A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Jamie writes back to Lord John, in a letter dated August 14, 1773. He tells Lord John that he’s now the new Indian agent to the Southern Department. He condemns the committees that have become nothing more than violent mobs who threaten the citizens. Because governmental powers are unorganized and ineffective in policing these mobs, and because of corruption in the government as well as widespread violence and burnings by bandits and some natives throughout the colonies, Jamie observes that people are willing to embrace vigilante groups. Jamie has only accepted the position as Indian agent in attempt to keep men like Brown and his brother, Lionel, out of power.

Jamie tells Lord John about the new Protestant tenants of Fraser’s Ridge, expressing gratitude for a Protestant son-in-law to help ease their fears. He encloses a list of supplies requested by Claire (which will not help the new tenants’ fears of Claire’s blasphemous witchery).

An excerpt from Brianna’s dream diary: She is helping her mother wash the good china in the sink. The hot, running water overflows the sink and begins filling the kitchen. Upon waking, Brianna craves the luxury of having hot water at her fingertips. She wonders how many inventions are really just memories people have had of the future, and how many other time travelers are out there. That morning, Roger carves Jem a toy car to play with, although he has no idea what a car is or why it says “vroom.” Brianna wonders aloud how difficult it would be to have hot running water. She would need a lot of metal; specifically, copper piping. She muses that Roger could go gamble for it, as women aren’t welcome in gambling circles.

Major MacDonald comes to the Fraser homestead on haymaking day. When he sees Bobby, he asks Claire if she’d like him driven off: “‘You’ll do no such thing, Major,’ [she] said sharply. ‘Mr. Higgins is a friend’” (171). Bobby is in better health. He gives Claire a letter from Lord John and asks after Lizzie. Claire reminds him that Lizzie is engaged, but Bobby says he merely wanted to thank her. Claire feels suspicious. Jamie and Roger return from haymaking with the new tenants; all are in good spirits. Jamie leads everyone in a prayer and then they celebrate and relax with some mead. Lizzie finally arrives with her fiancé, Manfred, and his family. Her soon to be mother-in-law, Ute, is trying to set up Lizzie’s father, Joseph, with an unknown German woman.

Bobby somehow gets Lizzie away from the McGillivrays, and they speak alone. Claire can see their mutual attraction from across the yard. She enlists Ian to get Lizzie away on an errand before Ute sees them. MacDonald sits beside Claire and gives her news of more burnings, one involving Irish Protestants and Scottish Catholics near Salem. The other was a single man’s home, just over the treaty line. Claire wonders if the Cherokee are responsible, in reaction to settlers failing to respect their boundaries. Claire worries that Jamie will be sent to visit the Cherokee with interrogative questions, putting him in danger. She again recalls the newspaper article prophesying her own death by burning.

Jamie and Ian depart to speak with Bird. Claire reads Lord John’s letter and opens his package, which Bobby helps her unpack. He’s distracted when Lizzie and Manfred arrive and stand outside, talking. Ian joins them, and Jamie comes in fresh from a visit to Bird. He’s brought half a dozen Cherokee back with him. One is a young woman with a toothache, seeking Claire’s treatment. Later that afternoon, Claire helps mend the mangled foot of a lone settler named Wolverhampton. Then she moves on to Mouse, the woman with the toothache, closely watched by her posse of suitors and Mouse’s brother, Red Clay Wilson.

Another Scottish Highlander named Hiram Crombie arrives and is uneasy with the presence of the Cherokee. Claire introduces him, learning his wife’s maiden name is Wilson. She suggests he may be related to Red Clay and Mouse, to his horror. He rushes away in a fit of racist fear. Claire tries to desensitize Mouse as much as possible for her tooth procedure, using ether from Lord John’s package along with whisky.

Another Cherokee, Sequoyah, arrives with a bundle containing the bones of the old man whose home had burned. Sequoyah knew the old man, and they had a friendly rapport. One day in the woods, Sequoyah found the man’s body, dead of natural causes. His home had burned, but only partially; it was the result of a lightning strike rather than arson. They bury the old man’s body that night.

After the small funeral, Jamie and Claire walk together. Jamie shows her a beautiful vista, saying he would like to build their next house there if their house does burn down. They sit and wonder about the future. Jamie suggests that maybe the part of the article that declared no surviving children in the burning of their house means that Brianna and Roger will simply time travel. They know Jem is capable of this, also, but they worry about the couple’s future children.

Claire remembers a time past when she thought she’d lost Jamie, so she married another. He comforts her, wiping her tears. They have a sweet exchange; Jamie tells Claire all of her virtues and all the reasons he loves her. They both agree that the best of these virtues is their faithfulness to each other.

Roger and Brianna burst in on Jamie, Claire, and Mrs. Arch Bug, who are just sitting down to supper. They have good news, which they don’t get to share because Mrs. Bug (wife of Arch Bug) assumes that Brianna is pregnant and makes a big deal out of it. Roger has to drag an angry Brianna out. Brianna is frustrated that she hasn’t gotten pregnant again, and she can’t stand that others have been gossiping about it.

Tom Christie arrives, having cut his hand doing farm work. The wound isn’t severe, but he faints at the sight of it. His right, dominant hand is suffering from a condition that Claire can fix, but in his pride, he has refused treatment. She sews up the gash in his left and tells him she needs to fix the right soon or he’ll lose his ability to write, which is his greatest strength in the community.

Christie and Jamie are cordial rivals. Jamie makes snide remarks about being tougher and surviving worse injuries. Before Christie leaves, he addresses Jamie in Gaelic, to remind him of their time spent together behind bars years earlier. He references Jamie’s “honorable scars” from when Jamie was flogged—an incident about which Jamie is ashamed—then runs out the door before Jamie can punch him. Claire challenges her husband about his competitive relationship with Christie, but Jamie assures her he doesn’t see Christie as a foe.

Brianna is in bed with Roger. She apologizes for implying that their lack of fertility was Roger’s fault. Still, he dwells on the fact that Jem was conceived the night Bonnet raped Brianna: Jem could be the son of either Roger or the villain Bonnet. Brianna and Roger recite an old Scottish love poem to one another before falling asleep.

Christie’s teenage daughter, Malva, comes to Claire’s surgery to get Christie’s ointment. She’s smart and quiet, observing everything and listening closely to Claire’s questions and instructions about Christie’s healing. Malva asks about Claire’s big black book. Claire explains about keeping detailed notes and patient records. She lets Malva look through the book; fascinated, Malva asks astute questions and also asks about Daniel Rawlings, Claire’s teacher doctor and mentor who began the book.

Claire invites her to come assist and observe a minor procedure she’s doing tomorrow on a woman’s ear. Malva agrees to come, though she will have to convince her suspicious father. Christie thinks Claire’s book is a spell book, and he advised his daughter not to touch it. Malva is excited to share the truth about it with him.

Claire successfully brews ether. She’s decided to use it first on Christie for his hand surgery, if she and Malva can convince him to do it.

Claire and Jamie go to the Bugs’ home, discussing the dangers of anesthesia in the most controlled hospital conditions, let alone the risk of a hand-brewed batch of ether. They speak to Arch about Arch’s hand injury, as Christie has already asked him about it, thinking that Claire means to amputate Arch’s fingers. Arch had been an archer back in Scotland, engaged in a local war with another family, the Frasers (unrelated to Jamie). He got caught on the Frasers’s side of the river and was forced to choose between losing either his right eye or two fingers on his right hand. Either choice would ruin him as an archer.

Claire visits Christie’s cabin to take out his stitches a week later. He tells her he doesn’t want the surgery, citing God’s will as his reason. Claire reminds him of his cow, whose leg she set so she would survive a fall: “Do you think the Lord regards you as less deserving of medical help than your cow? It seems unlikely to me, what with Him regarding sparrows and all that” (237). She eventually breaks through his excuses, telling him she will put him to sleep and he’ll feel no pain. They have a moment of slight romantic tension as she feels the tendons in his hand, reassuring him that she can fix it.

The next morning, Christie arrives for surgery, declaring he’s changed his mind completely; he decides to do it without the ether. Jamie gets a meaningful Bible from their past and reads it with Christie during the surgery, holding him down and also close in comfort. Christie persists, despite the pain, and Claire does the surgery as intended.

Christie spends the night in the Wemyss’ room, with Claire monitoring him closely. His incision is healing well, but he is feverish. He lashes out at her in religious judgment about not wearing a proper bonnet or head covering, and having such long, wild hair. She parlays easily by quoting the Bible in her defense. Christie asks if Claire knows why Jamie was flogged. Claire explains that Jamie sacrificed himself for one of his men and says Jamie will do anything for his men, to which Christie responds that he’s not one of Jamie’s men.

Drunk and sedated, Christie apologizes to Claire, and she returns to her bed. She asks Jamie about the Bible he’d read from earlier. It belonged to a young Scottish soldier named Alex MacGregor who had committed suicide because of major villain Black Jack Randall. Jamie had perhaps killed Randall, though he doesn’t remember the battle. Later that night, Jamie has a nightmare about his and Christie’s time spent in Ardsmuir, a prison. Many men turned to each other sexually for comfort. No one tried to touch Jamie, as he was their leader, but he divulges to Claire his hunger for another human’s touch. He compares the feeling to Jesus Christ’s loneliness and craving for touch on the cross.

Roger and Jamie depart to visit the Cherokee. Jamie has an ominous feeling about not seeing Claire again as he waves goodbye to her. Jamie misses Ian; he highly regards Ian’s opinion on Indian affairs. Ian had a wife and child when he lived among the Mohawk. Sometimes, Ian disappears with Rollo into the woods, which is why Ian isn’t on this trip and Roger is.

Roger warns Jamie that Crombie wants to preach to the Cherokee, deciding that if he is related, he wants his family to be saved. Suddenly, they smell burning. A house is on fire, with a couple’s bodies strung up beside it. Pinned to the man’s leg is a note that says, “Death to Regulators” (267). They find a very young girl hiding in the bushes, burned to the point of near death. Roger puts her out of her misery, holding her close and suffocating her with a handkerchief.

Brown and a crew including his brothers ride up, laughing and acting disrespectful of the deaths. They accuse Indians of the carnage and provoke Roger into a near panic attack; he flashes back to the feeling of a noose around his neck. The Brown brothers eventually leave, but Jamie believes they know more than they admit, even if they weren't the murderers.