The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [44]
Her apparent expertise has an unforeseen consequence; the young acting Captain of the Porpoise, desperate for any help and with an important political passenger aboard, informally impresses Claire, taking her to Jamaica with the promise that he will return her to Jamie and the Artemis upon their arrival—assuming that enough of the crew survive to make such an arrival possible.
Both frightened and infuriated by this kidnapping on the high seas, Claire has no choice but to do her best to fight the epidemic, with no weapons to hand save distilled alcohol and a basic knowledge of hygiene. In the course of the fight, drained and exhausted by the futility of her efforts, the prevalence of death, and her own isolation from Jamie, she finds consolation from an unexpected source—Lord John Grey, the newly appointed governor of Jamaica. Twenty years past their first meeting in a dark wood, neither recognizes the other, but Claire takes comfort from the meeting with the quiet, compassionate stranger.
The epidemic at last burnt out, the Porpoise limps toward Jamaica. What should seem deliverance to Claire, though, is instead a new danger; in the course of her stay aboard the Porpoise, she has found a sinister entry in the Captain’s log, and met with one Harry Tompkins, the one-eyed seaman who had—after all—escaped the conflagration of the burning print shop in Edinburgh. With a mixture of brandy and threats, Claire extracts the truth from Tompkins; Jamie’s identity is known— both to Sir Percy Turner, who has political aspirations that would be helped by the apprehension of an important seditionist and smuggler—and to Captain Leonard, who has learned of Jamie’s identity from Tompkins, and who—regretting the necessity imposed by duty—intends to arrest Jamie upon their rendezvous in Jamaica.
Escape is imperative, but Claire’s attempts to leave the ship at various stops before Jamaica are foiled by the Captain’s watchfulness. At last, desperate to escape, she enlists the help of the gunner’s wife and slips overboard during the night into the Mouchoir Passage, supported by empty brandy casks, to float ashore on the nearby island of Hispaniola. From here, perhaps she can reach Jamaica in time to meet the Artemis, and to warn Jamie of the danger from the Porpoise.
Arriving wet, hungry, thirsty, and cold, Claire makes her way painfully inland, with no clear idea what to do next—only knowing that she must find water, food, and Jamie, in that order. What she finds is a Jewish naturalist named Lawrence Stern, who provides water and takes her in search of food at the house of a nearby friend: a defrocked—and not quite sane—English priest named Fogden.
Meanwhile, the Artemis has been in hot pursuit, urged on by Jamie’s fear for Claire’s safety. Catching up to the crippled man-of-war at one port of call, the Artemis hides out of sight, while Jamie crosses a spit of land and boards the Porpoise, unseen, to search for Claire—who has, of course, already left the ship, herself unseen.
Combing the ship with increasing desperation, Jamie fails to find his wife, but is discovered and imprisoned, left alone in a small cell with the horrifying news that Claire is dead, lost overboard. His presence is noted by the gunner’s wife, though, who deduces his identity and liberates him.
He remembered the last thing she had said, though, as she pushed him toward the tilting taffrail.
“She is not dead,” the woman had said. “She go there”—pointing at the rolling seas—“you go, too. Find her!” And then she had bent, got a hand in his crutch and a sturdy shoulder under his rump, and heaved him neatly over the rail and into the churning water.
Thus informally arriving