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make this point, the day she reaches Wentworth Prison is December 21, the Winter Solstice, one of the sacred days in pre-Christian Celtic tradition about which Frank spoke early in the novel. On this day, northern people rejoice that the sun is returning to a world that otherwise would die without its light and hope. If speculation about the standing stones is correct, this day is one in which one could travel through time. Claire, at the moment, however, is focused on the preciousness of the present and the immediate future. She charms Sir Fletcher, and Rupert gambles with the soldiers, both strategies eliciting some information about where Jamie is. Claire finds him, cold-bloodedly kills a guard, and sees the depths of Randall’s depravity. Jamie promises to submit to him if he sets Claire free. Claire’s rage, helpless against Randall, gives her the fury and physical strength to kill a wolf. Are you familiar with other examples of astonishing strength in traumatic circumstances and overcoming fear in order to act?

47. MacRannoch, initially unenthusiastic about provoking Sir Fletcher, who could level his castle, changes his mind when he and Murtagh recognize one another from a long-ago Tynchal at Castle Leoch. In their conversation, Claire realizes, with a shock, that the beautiful, barbaric boar-tusk bracelets at Lallybroch were a gift from Murtagh to Ellen; he was Ellen’s secret admirer, and MacRannoch the suitor who gave her the pearls Claire now takes out. MacRannoch’s stratagem with the stampeding cattle enables them to rescue Jamie. With the assistance of MacRannoch and his wife, Lady Annabelle, Claire tends to Jamie’s very serious physical wounds, especially the nine broken bones that need surgery. There is some continuity here with the first episode in which Claire confidently and competently takes charge of Jamie’s injuries: this time, however, she claims her full range of authority and skill by saying, for the first time, “I am a physician (741).” How does this assertion mark her personal growth? Despite her stamina in conducting the surgery, however, she hopes that he does not speak to her about his emotional trauma of (756). Why not?

48. Jamie does try to explain the psychology of rape, of a violation and breakdown that provokes suicidal thoughts (760):

“I think it’s as though everyone has a small place inside themselves, maybe, a private bit that they keep to themselves. It’s like a little fortress, where the most private part of you lives—maybe it’s your soul, maybe just that bit that makes you yourself and not anybody else …”

“You don’t show that bit of yourself to anyone, usually, unless sometimes to someone that ye love greatly ….”

“Now it’s like … like my own fortress has been blown up with gunpowder—there’s nothing left of it but the ashes and a smoking rooftree, and the little naked thing that lived there once is out in the open, squeaking and whimpering in fear, trying to hide itself under a blade of grass or a bit o’ leaf, but not … but not … making m-much of a job of it.”

After more challenges—including killing a young English soldier in cold blood, the latest of a series of killings that illustrate Claire’s own lethal tendencies (the British deserter, the guard, and the wolf)—Claire and Murtagh succeed in getting the dangerously seasick Jamie to St. Anne de Beaupré, where the more complex challenge of addressing his emotional and spiritual wounds must take place.

Jamie’s terrible problem is one shared by many victims of sexual assault—that they have, albeit against their wills, been sexually aroused by and responsive to the stimuli. The shame and recurring images are a form of post-traumatic stress disorder, worsened by the victim’s conviction that he or she is morally culpable. When Claire understands that she must give Jamie an experience that will reverse his disempowering trauma at the hands of Randall, she uses her medical skills—and, perhaps surprisingly, a strategy she learned from Geillis—to summon spirits. Conjuring up her memories of Frank for the shared voices and gestures, including