The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [197]
“Will ye wear it, Claire?” His voice was gentle now, and his use of my name, mostly reserved for occasions of formality or tenderness, nearly made me break down again.…
I couldn’t speak, but held out my right hand to him, fingers trembling. The ring slipped cool and bright over my knuckle and rested snug at the base of my finger—a good fit.
-—Outlander, chapter 23, “Return to Leoch”
“There are words in it,” she said wonderingly. “I never realized that he’d… Oh, dear God.” Her voice broke, and the ring slipped from her fingers, rattling on the table with a tiny metal chime.…
Roger stood for a minute, feeling unbearably awkward and out of place. With a terrible feeling that he was violating a privacy that ran deeper than anything he had ever known, but not knowing what else to do, he lifted the tiny metal circle to the light and read the words inside.
“Da mi basia mille…” But it was Claire’s voice that spoke the words, not his.
—Dragonfly in Amber, chapter 47, “Loose Ends”
“Good as new.” Jamie finished polishing the silver ring on his shirttail and held it up, admiring it in the glow of the lantern.
“That is somewhat better than can be said of me,” I replied coldly. I lay in a crumpled heap on the deck, which in spite of the placid current, seemed still to be heaving very slightly under me. “You are a grade-A, double-dyed, sadistic fucking bastard, Jamie Fraser!”
—Drums of Autumn, chapter 9, “Two-thirds of a Ghost”
“It was a long time ago,” I said softly.
“And a long time,” he said. “I am a jealous man, but not a vengeful one. I would take you from him, my Sassenach—but I wouldna take him from you.”
He paused a moment, the fire glinting softly from the ring in his hand. “It was your life, no?”
And he asked again, “Do you want it back?”
I held up my hand in answer and he slid the gold ring on my finger, the metal warm from his body.
From F. to C. with love. Always.
—Drums of Autumn, chapter 71, “Circle’s Close”
I’ve had any number of inquiries regarding Claire’s wedding ring, some simply curious as to whether a real ring of this description exists, some with a more practical application—that is, persons wanting to have a facsimile of it made for their own wedding!
The ring doesn’t exist physically, I’m afraid; only inside my head. I wear four rings, myself: two gold ones on the left hand, two silver on the right. On my left ring finger is my own wedding ring, which was a commercial pattern (i.e., it wasn’t custom-made for me, but was simply available). The pattern is called (oddly enough, in view of the fact that I was married long before even thinking of writing a Scottish novel) “Brigadoon.”
It’s made of gold, and is 8 mm (5/16”) wide. It has an incised pattern of what I think are fern leaves, interspersed with small, four-petaled flowers, and it’s rather pretty. It looks as though the ferns and flowers are incised on a black background, but this is merely a side effect of the fact that I don’t bother to scrub it with a toothbrush now and then; it was all gold, originally.
When I began writing Outlander, I undertook all kinds of things for research, including going to a Highland Games in Mesa, Arizona. I’d never been to a Highland Games before, and found it fascinating; bagpipes up the gazoo: drums, shortbread, and quite a lot of men in kilts. I came away from this event with two important souvenirs: a Clan Map of Scotland, which is still on my wall, and which has supplied most of the names for minor characters—as well as the odd geographical reference—for all of the books so far—and a silver ring.
This one is 5 mm (3/16”) wide, and has a narrow band of plain silver at top and bottom, with a single band of interlace (aka Celtic knotwork) in between. Owing to its origins, I’ve always thought of it in terms of Outlander and things Scottish.
Consequently, when Jamie decided to give Claire a ring (I had no idea that’s why he’d gone off right after arrival at the Castle), I was faced with the problem of describing it. Being a practical person, as well as a person of sentiment, I looked at my