Outlander

Having taken an interest in botany, an elderly local man named Mr. Crook takes Claire on a tour of local plants. They come across a hill called Craigh na Dun, where there is a miniature stone henge. When Claire asks Mr. Crook if there is something special about Craigh na Dun, Mr. Crook avoids the question.

Claire visits the vicarage, where Frank is studying local history with Reverend Wakefield. Frank learns that his ancestor Jack Randall had been involved in Jacobinism in the 1750s, a movement that attempted to restore James Francis Edward Stuart to the British throne and caused significant conflict between the British and the Scottish.

Reverend Wakefield’s housekeeper Mrs. Graham reads Claire’s tea leaves and palm. She tells her that her marriage line is divided, insinuating several marriages. However, while these lines are usually broken, Claire’s lines are forked. Mrs. Graham teases Claire, asking her pointblank if she’s a bigamist. Claire asks Mrs. Graham if she can tell her whether she will have children. Mrs. Graham tells her that lines indicating children do not usually appear on the palm until one has already had children.

At the vicarage, Claire meets Reverend Wakefield’s adopted son Roger, for whom Wakefield has created a family chart. “I didn’t want him to forget his own family, you see,” Roger admits gingerly, “It’s quite an old lineage, back to the sixteen hundreds […] I didn’t want him to forget where he came from” (56-57). Claire brings up the possibility of adopting a child with Frank, who flatly refuses because he believes he could not love a child that was not his by blood.

Frank and Claire take a trip to Craigh na Dun to secretly observe a Druid ceremony. Claire notices a deep blue flower that she returns the next day to inspect. Claire draws closer to the rocks to inspect a strange humming sound. The stones begin to shout, and Claire hears the cries of battle. Her vision blurs, and when she wakes up again, she is at the bottom of the hill. She hears the noise of human conflict it the distance and follows it.

Claire stumbles into a fight between the English, or the “redcoats” and the Scottish (77). She assumes the men are actors shooting a film. Claire is captured by a man in the woods, who later reveals himself to be Jack Randall, Frank’s ancestor. His hair and build bear a resemblance to Frank that startles Claire. Randall makes a sexual advance at Claire and asks her if she is a sex worker. A Scottish man rescues Claire from Randall and takes her back to his group, who is staying in a stone cottage. Her rescuer, now turned captor, a man called Murtagh, calls her a “Sassenach wench,” meaning an English woman, which immediately draws suspicion from Murtagh’s peers, who wonder if she is an English spy (88). Claire notices that all the men are kilted, which is not typical for Scottish dress in 1945.

Claire intercepts the men trying and failing to force a young man’s shoulder back into its joint. Pushing the men aside, Claire successfully puts the young man’s shoulder into its socket. He then gratefully introduces himself as Jamie. Outside, Claire notices the beauty of the stars due to the lack of city lights. Noticing Claire shivering, Jamie covers her with his shawl. As Claire travels with the men, she slowly realizes she has travelled back in time. Jamie is wounded in another battle with the English and Claire again nurses him back to health.

Claire and the rest of the clansman arrive at Castle Leoch, which Claire remembers from visiting it in 1945. Claire meets Mrs. Fitz, a skilled nurse herself. Mrs. Fitz and Claire attend to Jamie’s wounds. Jamie tells Claire that the scars on his back come from a beating by the British captain Jack Randall. Jamie tells Claire that Randall attempted to rape his sister Jenny. Claire sobs at her reality of being stuck in 1743, and Jamie comforts her. Claire understands why Jamie is so good with horses. Jamie insists that she go to bed, and Claire falls asleep inside a mound of quilts.

Claire is summoned to meet Colum MacKenzie, the owner of the castle. Claire realizes from her study of history that Castle Leoch is a Scottish stronghold the British would not dare to try to penetrate. Claire notes Colum’s bowed legs and ascertains that he suffers from Toulouse Lautrec Syndrome. She also sees that Colum looks very much like his brother Dougal, one of the clansmen that Claire traveled with. Colum questions Claire on her background. Claire says that she is a widower from Oxfordforshire who was attacked by Captain Randall on her way to visit relatives in France. When Colum briefly exits the room, Claire rummages through Colum’s library and finds a letter dated April 20, 1743, confirming Claire’s suspicion that she has travelled through time. Colum dismisses Claire, though Claire gleans that he is still wary of her. “Colum didn’t say the next words,” Claire reflects, “but he might as well have. They hung in the air behind me as clearly as though spoken, as I walked away. ‘Until I find out who you really are’” (146).