The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [46]
She is feeling sick and cold when she hits the deck, but makes her way at once to Jamie, relieved to find him suffering from no more than a small cut on the head—or so she assumes.
There were stains of dark, drying blood on the front of his shirt, but the sleeve of his shirt was also bloody. In fact, it was nearly soaked, with fresh bright blood.
“Jamie!” I clutched at his shoulder, my vision going white at the edges. “You aren’t all right—look, you’re bleeding!”
My hands and feet were numb, and I only half-felt his hands grasp my arms as he rose from the cask in sudden alarm. The last thing I saw, amid flashes of light, was his face, gone white beneath the tan.
“My God!” said his frightened voice, out of the whirling blackness. “It’s no my blood, Sassenach, it’s yours!”
Narrowly saved from bleeding to death from a cutlass slash down her arm, Claire is doctored by Jamie and Mr. Willoughby, and uses a bit more of her precious penicillin to cure an incipient fever. Jamie stays close to her at night, waking by her bed from dreams of fire and slaughter; stirrings of the dormant memories buried in his mind since Culloden.
Claire dozes next day, recovering, to be wakened by Jamie in search of healing lotion for a prisoner rescued from the sea. As the Bruja drew off, he explains, a black man—evidently an escaped slave, from the scars on his back—dived off the pirate ship into the ocean. Having discovered an apparent link between the Bruja and the seals’ treasure—a dead pirate, wearing a rare fourth-century tetradrachm from the hoard—Jamie is now sure that it was the Bruja that took Ian, and is eager to interrogate the prisoner.
Accompanying him to the orlop, Claire meets a slender man with tribal scars on his face, the scars of slavery on his back— and the larger scar of an obliterated brand on one shoulder. This is Ishmael, one-time cook, and once something more than a cook, from his bearing.
Ishmael is understandably cautious, fearing that the Frasers might either restore him to his previous owner or enslave him themselves. Still, from what he tells them and from clues obtained from the papers Claire was given with the one-armed slave she bought, Temeraire, it seems that Mrs. Abernathy, of Rose Hall on Jamaica, may hold the next piece of the puzzle that will lead them to Ian.
Upon arrival at Jamaica, Ishmael claims his reward; rather than the offered gold, though, he chooses something different— Temeraire. The one-armed slave consents to go with him, and the two men are put ashore, disappearing into the uninhabited jungle.
The Artemis sails around the island to Kingston Harbor, only to discover an unwelcome sight: the Porpoise at anchor.
“It’s persecution!” Jamie said indignantly. “The filthy boat’s pursuing me. Everywhere I go, there it is again!”
Claire’s explanation of the man-of-war’s presence—naturally the Porpoise would be in Kingston Harbor, since she is delivering the new Governor of the island—changes Jamie’s attitude significantly, though. Hearing the name of the new Governor, he is first surprised, then pleased; Lord John Grey is a friend of his, he says, and may be of help in locating Ian.
Claire is mildly surprised that he should choose to approach the Governor first, rather than going directly to Rose Hall, but after all, if they meet resistance in their inquiries, it’s as well to have a friend in high places. Leaving Fergus to discharge the Artemis’s cargo, the Frasers go at once to Jared’s plantation, Blue Mountain House, where the overseer and his wife— Mr. and Mrs. MacIver—make them welcome, and help with their preparations.
In search of information, Jamie and Claire attend the new Governor’s reception, with Mr. Willoughby in tow. Claire is pleased to see Lord John Grey again, and assumes that his look of shock in the reception line is due to his sight of Jamie, disguised—in full wig, powdered face, and red-heeled