An Echo in the Bone

In 1980, Bree reads Jamie’s next letter, dated March 1777. Jamie describes his and Claire’s intention to travel to Scotland and his ambivalence about the coming Revolutionary war. Jamie wonders if he is “meant to be in some Way Part of this?” but concludes, “in the end, it does not matter. I am what God has made me, and must deal with the Times in which he has placed me” (108). Bree tells Roger that she is relieved her parents will leave America during the violence of the coming war, and how Jamie “seldom [chose] to fight, but knew he was born to do it” (110). Roger admits that he no longer feels sure of his own purpose.

Back on Fraser’s Ridge in 1777, Claire packs for the voyage to Scotland. Later, Claire and Jamie meet at the foundations for the new house they will build and they make love. Claire wakes and finds Jamie praying: “Let me be enough” (129).

Jamie takes Claire to the Spaniard’s Cave, a partially hidden cave holding the skeleton of a Spanish explorer. Jamie recounts discovering the cave with Jem, and Claire marvels that they were not hurt, as they would never have been found. Jamie and Jem said a prayer when they found the solider, and Claire jokes that Jamie knows the right prayer for every occasion. Jamie declares, “There’s always a prayer […] even if it’s only […] Oh God, help me” (134).

Ian is nervous about returning to Lallybroch as an adult; 10 years have passed since he left at 15 years old. Claire reassures him that his parents will be thrilled to see him and comforts him with a line of Robert Frost poetry. Jamie gives Claire a new knife for the journey. Knowing Jamie does not often make romantic gestures, Claire interprets this as a sign that the trip will be dangerous. She pricks her thumb with the blade and presses it to Jamie’s thumb, calling him “Blood of my blood” (137).

In New York, August 1776, William reads his letters while occupying Beekman House with the British Army. John Grey’s brother, Duke Harold “Hal” Grey, warns William to be wary of Richardson. William visits his cousin Adam, also stationed nearby. The young men get drunk, and the party grows until the group goes looking for a brothel. William gets sick and is chased away by the housekeeper, but Adam finds him. They hear shouting and see a British Lieutenant set a sex worker with smallpox on fire, calling her a “fireship.” William apprehends a man throwing stones and tries to calm the developing riot. As the young men all leave, William realizes he is crying.

On Fraser’s Ridge in 1977, Claire worries about delivering a baby for Lizzie Wemyss, another resident of Fraser’s Ridge. Claire and Jamie will not depart until Lizzie gives birth, and Claire wonders who will take over leadership when they do. Lizzie’s baby is breached, but Claire manages a successful delivery, much to the delight of Lizzie’s husbands; she is in a polyamorous marriage with the twins Josiah and Keziah Beardsley. Lizzie’s mother Monika worries that Lizzie’s next birth will occur while Claire is away.

Jamie visits a church, musing on sanctuary and grateful for the success of the birth and the journey ahead. Claire comes to him, and they make enthusiastic love in the barn.

Claire goes to the ruins of the burned house to say goodbye to the farm and weeps over Adso, her beloved cat. Jamie finds her and says Claire allows herself to weep for the cat because she knows she will be able to stop. Remembering his earlier prayer to “be enough” Claire reassures Jamie that he is “everything. Always” (172).

On the road, Ian lies awake, worried Arch will kill Jamie in revenge for Murdina’s death. Ian imagines finding a wife in Scotland as he hears Jamie and Claire having sex on the other side of the fire. Ian masturbates to fall asleep and comforts himself by imagining that the elderly Arch Bug will die soon.

In London, 1776, John Grey visits Lord George Germain, Secretary of State to America, to deliver letters. One of the letters is for John from William, sent care of Germain to ensure secrecy. To John’s shock, William declares that he’s in love with his cousin Dorothea “Dottie” Grey. William claims to have kissed Dottie at a party, thus compromising her virtue. William wants to marry her immediately to prevent any scandal as she has received another offer of marriage she cannot possibly accept. John is deeply suspicious of this letter and believes William and Dottie have secret motives. John debates what to do first: go to his brother Hal (Dottie’s father), talk to his niece Dottie, or to try to learn more about Beauchamp’s motives.

John goes to the Black Chamber, a center for British secret intelligence, and trades an erotic figurine for information from Arthur Norrington. John reveals that Percy Beauchamp is really Percy Wainwright, his stepbrother who is presumed dead. Norrington says that Percy Beauchamp is a known smuggler looking for a man called Claudel Fraser. John suggests that Norrington investigate the Baron Amandine. John then goes to tell Hal about Percy. Later, he finds Dottie returning home and questions her about her supposed relationship with William. Dottie evades his questions.

In 1980 Inverness, Roger visits St. Stephen’s church, thinking about a recent fight with Bree over her desire to work. Though they have enough savings to live on in the short term, Bree wants to work and is a trained engineer. Bree and Roger struggle to reconcile their respective Catholic and Presbyterian faiths, and Roger’s struggle to find purpose causes further tension in their marriage.

Bree interviews for a job as safety inspector at a nearby hydroelectric plant. When the interviewer expresses surprise at Bree’s gender she retorts, “Would you care to explain to me exactly which aspects of plant inspection require a penis?” (207). Bree gets the job and arrives home with champagne only to learn that Roger unexpectedly drove to Oxford. Bree is furious, but calms down, thinking about the house and its history, including her Uncle Willie, who died when Jamie was a child. Bree keeps a small wooden snake that Willie carved for Jamie in the study. She decides that she and Roger were right to bring their children home to Lallybroch. Missing her mother, Bree opens the next letter from Claire.

Claire’s letter explains that she and Jamie are waiting in New Bern while Ian attempts to take two orphans with the unlikely names “Herman” and “Vermin” home. They discovered the orphans on the road. While in New Bern, Claire will work as a doctor while Jamie attempts to learn who published the notice of their deaths by fire in the Wilmington Gazette. Though inaccurate, Claire is ultimately glad the notice was published, as it led to Bree’s journey into the past and allowed her to meet her father. 

Ian travels with Herman and Vermin, who are unruly companions. When the children go to relieve themselves in private, they are caught by Arch who demands the Jacobite gold from Ian. Ian and the children fight Arch, who flees. “Herman” and “Vermin” are actually Hermione and Ermintrude, two little girls who hide their sex for safety. Now knowing that Ian has gold somewhere, they demand to remain with him. Ian prays in Gaelic, “A dia […] cuidich mi” (225), meaning “My God, help me.” Ian takes the children to a brothel to work as maids. While there, he sees a woman who reminds him of Emily, or Works With Her Hands, his former Mohawk wife.

In New Bern, April 1977, Claire pulls a little girl’s teeth while her step-grandson, Henry-Christian, distracts the passersby outside. Claire and Jamie stay with Jamie’s stepdaughter Marsali and her husband Fergus, an orphan and Jamie’s adopted son whom he rescued from a French brothel. Percy Beauchamp arrives, having heard about Jamie seeking passage across the Atlantic. Claire, whose maiden name is Beauchamp, wonders if they are distantly related, not knowing it is an assumed name. Percy is looking for a Frenchman named Claudel who was adopted by a Scotsman and would now be in his forties. Claire knows he must be looking for Jamie and Fergus, whose real name is Claudel, but demurs, unsure of his motives.

Later, a Mrs. Bell arrives, looking for Jamie. She wants him to find her husband who was deported to Scotland by the Sons of Liberty for being a Loyalist. Mrs. Bell knows a smuggler with a ship soon leaving for Scotland. Andy Bell, who has Jamie’s printing press, turns out to be this Mr. Bell’s kinsman.

Jamie sees Percy from afar with Fergus and decides that he does not trust him. Fergus’s son Germain creates a ruse with his pet frogs to talk to Percy, who reveals that he wants to offer Jamie passage on the Baron Amandine’s ship. Jamie and Fergus meet with Mrs. Bell’s smuggler acquaintance to explore other options for travel. Jamie asks Fergus if he wants to speak with Percy, suggesting that Fergus may be related to the Baron Amandine. Fergus admits that he once dreamed of discovering that he was the son of a “great man,” but now knows already is, as Jamie’s adopted son.

Jamie inquires about the origins of the death notice in the Wilmington Gazette. Meanwhile, Claire shops for surgical supplies and has lunch in the harbor. Amidst musing on her pride as an Englishwoman and fear as an American, a man unexpectedly kisses her, making Claire freeze. He is Tom Christie, a former acquaintance from Fraser’s Ridge who once declared his love for Claire. Tom protected Claire from false accusations of murder by admitting to the crime himself, even though he was innocent. They go to a tavern where Tom explains how he was never prosecuted for the murder, as the courts collapsed when the revolution began. Tom put the death notice in the Gazette when he learned of the fire, assuming Claire was dead and desperate to find an outlet for his grief.

Later, Jamie expresses jealousy over Tom’s kiss, though he admits that he is grateful that Tom’s love for Claire saved her. Claire thinks about her reaction to Tom’s kiss and prior sexual assault, noting that, “Even things that heal leave scars” (277). She wakes Jamie from a nightmare, and he admits that he sometimes has traumatic dreams of his own sexual assault many years before.

In 1776, William feels stuck on Long Island with few prospects for glory. He receives another offer from Richardson to travel to Canada and chooses short-term excitement over safer-but-slower career advancement. William accompanies Robert Rogers as he searches for Nathan Hale. Rogers warns William to be wary of Richardson. They track Hale to a tavern, but William waits outside as his height makes him too recognizable for espionage. William wonders why Richardson wants him for intelligence services at all. The arrival of a skunk breaks up the party at the tavern, but Nathan Hale already divulged his identity. Soon after, Hale is arrested and hanged. William watches the execution, deeply disturbed.

In 1980, at Lallybroch, Bree reflects on the generations of her ancestors who lived there, “All of them dead now, but curiously enough, not gone” (303). She finds Jem and Mandy having a picnic and Jem shows her the cairn he made for Jamie. Jem tells Bree that a Nuckelavee, a kind of Scottish demon, visited him.

Roger returns home with the news that he will be the new assistant choirmaster at St. Stephens. Roger is a talented musician but can no longer sing after he nearly died by hanging while living in the 18th century. Roger is also experiencing a crisis of faith: He once aspired to be a Presbyterian minister but no longer accepts predestination. Roger shows Bree that the date on Jamie and Claire’s death notice in the Wilmington Gazette is different than it used to be. Roger remembers Claire at Fraser’s Ridge, when she explained the scientific basis for superstitions about herbal medicine. Claire also told Roger, who was raised as an orphan, that the circumstances of his father’s death could not be true. Roger’s father, an RAF Spitfire pilot in WWII, supposedly died in a location that Claire, a former WWII battle nurse, knows he could not have been in. Roger wonders if his father was also a time traveler. Bree goes to comfort Mandy, upset by something she saw in her window. Roger tells Bree that he cannot remember his own father, but he remembers Jamie.

Roger makes a breakthrough, returning to his passion for music and history despite his struggles to process the trauma of his hanging and his crisis of faith. 

In Wilmington, 1977, Jamie dreams of his grandchildren Jem and Mandy surrounded by blue butterflies and playing near the old tower, or broch, for which Lallybroch was named. In the dream, Jamie fears that something inside the tower threatens the children.