Outlander

On the way to Fort Williams, the party spends the night at an inn where Claire has a private room. After investigating a strange noise, Claire bumps into Jamie, who is sleeping outside of her door. He explains that he chose to sleep there in case any drunken English soldiers try to break into Claire’s room and sexually accost her. Claire invites Jamie to sleep on her floor to avoid the cold, but he refuses, claiming that it would ruin her reputation.

The group arrives at Fort William. Claire realizes that she has been with the MacKenzie clan for one month and expresses remorse at not being able to properly say goodbye to Jamie. Dougal presents Claire to the garrison commander, who is Captain Jonathan Randall.

Captain Randall begins to interrogate Claire, telling her that Colum thinks she is an English spy. Claire admits to nothing. Claire notes how similar Randall’s face is to Frank’s. The similarity unnerves her. Claire and Randall verbally spar. Claire does not hide her contempt for Randall. Captain Randall warns Claire that her “frivolous attitude” will not help her situation (334). He hits Claire in the stomach, casually stating, “I hope you are not with child, Madam […] because if you are, you won’t be for long” (337). Randall asks Claire is she has anything to tell him. She replies that his wig is crooked.

When Dougal realizes that Claire has been beaten by Captain Randall, he gets into a private argument with Randall before storming out of Fort William with Claire. Dougal tells Claire about witnessing Jamie’s bravery while being nearly flogged to death by Captain Randall. Dougal informs Claire that since she is an English subject, Randall has the right to take her in for questioning. However, Dougal posits, if Claire marries a Scotsman, Randall’s right to question her would be revoked. Dougal instructs Claire to marry Jamie. After initially refusing, Claire considers the benefits of marrying Jamie; He would know how to get her to Craigh na Dun, and thus back home to 1945 and to Frank.

Dougal presents Claire with a contract of marriage. She asks Dougal if Jamie wants to marry her. Dougal replies, “Jamie’s a soldier; he’ll do as he’s told” (360). Outraged, Claire demands to speak to Jamie. Claire asks Jamie if he has any other marriage prospects. Jamie replies no since there is a price on his head and no father would want his daughter married to a man who could be arrested and hanged at any time. Claire asks him if he minds that she is not a virgin. Jamie replies no, so long as Claire does not mind that he is a virgin. After the marriage papers are signed, Claire gets drunk in the inn’s taproom and must be escorted to her room.

The morning after her drunken night, Claire is woken up abruptly by the inn owner’s wife. On the wedding day, Claire is stunned by Jamie’s beauty. His red hair is brushed smooth. Jamie wears his Fraser clan colors of crimson and black instead of the MacKenzie green and white. Dougal grows angry at Jamie, demanding to know what happens if someone were to see him. Jamie replies that the marriage would not be legal if he did not wed under his own name. Jamie gives Claire his mother’s pearls as a wedding present.

When Claire reaches the chapel, she realizes that it is the same one she married Frank in 200 years into the future. Jamie tells Claire that his full name is James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser. At the altar, Claire notices that Jamie is equally nervous and is reassured by this. Claire reflects that her wedding would have looked like any “merry wedding party” if not for the fact that everyone in attendance except her were men (376). Once alone in their bridal chamber, Jamie shyly clarifies to Claire that their marriage is not legal until it is consummated.

Jamie asks Claire for honesty in their marriage. He vows to protect her with his body and admits that he in part married Claire because he wished to sleep with her. Claire jokes that he did not have to marry her for that. Jamie is scandalized. Jamie reveals to Claire that Dougal and Colum MacKenzie were not pleased with their sister, Jamie’s mother, marrying Jamie’s father since he was a Fraser. Jamie tells Claire of the Fraser property Lallybroch that he is entitled to yet cannot get to on account of his status as an outlaw. Jamie gives Claire more details about his escape from Fort Williams, his subsequent injuries, and his recovery at his uncle Alexander’s Abbey of Ste. Anne de Beaupré on the French coast. Claire asks Jamie why he returned to Scotland if he was safe in France. He dismisses the question and replies that it is a long story he will tell her later.

After talking for three hours, Claire runs her hands up Jamie’s thigh and finds his penis is erect. The pair have sex. Jamie admits that he did not know people had sex face-to-face. Claire struggles not to laugh. Jamie relays to Claire that Murtagh, one of the MacKenzie men, had told Jamie that women do not generally care for sex, so he should get it over with quickly. “What does Murtagh know about it?” Claire protests, correcting Jamie that women like sex to be slow (401). Jamie tells Claire that she has good hips for breeding. Claire tries to leave the room to find food but is met with a raucous cheer from a group of MacKenzie clansmen outside. Jamie explains that they are there as witnesses to the consummation of she and Jamie’s marriage.

Claire observes that Jamie is too inexperienced and hungry for pleasure to be tender in bed, so she allows him to do what he wants to her while making only a few minor suggestions. She also notices that he has a fierce concern for her safety during sex. Jamie is surprised by Claire’s ability to have multiple orgasms. Claire tries being rough with Jamie as she performs oral sex. Jamie climaxes “[…] with a groan that sounded as though I had torn his heart out by the roots” (408).

Claire wakes up before dawn struck with the reality of being married to a stranger in a place “with unseen threat” (409). As Claire drifts back to sleep she wonders about the knife that Jamie sleeps with above his bed, and questions “[…] what threat would make a man sleep armed and watchful in his bridal chamber?” (411)

Jamie and Claire take a walk outside of the inn. Jamie reveals to Claire that his sister Jenny had been raped by Randall and bore Randall’s child, according to Dougal. Jamie tells Claire that if he had sworn his oath to Colum at the Gathering and taken the MacKenzie name, Dougal and Colum might have killed him for his proximity to the MacKenzie inheritance. Jamie reveals to Claire that their marriage may have saved his life since, having married an Englishwoman, there is little chance that Jamie can inherit Castle Leoch.

Jamie recalls telling his mother that he thought it was the man’s job to choose a spouse, to which his mother had smiled and replied, “You’ll see” (424). Jamie laughs and admits to Claire that his mother was right. Claire realizes that she has known Jamie one month and been married to him for one day. She regrets the inevitability of hurting him when she returns home. Jamie notices that Claire is preoccupied with thoughts of Frank. Claire thinks about the difference between Jamie and Frank; Frank is dark and slender whereas Jamie is muscular and red-headed. As a lover, Frank is “polished, sophisticated, considerate, and skilled” while Jamie, though lacking experience, give all of himself to Claire without reservation (430).

Claire marvels at the power of Jamie’s kiss, noting that “[h]is extreme gentleness was in no way tentative; rather it was a promise of power known and held in leash; a challenge and a provocation the more remarkable for its lack of demand” (431). She finds that her body cannot resist him. Jamie confides in Claire that it is a gift to pleasure her sexually and to know that his body can arouse hers. Jamie jokes that he should have warned Claire before she married him that they would be sleeping in haystacks due to his lack of property. Claire and Jamie make love out in the open in a bracken.

Claire admits to herself that she had been fighting her attraction to Jamie for some time. She reflects that while married to Frank she had at times felt attracted to other men but never acted upon it. Jamie and Claire engage in more satisfying oral sex. Jamie reveals to Claire that two of his conditions for marrying her had been that they be married in front of a priest and that Claire receive a suitable gown to be wed in. Sheepishly, Jamie admits, “I wanted to make it…as pleasant as might be for you” (437). A group of MacKenzie clansmen give Jamie and Claire money as a wedding present. Back in their room, Jamie calls Claire mo duinne, a term of endearment in Gaelic that means “my brown one.” He admits that he had been longing to call her that for a long time. Claire challenges Jamie’s trust and asks Jamie if he is afraid she will kill him in her sleep. Jamie lays his chest bare for Claire to plunge her dirk, or knife, into if she wishes. He tells her that if she killed him, he would die a happy man.

Claire and Jamie leave the inn and head south. Claire asks Jamie what connection he has to Murtagh, and Jamie replies that Murtagh is a Fraser. Jamie tells Claire that his mother died when he was eight. Jamie advises Claire to always hide in the forest if being pursued, as the birds will tell her if there is anyone approaching.

Jamie and Claire share with each other that the erotic energy between them is different than with any other partner either has ever had. Jamie describes Claire as “a living flame in my arms” that he wants to be consumed by (453). An arrow lands on the spot that Claire and Jamie stand on. At first thinking it is an attack from the English, Jamie soon realizes that it is a signal from his friend, Hugh Munro. Claire meets Jamie’s friend Hugh Munro, whose tongue was cut out as a captive of the Turks at sea. Munro has been collecting information for Jamie about the English deserter Horrocks’s whereabouts. Jamie believes that Horrocks can testify that Jamie did not kill an English officer.

Jamie confides that even when he has just left Claire, he still desperately wants her. He shares that making love to her feels like giving his soul to her. Jamie insists on performing oral sex on Claire, who finds that though the act makes her feel helpless and vulnerable, it also gives her an intense orgasm. Jamie jokes that it takes effort to make Claire “properly submissive” (467). Jamie asks Claire, “Does it ever stop, Claire? The wanting” (467). Claire lays her head on Jamie’s chest and replies that she does not know.

Dougal informs Claire that Captain Randall has heard of her marriage to Jamie and is not happy about it. However, he assures her that Randall has bigger things to worry about than one stray Englishwoman.

Jamie and the rest of the MacKenzie clansman fight off an English raid. Jamie gives Claire a dirk, which she drops during the struggle. As Claire watches the fight, Claire speculates that the English intend to kidnap either Dougal or Jamie for ransom. One of the MacKenzie men is kidnapped, and Dougal curses the price he will have to pay to retrieve him.

Back at the campsite that evening, Jamie dismisses the action of the fight, saying that he has been combating English raids since he was 14. The fighting whets Jamie’s sexual appetite. He lifts Claire’s skirt to find Claire slippery. Claire tries to protest on account of the 20 men sleeping nearby. Jamie instructs her to be quiet and that their sexual encounter will not take long. In hindsight, Claire admits that he was right and recalls that she climaxed in less than a dozen of Jamie’s thrusts inside of her.

In the morning, Ned returns Claire’s abandoned knife. Dougal observes to Claire that marriage seems to suit Jamie. Claire asks Dougal what Colum will think of she and Jamie’s union, to which Dougal replies that Colum will be pleased to welcome her as a niece. Jamie teaches Claire to wield a knife, though he does not allow her to learn to use a pistol because she is a woman.

Claire and the MacKenzie men camp near Loch Ness. Claire marvels at how little the place changed in 200 years. Claire goes to the edge of the loch to wash her face. While sitting by Loch Ness, Claire sees what she thinks is a monster. She recalls seeing a diorama of the beast at the British Museum. Peter, one of the MacKenzie men, sees her observing the monster. Believing her to be a witch, he stammers, “Ha-have mercy, lady,” clutching at the hem of her dress (496). Claire tries to assure Peter that it is only a small monster, but he remains suspicious of her and walks behind her all the way back to camp. Neither Peter nor Claire mention anything about seeing the monster to the rest of their party.

Claire and the MacKenzie clansman move north. Jamie shares with Claire that a meeting with Horrocks has been arranged by Munro in four days’ time. Jamie describes the Fraser property Lallybroch’s value as a main point of passage and therefore its integral role in Scottish land control. He explains that Dougal and Colum find themselves in a quandary about whether to keep Jamie alive, as he is both a threat to the MacKenzie leadership and an asset as a Fraser landowner when it comes to war and property management. Jamie confirms that if he died, Lallybroch would be owned by Claire.

On a sunny morning, Jamie wonders out loud what Claire would look like on the grass with her skirts above her head. The couple find a secluded glade to make love in. While almost climaxing, Jamie and Claire are attacked by English deserters. When one of them forces himself on Claire, Claire stabs and kills him with her hidden dirk. Jamie kills the other. In the wake of the attack, Claire recalls that Jamie and Claire make love “driven by a compulsion I didn’t understand, but knew we must obey, or be lost to each other forever […] Our only strength lay in fusion, drowning the memories of death and near-rape in the flooding of the senses” (509).

Jamie and Claire deal with shock after their attack. While Jamie’s reaction is to talk, Claire’s is to remain silent. Jamie apologies to Claire profusely for putting her in danger. Dougal arrives on the scene and scolds Jamie for making love to his wife and forcing the rest of the men to wait for him. However, he is stopped in his tracks when Claire starts to laugh hysterically, her secondary response to shock.

Not wanting to worry about him when Jamie is gone, Claire insists on going with Jamie to meet Horrocks, but he refuses, insisting that it is dangerous for her to be seen out in the open. He threatens her with a beating if she leaves the woods. It dawns on Claire that she had been so preoccupied with fighting with Jamie that she had failed to observe her location, mere miles from the hill of Craigh na Dun. Claire sets off in the direction of Craigh na Dun. As Claire abandons her post, she regrets leaving Jamie without any explanation for her disappearance. She resolves to leave the horse behind so Jamie might think she was killed by wild beasts or kidnapped by outlaws as opposed to having abandoned him. She thinks that this conclusion might allow him to forget her and marry Laoghaire instead. Claire finds the thought of Jamie with Laoghaire upsets her. Claire’s foot slips near the loch’s banks, plunging her into the water. She begins to drown. Claire is pulled up from the water by Corporal Hawkins, one of Captain Randall’s minions.

Corporal Hawkins delivers Claire to Captain Randall’s office. Sitting in Randall’s office, Claire is again struck by how much he resembles Frank. When Claire reveals that she knows about Randall’s connection to the Duke of Sandringham as his spy, which Claire remembers from Frank’s historical records, Randall grows angry and threatens Claire at knifepoint to tell him everything she knows. Randall cuts Claire’s dress open so her breasts pop out. As Randall accosts Claire, Claire realizes Randall cannot keep his penis erect enough to rape her without her screaming in distress. Claire resolves to stay quiet. When Jamie unexpectedly arrives, Randall tries to force Jamie to watch him rape Claire. Randall goads Jamie by calling Claire a tasty wench, “just like your sister” (534). Just as Randall is about to rape Claire, Jamie tricks Randall into freeing Claire with an empty revolver.

In the midst of their ride back to camp, Jamie takes Claire aside to speak to her privately. He yells that he is tired of having to watch her to make sure she stays out of trouble and especially tired of people trying to force him to watch her being raped. He berates her for leaving the woods after he told her to stay. Claire retorts that the incident was Jamie’s fault for ignoring her and cites Jamie’s lack of respect for women. Jamie fires back that if Claire had stayed where they were then she, he, and the MacKenzies would not now be pursued by 100 or more Englishmen. Jamie adds that he does not know whether to strangle Claire or beat her senseless. Claire responds by trying to kick Jamie in the balls. “Try that again and I’ll slay you ‘til your ears ring,” Jamie warns Claire (542). He then posits that Claire ran away to retaliate against Jamie forcing himself upon her after the attack they faced from the two English deserters. Claire retorts that he only cares about her because as his wife she is his property. She then claims that had it not been for her, both of them would have died at the hands of the English deserters, revealing a resentment against Jamie she did not know she harbored.

Jamie softens and responds emotionally that he would kill a dozen men for Claire. Both Jamie and Claire ask each other for forgiveness. Jamie and Claire head back to their party having forgiven each other, though a sense of the mutual injuries still hangs in the air between them.

Claire and the MacKenzie men break their journey at an inn in Donnesbury. Claire is given a frosty reception at dinner by the MacKenzie clansman, who are still angry with her for putting them in danger. When Claire and Jamie are alone in their chamber, Jamie purposefully asks Claire if she understands that she risked the men’s lives. He tells her he must flog her as punishment. Claire feels deeply betrayed by Jamie, who up until now she has seen as her friend and protector.

Claire finally comes down for breakfast, sore from her painful beating on the backside from Jamie the night before. After the beating, Jamie had not tried to get into bed with Claire. Instead he opted to sleep on the floor. Claire begrudgingly admits that Jamie was right—the MacKenzie clansmen were in a better mood having known that Jamie beat Claire for making them vulnerable to English soldiers. The men try to pat Claire’s behind in mock sympathy for her condition.

On their ride, Claire decides to walk her horse instead of riding it since her buttocks are sore. Jamie jumps down from his horse and walks it besides Claire. As they walk, Jamie tells Claire that his father used to beat him and recounts several tales of his childhood mischief. Though Jamie protested his beatings at the time, in hindsight, Jamie believes that his father was in the right for using corporal punishment on him.

After briefly stopping to watch a pack of wolves feast on their kill, Jamie and Claire ride to Bargrennan, intent on making it there by dawn. While riding, Jamie reveals to Claire more details about his relationship to Captain Randall as well as the circumstances of Jamie’s father’s death. When Jamie met with Captain Randall, Randall offers to cancel Jamie’s second flogging if Jamie would agree to sleep with Randall. Randall warns Jamie that if Jamie denies him, then Jamie would wish he had never been born. At the time, Jamie contemplated Randall’s proposition, reasoning that being sodomized was probably less painful than flogging. However, Jamie thought of his father and decided he could not be sodomized. Jamie also thinks of how Randall raped his sister and vows that Randall will not have him in addition to her. As a result, Randall flogged Jamie within an inch of his life. Many of the men watching believed Jamie to be dead, including Jamie’s own father, who suffered a fatal heart attack upon watching his son being beaten. Jamie confides in Claire that he feels responsible for his father’s death.

Jamie asks Claire if she understands why he needed to beat her. Claire thinks of the weight that Jamie and Randall’s interaction holds and how Jamie might have felt upon seeing her almost raped by Randall. Claire replies that she does understand. However, Claire adds that what she cannot forgive is that Jamie enjoyed beating her.

Jamie admits to wanting to have sex with Claire while beating her, though he restrains himself. Claire retorts that Jamie does not deserve praise for refraining from committing rape on top of assault. Jamie asks Claire if she will do him the honor of sharing her bed with him again. Claire replies that if he ever lays hands on her again, she will cut out his heart and fry it for breakfast. Jamie swears to never beat Claire again.

In the middle of the night, Claire wakes Jamie to update her on his meeting with Horrocks. Jamie replies that he had met with Horrocks and that Horrocks told him it was Randall himself who killed the English officer. Due to Randall’s authority, there is no way to prove Randall lied about Jamie murdering the officer. Claire suggests the two of them go to France or North America to escape Randall’s persecution. Jamie muses that if he were by himself he would risk his life to stay in Scotland and return to Lallybroch. Claire feels guilty that while Jamie includes her in his future plans, Claire still intends to escape back into the future. Jamie tells Claire that the Duke of Sandringham will soon visit Castle Leoch.

Claire and the MacKenzie clan wearily return to Castle Leoch, where the community is shocked to find Jamie and Claire married. On their way into the castle, Jamie asks for his share of the MacKenzie rents, which he is entitled to as a married man.

When Claire and Jamie return to their room at Castle Leoch, Claire staggers to bed while Jamie claims to need to run an errand and leaves once more. While Jamie is gone, Claire starts to suspect that Jamie has gone to see Laoghaire to begin an affair. She remembers Jamie’s comment to Dougal about his share of the MacKenzie rents and fears that Jamie has only married her for money. The lack of sleep, hunger, uncertainty, and disappointment reduce Claire to a state of “confused misery,” and she finds herself unable to sleep despite her exhaustion (602). She paces the room until Jamie returns.

When Jamie gets back to the room, he seems flushed and excited. Claire accuses Jamie of going to see Laoghaire. Jamie admits to having passed Laoghaire on the stairs, growing increasingly angry at Claire’s accusations. Jamie tries to take Claire to bed, proclaiming, “You’re my wife, and if I want ye, woman, then I’ll have you […]” (606). Claire retorts that if he forces her to have sex with him then he is no better than Captain Randall. Jamie calms down and asks Claire to explain the word “sadist” to him, which Claire used to describe him (608). She replies that it means someone who derives sexual pleasure from hurting others. Jamie agrees with this assessment of him.

Claire admits to having overheard Jamie ask Dougal for his share of the MacKenzie rents. Jamie laughingly clarifies that the rents are a very small sum. He produces a ring and explains that he wanted the money so that he could buy Claire a wedding ring right away. The ring is in a Highland interlace style with a Jacobite thistle in the center of each link. Jamie concedes that he and Claire can live apart if she wants. He admits to wanting Claire so much that he can hardly breathe. He asks her if she wants his too and she shares that she does.

Before making love to her, Jamie warns Claire that he cannot be gentle. He tells her that she is his. “I mean to use ye hard,” he tells Claire, “I mean to possess you, body and soul” (613). As Claire struggles underneath him, he tells her he intends to make her call him “Master” (614). Claire tells him to stop because he is hurting her. However, Jamie continues, imploring Claire to beg him for mercy. Claire finds that her hips rise to meet Jamie’s. Claire maintains that Jamie’s penetration of her is “a question, repeated over and over in my flesh, demanding an answer” (615). Claire cries out in pleasure. Jamie bites Claire’s neck and Claire rakes her nails over Jamie’s back. Later, neither apologize for the love wounds they have inflicted on one another.