The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [43]
These secret journeys had been rites of passage for the two older Murray boys; now it is Young Ian’s turn. Jenny and Ian are hesitant at first, but consent to the expedition. Jamie’s wounded arm makes it impossible for him to make the arduous swim, and Young Ian’s thirst for adventure makes him restless on the farm. The lad would like nothing better than to accompany his beloved uncle on an exciting mission; at the same time, he would be safely under Jamie’s eye. And, as Ian says, “Better to give him his freedom while he still thinks it’s ours to give.”
The expedition to the seals’ isle is a good bit more exciting than even Young Ian could have hoped. Young Ian’s arrival on the fog-shrouded rock coincides with another—a tough-looking bunch of seamen, who abscond with both the treasure and Ian while Jamie and Claire look on helplessly from the cliffs above.
Jamie is stricken; beyond his own deep love for his nephew is horror at the thought of having to go back to Lallybroch and tell Jenny what has happened to her youngest son. Vowing instead to recover the boy, no matter what the cost, he takes Claire at once across the Channel to France. Failing to stop the kidnappers, the Frasers had managed to catch a glimpse of the pirates’ ship. With this scanty information, perhaps Cousin Jared, with his contacts among the shipping trade, can find out the ship’s destination—and provide another ship in which to pursue it.
Fuming at every second’s delay, Jamie has no time to worry over the prospects of seasickness. Instead, once the ship is prepared, he hastily returns to Scotland to gather a small band of men: his companions in smuggling, including Duncan Innes, an ex-prisoner from Ardsmuir, and Mr. Willoughby.
His foster son, Fergus, is meant to accompany the rescue expedition, but barely makes the sailing—accompanied by Marsali, Laoghaire’s daughter. They are in love, the girl defiantly tells Jamie, and they mean to elope—with him.
The ship has already left shore; there is no turning back. Jamie, keeping a tight rein on his temper, tells Fergus and Marsali that they will sleep apart on the ship; if, once arrived in the Indies, they are still convinced that they wish to be married, he will find a priest to bless their union. Until then—hands off.
Fergus and Marsali agree to abide by this dictum, which is as well, since Jamie has little strength left to enforce it. Felled by seasickness, he lies helpless in his bunk, Claire’s herbal remedies useless to combat it. Mr. Willoughby, though, has a suggestion—and Jamie once more appears on the deck of the Artemis, glowering beneath a prickling of gold acupuncture needles.
The wind is fair and the voyage quick and mostly uneventful, save for Mr. Willoughby’s acquisition of a pelican named Ping An (the Peaceful One), whom the Chinese poet tames and teaches to fish. The tedium of sailing is broken by a chance meeting at sea with an English man-of-war, the Porpoise, who poses a substantial danger to the success of the Artemis’s voyage. While England and France are not at war, and the Artemis sails under French colors, half her crew are English or Scottish—and the man-of-war may impress any English subjects, should she prove to be shorthanded. The fact that this would cripple the Artemis, leaving her with insufficient crew to do more than limp slowly westward, is of no concern to His Majesty’s Navy.
Shorthanded she is; the Porpoise’s very young Captain stumbles aboard, begging for help. An epidemic has broken out onboard; half his crew are dead, dying, or falling sick. Thomas Leonard is himself no more than Third Lieutenant, acting Captain by default, all senior officers having perished. He must have help; does the Artemis boast a surgeon?
Against Jamie’s wishes, but impelled both by pity for the young lieutenant and by her Hippocratic oath, Claire goes aboard