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incarceration as a witch are foolish and ignorant distortions, if not outright fabrications; for example, Fr. Bain’s interpretation of Claire’s warning of infection to be a curse. And yet, the episode with the waterhorse—ironically, Peter the Drover’s testimony is rejected—points to an acceptance of the paranormal. Similarly, Colum’s wedding gift to Claire, partly to reward her for saving Losgann and her foal, is a rosary, whose significance, despite her nominal adherence to Catholicism, she does not understand. But the rosary later becomes a significant element in demonstrating her innocence to the mob. For now, she merely prays, thanking “whatever benign spirits presided over such events that nothing had gone wrong (509-10).” Are we to understand this as coincidence, or is it an authentic—and answered—albeit unfocused, prayer?

35. In the thieves’ hole at Cranesmuir, Claire and Geillis await death. Claire discovers that Geillis is a Jacobite, and at the moment of Geilie’s death, realizes from her vaccination that she too is a time traveler. But the hole has “the dark anonymity of the confessional”, and as is the case in so many myths and stories in which someone descends into the underworld, Claire has her most important and transforming revelation: she tells Geilie—and herself—the truth that she does love Jamie. Consider, however, that she does not share this with Jamie for a considerable amount of time. Why not?

36. Another romantic convention is comically upended when the elderly lawyer Ned Gowan, rather than the dashing romantic hero, arrives to buy much-needed time for Claire’s defence. Jamie, of course, does arrive in time, and by means of tremendous personal courage and a theatrical use of the rosary, saves her from the mob and from ecclesiastical abuse of authority. But Claire’s safety is also dependent on Geilie’s altruism in declaring her innocence. How do you account for Geilie’s dying act? How does it affect your estimate of her character?

37. Notice that previous tension in their marriage focused on the question of wifely obedience. Claire has once again disobeyed Jamie—he had told her, when he left with the Duke of Sandringham, to stay away from Geillis Duncan (513). Claire’s failure to do so, when Laoghaire told her Geilie was sick and needed her, almost results in her death. And yet Jamie does not reproach her this time for her disobedience. Why not? How is their relationship evolving?

38. Jamie’s love for Claire encompasses the possibility that she actually is a witch, and his direct question to her elicits, finally, her explanation of her improbable origins in the 20 c. Jamie’s response is not merely acceptance of what is improbable at the level of fact, which would be remarkable enough, but a moral imperative: he believes that out of his love for her, he must give her up and return her to her “home.” In one of the most moving episodes in the book, he takes her to Craigh na Dun and sets her free to return to Frank. Claire says that neither rationality, emotion, or duty helps her to make her decision, “and before I even knew I had decided, I was halfway down the slope” to Jamie, who lay asleep as “the silver tracks of dried tears glinted on golden skin (561).” The powerfully emotional moment has a comic resolution (as is the case in the stable during her escape attempt, and his attempt to protect her by lying on the floor outside her room in the inn): they crash into each other. But if Claire herself cannot fully understand why she returned to him—beyond “I had to (562)”—how do you account for it?

Part FIVE Lallybroch

39. Jenny emerges as a strong female character in this section. What personality traits are revealed in Jenny in her wrangling with Jamie? Is Ian right that she and Jamie are similar? Much of the extended argument concerns the false rumor that Randall had sexually exploited her and fathered her first child. Why did Dougal spread that rumor?

40. As Jenny and Claire get to know one another, they have a conversation that both recognize is a polite kind of code: for example, “I hear