediately begins calling her Aunt while Willie uses Mother Claire. John's present causes her to faint. Well it was more the events of the day on top of hearing of Jamie's death but the medical chest John bought her that included a microscope was the icing on the cake. Claire realizes all the methods of unaliving herself that she has at hand. Aconite, arsenic, the ether, her knife, which would be the surest and fastest way. Then we skip to Jamie contemplating shades from his past: the girl in France, Geneva, and how he promised to protect Claire with his name, his clan and his body. And how he gave Ian his promise to care for Jenny before Ian died.
As long as I live, he thought. And that should be some time yet. He thought he’d used only five of the deaths the fortune-teller in Paris had promised him.
“You’ll die nine times before you rest in your grave,” she’d said. Did it take so many tries to get it right? he wondered.
Then we flash back to Claire holding the knife to her arm. But she's stopped by the memory of wanting to die with Jamie if he died at Culloden and him forcing her to go through the stones and the "J" marked on her palm. How he made sure she lived to give birth to Bree. And it was Claire's realization that even with Bree in the future, it was possible they might see each other again. So that and her obligation to others kept her alive. And one night she was drinking and remembering the aftermath of Ticonderoga and then John enters the room.
His neckcloth was missing and his shirt hung limp on his shoulders, wine spilled down the front of it. His hair was loose and tangled, and his eyes as red as mine.
I stood up, slow, as though I were underwater.
“I will not mourn him alone tonight,” he said roughly, and closed the door.
The next morning...
I WAS SURPRISED to wake up. I hadn’t really expected to and lay for a bit trying to fit reality back into place around me. I had only a slight headache, which was almost more surprising than the fact that I was still alive.
Both those things paled in significance beside the fact of the man in bed beside me.
“How long has it been since you last slept with a woman, if you don’t mind my asking?”
He didn’t appear to mind. He frowned a little and scratched his chest thoughtfully.
“Oh… fifteen years? At least that.” He glanced at me, his expression altering to one of concern. “Oh. I do apologize.”
“You do? For what?” I arched one brow. I could think of a number of things he might apologize for, but probably none of those was what he had in mind.
“I am afraid I was perhaps not…” he hesitated. “Very gentlemanly.”
“Oh, you weren’t,” I said, rather tartly. “But I assure you that I wasn’t being at all ladylike myself.”
He looked at me, and his mouth worked a bit, as though trying to frame some response to that, but after a moment or two he shook his head and gave it up.
“Besides, it wasn’t me you were making love to,” I said, “and both of us know it.”
He looked up, startled, his eyes very blue. Then the shadow of a smile crossed his face, and he looked down at the quilted coverlet.
“No,” he said softly. “Nor were you, I think, making love to me. Were you?”
“No,” I said. The grief of the night before had softened, but the weight of it was still there. My voice was low and husky, because my throat was halfway closed, where the hand of sorrow clutched me unawares.
They discuss how Jamie had once offered himself to John and how John turning him down was one of the few acts of true nobility he could claim. How he regretted it but also knew if he had taken Jamie up on his offer, it would have killed their friendship and in the end John highly valued that. Then he admits sleeping with Claire (and in this case she meant actual sleeping) was the first time he did so voluntarily. He asks to see her naked and admits to never seeing Isobel that way. He tells her she is lovely. And Claire asks if he means for a woman of her age. No, not a woman of her age or even as a woman at all is his explanation. Which makes her ponder if he means as an object like a painting or sculpture. "As my friend." is his simple reply. Then she questions if he had been alone all this time since Isobel died. He confesses to having a relationship with Manoke, that it's not just a convenient relief of urges though he does not know if Manoke solely likes men or both women and men. She is slightly worried that she will have a jealous Manoke to deal with but he assures her there is no sense of possession for either him or Manoke.
We jump back to 1980 where Jem is in the dark. Jem thinks he is in the tunnel where Rob and the others played the trick on Bree on his first day of work. He does realize he can feel Mandy and is surprised by it because of the distance.
And then it is back to Philadelphia and Rachel. Some of the jumps between POVs are jarring. Especially to my fibro fog brain. But such is life I guess. She's looking at a less than fresh loaf of bread when Rollo suddenly takes off. She follows behind him, realizing he is following a scent and that it must be Ian. All of a sudden she is grabbed. But it is an old man and not Ian. Ian has finally arrived in Philadelphia from Valley Forge and realizes Rachel is in town. He did meet von Steuben at Valley Forge and had a conversation with the German man in French, since von Steuben spoke only rudimentary English. He meets with Rollo but wonders where Rachel is. Then we jump to Fergus and his itchy missing hand. He is informed a man was looking for him but the woman didn't see the man. She was told it was, "...a Scotch man, very tall, a fine-looking man. Thought he might have been a soldier once.” So Fergus sets off to find the man. Then we jump back to Rachel informing the man who has accosted her that he has mistaken her for someone else. But he points to Rollo saying that is her dog, yes? She says no but she is taking care of him for a friend. He demands to know where Ian is and she tells him he is in Scotland. She has a bad feeling much like when they were attacked in New Jersey by what seemed to have been serial killers that Willie killed. The old man tries dragging her away after asking if she loves Ian. But thankfully, Willie sees them and he and four armed British soldiers run to her rescue. This causes the old man to let go of her so suddenly she falls. He is amazed at seeing Willie and speaks in Gaelic. He tried backing away but Willie knocked him down. The old man raises the ax to strike Willie and Rachel screams his name to warn him. But the old man hits him and runs off. Claire patches him up and assures him he will not die. He asks if she knows who the old man was and she tells him it was Arch Bug. Willie asks if the man is mad and she says she believes he is. Willie, who cannot stay awake due to his concussion, promises to speak to someone about finding Arch because he can't let him hurt Rachel. Claire tenderly kisses his forehead as she did Bree at the same age and thinks, "God, you are so like him." Having Willie a part of her life now must not be easy because of how much he is like Jamie and Bree and missing them is gut-wrenching. But also may be a comfort in the sense there's a part of Jamie left that she can still see. Rachel checks to be sure Willie will be ok and then tells Claire Ian must be there because Rollo took off. Which he is known to chase things, but he always returns and has not done so this time. So Claire realizes that there may be another reason Rollo has not returned and explains who the old man that attacked Rachel was. Rachel realizes that is why Ian said he was afraid she might die because she loved Ian. Rachel wonders if Ian will kill Arch. Claire says he may not mean to at first but if he realizes what Arch has done to Rachel, yes.
Claire attends a "mischianza" in celebration to honor Gen. Howe's resignation as commander in chief and replacement by Sir Henry Clinton. There is a gilded roast peacock with diamonds for eyes among the food offerings. There are also game pies, stuff songbirds, a roast boar. Though the birds bring to mind the King of France's dinner, which makes her lose her appetite. John apologizes for taking her to a Loyalist gathering and realizes it must be painful to her knowing her sympathies. She explains that it would be, except she knows what will happen in three years' time. He is curious what and she explains with the Gaelic phrase, "Fuirich agus chi thu." which is "Wait and see." He is somewhat amused by her claim. But then talk of the future drops and he introduces her to Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton who tells John that his cousin Richard, who was John's ensign at one time, sends his regards. As they fall into a discussion, she wanders off to prevent hearing any potentially useful information. She had not promised John she would not, but he also had not asked that of her. She simply felt an obligation not to gather information through him. She is hailed by Willie who calls out, "Mother Claire!"
“I do wish you could think of something else to call me,” I said, reaching his side. “I feel as though I ought to be swishing round in a habit with a rosary at my waist.”
He introduces her to a young woman who mentions she hopes Willie will still be in Philadelphia for her ball and that Major John André will be there as well. The young woman then introduces Claire to the Major who acts enchanted at meeting Claire, calls her Lady John (which seems somehow not quite correct, she should be Lady Grey nope I was wrong, a Duke's younger son is verbally addressed as My Lord or Lord John and his wife is My Lady or Lady John). John has no title of his own apparently, but the use of Lord Grey is a courtesy address as he is the son of the (former) Duke of Pardloe. Hal is currently the duke, but in the beginning used his father's lesser title, the Earl of Melton, due to the scandal behind Gerald Grey's death. To be honest, given his service to the crown in the Army, as a governor to Jamaica and in the Black Chamber, it is surprising John hadn't earned his own title. Willie catches up to Claire after she meets André and he comments she is quite pale and looks like she has seen a ghost. Well...given that she knows a bit of the history of the Revolution, I can see why. She knows what is coming for André because of Benedict Arnold.
Reunited with Rollo, Ian is deciding where to begin his search for Rachel. He knows Fergus and Marsali will make him welcome and that Claire may be able to help as well. John and Claire again sleep, actual sleep, together to avoid loneliness and missing Jamie. John acknowledges that he understands it would feel as if Claire is cheating. Then William hears that the soldiers have found Arch Bug. Rachel is at the printshop suffering a headache and feeling she would rather have returned to John's but for promising to help Marsali with the shop while Marsali took the children for a clothes and shoe fitting. The shop is fairly quiet until Arch Bug enters. She demands he leave. But knowing she means something to Ian, he refuses. He is hoping to keep his promise to Ian of waiting to retaliate for Ian's accidental killing of Mrs. Bug until Ian has something he values as much as Mrs. Bug meant to Arch. (Uhhh yeah she was committing a crime and not realizing it was her, Ian eliminated a criminal who was threatening Jamie...seems to fall under don't start none, won't be none and Mrs. Bug started something and Ian finished it but that's me.) Ian enters and Rachel begs him not to kill Arch. Ian tells Arch to kill him instead but Arch tells Rachel he will be quick and not to be afraid. Ian shoves her out of the way then Rollo attacks Arch. Arch swings the ax, he an Ian wrestle and into the melee comes Willie. He asks if there is something about Rachel that just attracts men with an ax and shoots Bug.
Willie's orderly goes to John and hands him a note as he and Claire are getting ready for tea. And it is a note from Gen. Graves. Another knock on the door occurs and he tells the person to come back later. The reply is a very distinct polite Scottish voice saying, he would, "But there’s some urgency, ken?" The door opens and it is Jamie. Claire asks why he is not dead and they hear the sound of pounding below. Apparently he was being followed by British soldiers. John informs him if he delays any longer, he may go back to being dead.
“It’s good to see ye, John—if only for the moment.”
John’s answering smile lit his eyes. He reached out a hand and touched Jamie’s arm, very briefly, as though wishing to assure himself that he was in fact solid.
“Yes,” he said, reaching then for the door. “But come. Down the back stair. Or there’s a hatchway to the attic—if you can get onto the roof—”
Jamie looked at me, his heart in his eyes.
“I’ll come back,” he said. “When I can.”
Before Jamie can make his escape...well...
“Mother Claire! Where’s Papa? There are—” He had seized me by the arms as I reeled backward, but his concern for me was superseded by a sound from the hall beyond the landing. He glanced toward the sound—then let go of me, his eyes bulging.
Jamie stood at the end of the hall, some ten feet away; John stood beside him, white as a sheet, and his eyes bulging as much as Willie’s were. This resemblance to Willie, striking as it was, was completely overwhelmed by Jamie’s own resemblance to the Ninth Earl of Ellesmere. William’s face had hardened and matured, losing all trace of childish softness, and from both ends of the short hall, deep blue Fraser cat-eyes stared out of the bold, solid bones of the MacKenzies. And Willie was old enough to shave on a daily basis; he knew what he looked like.
Willie’s mouth worked, soundless with shock. He looked wildly at me, back at Jamie, back at me—and saw the truth in my face.
“Who are you?” he said hoarsely, wheeling on Jamie.
I saw Jamie draw himself slowly upright, ignoring the noise below.
“James Fraser,” he said. His eyes were fixed on William with a burning intensity, as though to absorb every vestige of a sight he would not see again. “Ye kent me once as Alex MacKenzie. At Helwater.”
William blinked, blinked again, and his gaze shifted momentarily to John.
“And who—who the bloody hell am I?” he demanded, the end of the question rising in a squeak.
John opened his mouth, but it was Jamie who answered.
“You are a stinking Papist,” he said, very precisely, “and your baptismal name is James.” The ghost of regret crossed his face and then was gone. “It was the only name I had a right to give ye,” he said quietly, eyes on his son. “I’m sorry.”
Willie’s left hand slapped at his hip, reflexively looking for a sword. Finding nothing, he slapped at his chest. His hands were shaking so badly that he couldn’t manage buttons; he simply seized the fabric and ripped open his shirt, reached in and fumbled for something. He pulled it over his head and, in the same motion, hurled the object at Jamie.
Jamie’s reflexes brought his hand up automatically, and the wooden rosary smacked into it, the beads swinging, tangled in his fingers.
“God damn you, sir,” Willie said, voice trembling. “God damn you to hell!” He half-turned blindly, then spun on his heel to face John. “And you! You knew, didn’t you? God damn you, too!”
“William—” John reached out a hand to him, helpless, but before he could say anything more, there was a sound of voices in the hall below and heavy feet on the stair.
“Sassenach—keep him back!” Jamie’s voice reached me through the hubbub, sharp and clear. By sheer reflex, I obeyed and seized Willie by the arm. He glanced at me, mouth open, completely nonplused.
At this point, a group of soldiers run in looking for Jamie, who decides the way out of this mess is to take John hostage. He holds a gun on John and tells them to get back or he will put a bullet in John's brain. "Do ye think I've anything to lose?" Claire knows that with Willie and her there, of course he does but the soldiers do no know that. She's a bit concerned that Willie's anger at both Jamie and John could cause him to speak up or not care if the men both died in a hail of bullets. Willie stops them from chasing Jamie as he drags John out. He asks if they had men at the back of the house and when they tell him no, he calls them idiots and sends them back to their commander, asking to hear if the men are found.
As they escape, Jamie realizes John is only in his shirtsleeves and is soaking wet so he wraps his cloak around John. John asks what he has been doing and Jamie explains he was seen taking something from his foster son, handing John an oilskin packet. So he was followed to an ordinary and then the person left presumably to call for the soldiers. So when he saw the soldiers coming, he...left. John points out it is generally only the guilty who flee to which Jamie responds he calls it the "instinct of the hunted". Then John wonders why he came to John's house to which Jamie replies, "My wife." As the men set off on horseback, Jamie holds his pistol on John so that it appears John is not willingly with him. But John wonders if, when Jamie finally finds out he slept with Claire, Jamie will shoot him in the chest or just break his neck. When stopped by a patrol, John gives his name and rank (good thing he never actually resigned his commission though it's not as if Hal would have accepted that resignation I'm sure) and then gives Jamie's name as Mr. Alexander MacKenzie, which causes Jamie to silently laugh. He worries what might happen to Willie if he dies. And also knows his death would mean that Richardson and Denys Randall-Issacs will be problems for Claire and that Willie will try to protect Claire but not knowing what Richardson is will have problems doing so. He also knows his death will cause a problem for Henry and Mrs. Woodcock (who have a somewhat scandalous relationship given their races) and for Dottie and Denny and will bring Hal sailing to America, which would kill him. And even for Percy. Jamie thanks John for taking care of Claire but notices that John looks very pale.
“Peaked,” Grey muttered. His heart was beating very erratically; perhaps it would conveniently stop. He waited for a moment to allow it to do this if it liked, but it went on cheerfully thumping away. No help, then. Jamie was still looking quizzically at him. Best to get it over quickly.
He took a deep breath, shut his eyes, and commended his soul to God.
“I have had carnal knowledge of your wife,” he blurted.
He had expected to die more or less instantaneously upon this utterance, but everything continued just as usual. Birds continued chirping in the trees, and the rip and slobber of the horses champing grass was the only sound above that of the rushing water. He opened one eye to find Jamie Fraser standing there regarding him, head to one side.
“Oh?” said Jamie curiously. “Why?”
Then we switch back to Claire and Willie.
“I am not sure what to call you,” he said. “Under the—the circumstances.”
“Oh,” I said, mildly disconcerted. “Well. I don’t think—at least I hope that the relationship between you and me hasn’t changed.” I realized, with a sudden dampening of my euphoria, that it very well might now, and the thought gave me a deep pang. I was very fond of him, for his own sake, as well as for his father’s—or fathers’, as the case might be.
“Could you bring yourself to go on calling me ‘Mother Claire,’ do you think? Just until we can think of something more… appropriate,” I added hastily, seeing reluctance narrow his eyes. “After all, I suppose I am still your stepmother. Regardless of the … er… the situation.”
They discuss how Claire obviously knew the truth, and how Willie said she could not have missed the resemblance between him and Jamie and she admits Jamie told her years ago. Willie knows his mother was reckless, apparently everyone told him that much. But he was just concerned about it being rape. She assures him that was not possible and he wonders if they could have loved each other. Claire says, "As much as they could, I think."
“Did they deceive my father? Or did my mother play the whore with her groom before she wed?”
“That might be a bit harsh,” I began.
“No, it isn’t,” he snapped. “Which was it?”
“Your fa—Jamie. He’d never deceive another man in his marriage.” Except Frank, I thought, a little wildly. But, of course, he hadn’t known at first that he was doing it…
“My father,” he said abruptly. “Pa—Lord John, I mean. He knew—knows?”
“Yes.” Thin ice again. I didn’t think he had any idea that Lord John had married Isobel principally for his sake—and Jamie’s—but didn’t want him going anywhere near the question of Lord John’s motives.
“All of them,” I said firmly, “all four of them; they wanted what was best for you.”
“Best for me,” he repeated bleakly. “Right.” His knuckles had gone white again, and he gave me a look through narrowed eyes that I recognized all too well: a Fraser about to go off with a bang. I also knew perfectly well that there was no way of stopping one from detonating but had a try anyway, putting out a hand to him.
“William,” I began. “Believe me—”
“I do,” he said. “Don’t bloody tell me any more. God damn it!” And, whirling on his heel, he drove his fist through the paneling with a thud that shook the room, wrenched his hand out of the hole he’d made, and stormed out.
I mean I can't exactly blame him for being angry at what he sees as being lied to his whole life. But as a parent, I can also see not knowing when the best time to give the boy that news is. And for all that he is a grown man, at 19, Willie is still so young. As he unleashes his anger on the house, Jenny enters. She looks at the devastation and says, “Like father, like son, I see,” she remarked. “God help us all.”
The Tories and the army are decamping Philadelphia so Fergus will be able to return home. Ian explains to Rachel their intent is to divide the colonies in half and deal with the north and south separately. He apparently had heard this from Dennys Randall-Issacs. Rachel asks if he is a spy and if so, for which side. Ian says he wouldn't want to guess but he passes himself off as British. But he can't be trusted. Ian tells her she is his only constant, the only thing binding him to earth. He says he would become a Quaker for her except he knows in his heart that he is not. She would not ask that of him. She asks if Rollo is a wolf and he says that he mostly is. She then tells him, he too is a wolf, but that he is HER wolf. And then she makes it plain she loves him and that if he hunts at night he will come home. He ends with, "And sleep at thy feet."
Yeah that's the end. Another cliffhanger. How will Jamie and John get out of danger. How will Willie deal with what he has learned. When will Ian and Rachel marry. Will Dottie be allowed to marry Denzel. Will Henry continue to recover. Who is Richardson and what is his goal. Will Claire be safe from him and Randall-Isaacs. What is going to happen with Percy and Fergus. So many questions. Guess it's on to MOBY.
Quotes from An Echo in the Bone © 2009 Diana Gabaldon
No comments:
Post a Comment