Voyager

A new, anonymous narrator describes how, on April 16, 1746, Jamie Fraser woke on the battlefield of Culloden, wondering whether he was dead or alive. He thinks of his wife, Claire, and their unborn child. Earlier that day, Jamie miraculously survived the deadly Battle of Culloden. Jamie brought Claire to the magical standing stones at Craigh Na Dun, where she had traveled through time three years prior. Jamie knew that the best life for Claire and their child was in Claire’s own time—the 20th century. Believing he would die in battle that day, he thought his agony in losing Claire wouldn’t last long.

Jamie is shocked to find himself alive, though barely, and with no feeling in his left leg. The battlefield is strewn with bodies from both sides of the battle, and Jamie finds himself trapped underneath the corpse of Jack Randall, an English captain and his former torturer. Jamie falls unconscious and wakes up later to someone calling his name. He is rescued from the battlefield by a few fellow Jacobites. He wishes the men would leave him there to die, as expected. He thinks he will soon succumb to his injuries, regardless. Jamie has little memory of the Battle of Culloden, though he hears from the men that most of the Highland army was killed, as Claire told him would happen.

The men hide out in a farmhouse, and in the distance, they can hear the sounds of surviving Highlanders being shot by the English soldiers. The following day, the group is discovered by English soldiers led by Lord Melton, and they accept their fate. The Highlanders are given an hour to write to their loved ones and prepare themselves, and Jamie feels relief and prays as he thinks of Claire. When Jamie is called to be executed, Lord Melton recognizes his name as both the famous Jacobite Red Jamie. However, Melton knows that Jamie saved his brother’s life, John William Grey, and thus, Melton owes Jamie a debt of honor. Despite his requests to be shot, Melton arranges for Jamie to be snuck back to his home of Lallybroch.

In 1968, Claire told her daughter, Brianna, and a friend and local historian, Roger Wakefield, the story of how she time-traveled to the Battle of Culloden and married a man named Jamie Fraser. Just before the battle, Claire returned to her own time, and for the last two decades, she believed that Jamie died at the Battle of Culloden. However, at the end of the previous novel, Roger informed Claire that Jamie did not die in 1746. The chapter begins with Claire insisting that Jamie died at Culloden, but Roger shows her historical documents that suggest Jamie escaped despite his intention of dying in battle. Having a historian’s curiosity and fondness for Claire and Brianna, Roger asks if he can try to discern how Jamie actually died, and Claire agrees.

A few days later, Claire narrates how she, Roger, and Brianna have been researching the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden. Claire and Roger discuss her first husband, Frank Randall, who died two years earlier. Claire told Frank about what happened in the past when she returned to her own time, but she doesn’t know if he believed her. Claire remembers returning from her time in the past after three years with Jamie. When Frank arrived at the hospital Claire was sent to upon her return, she immediately told him she was pregnant, expecting he would leave her alone with her grief. Claire told Frank the truth, though she told him that she never meant to fall in love with Jamie.

Claire tells Roger how she tried to get Frank to leave her, but he wouldn’t because of her pregnancy. Frank moved their family to Boston, where Brianna was born. A year after her return to the 20th century, Claire struggled with the demands of having a newborn and a loveless marriage. In the present, Briana brings Claire and Roger a book about Scottish legends, one of which contains the story of a man called Dunbonnet who escaped Culloden and hid in a cave for seven years to evade capture. Brianna thinks Jamie, who was known for his red hair, wore a dun-colored bonnet to hide from the English, especially since the cave Dunbonnet hid in was close to Lallybroch.

By November 1752, Jamie, known as Dunbonnet, only returns to his home at Lallybroch once a month. His pregnant sister Jenny and her children—including a young Jamie—live at Lallybroch, and his brother-in-law, Ian, has been arrested again under suspicion of being a Jacobite sympathizer. There is still turmoil surrounding the Jacobites, and nearby British forces often burn crofts and kill suspected sympathizers without trial.

Three weeks later, Ian has still not returned to Lallybroch, and Jamie returns home because Fergus—a boy he took in from France who brings him news from Lallybroch—hasn’t visited him lately. At Lallybroch, Jamie sees that Jenny is doing the best she can: She must take care of her children, their small staff, and the families of fallen Jacobites on their land, on her own and near labor. A few days later, Fergus comes to tell Jamie that English dragoons are nearby and tries to evade the fact that Jenny has gone into labor. Going against Jenny’s request, Jamie returns home for the birth, and she delivers a boy named Ian. Just before the birth, Jamie spots ravens in the yard and shoots one, believing they are bad luck. Afterward, Jenny urges Jamie to take a wife for companionship, but Jamie still mourns Claire. Suddenly, English troops burst into the house, claiming they heard a gunshot, and Jamie hides in a cupboard with the newborn. Jenny convinces the soldiers to leave by telling them the baby died, and once they are gone, Jamie notes that he should not come back to Lallybroch for some time.

From his cave, Jamie sees that English soldiers are nearby, and Fergus taunts them to keep them away from the cave. One of the English soldiers cuts off Fergus’s hand, and Jamie feels immense guilt at being unable to help. Jamie returns to Lallybroch to check on Fergus and apologize, later telling Jenny he can’t bear to stay in the cave. Jamie plans to let himself be captured so a friend can collect the reward money, doubting he will be killed as Claire once said the English stopped killing the Jacobites they captured after a few years. Jamie and those at Lallybroch formulate a plan for his capture, and two months later, they are ready. The night before his capture, Mary MacNab, a widow who works in the Lallybroch kitchen, brings Jamie a final meal. Afterward, she attempts to seduce Jamie to give him some solace, knowing she cannot replace Claire, and Jamie reluctantly agrees.

In 1968, Claire, Roger, and Brianna continue finding documents that suggest Jamie survived Culloden, including the journal of Lord Melton. Their local friend Fiona recognizes the name Dunbonnet, and she tells them the end of the story: Dunbonnet had one of his tenants betray him for the reward money, and he was later tried and put in prison. Roger believes they can find a record of Jamie in prison, and he spends a week going through the books of his late father, another historian. Roger and Claire discuss how they came to their respective career paths, and Claire recollects how she struggled through medical school, facing the stigma of being a female doctor once Brianna started going to school. Frank was uncertain about Claire’s choices but ultimately assured her that she was doing the right thing when Claire began to feel she was abandoning Bree.

After everyone goes to bed, Claire finally finds Jamie’s name in the Ardsmuir prison records of 1753.

In 1755, Major John William Grey—the brother of Lord Melton, whose life Jamie had once saved—is appointed to a post at Ardsmuir Prison. His predecessor tells John about one prisoner whom the other Jacobites love but some of the guards fear: Red Jamie Fraser. John is told to get in Jamie’s good graces if he is to control the prisoners, but not to turn his back on Jamie. Jamie, known by the prisoners as Mac Dubh, discusses the new governor of the prison with the men in his cell.

John writes a letter to his mother about his new position, omitting the reason he was sent to a post in a desolate region of Scotland. John thinks about how, years earlier as a young soldier, he was alone when he saw Red Jamie in the forest and tried to capture him. Jamie was quicker and could have easily killed John, but he broke his arm and captured him. When John saw an English woman with the Highlanders, he tried to bargain for Claire’s freedom, leading him to reveal secret information about his brother’s troops’ whereabouts. Rather than killing him, Jamie left John tied to a tree where his friends found him the next day. John is conflicted about his feelings toward the Scots because of this, but also because his lover, Hector, was killed in battle at Culloden. He wants revenge against Jamie but knows he can’t hurt him because he is an honorable man.

In the days after Culloden, in the area around Ardsmuir, there was a rumor that Louis of France had sent gold to his cousin Charles Stuart, and that gold was hidden nearby. Two weeks after arriving at Ardsmuir, John learns that a mysterious man has been wandering around, mumbling in nearly incomprehensible French and Gaelic about gold. Knowing Jamie speaks both French and Gaelic, John enlists Jamie’s help to interpret for the wanderer. When Jamie arrives at John’s office, Jamie declines his request until John offers to remove his iron chains. They arrive at the inn where the wanderer is staying just before he dies of his fever. Jamie tells John that the wanderer’s ramblings were gibberish about a white witch’s curse. Three days later, Jamie escapes Ardsmuir, and John and his men pursue him mercilessly until Jamie suddenly appears before them.

Though Jamie kept his bargain with John, he didn’t tell John that he knew the wanderer as a kinsman named Duncan, and he told Duncan not to relay any information in front of the English. Duncan told Jamie that someone he called the white witch is looking for a MacKenzie: “She” will come for both Jamie and John. John summons Jamie to his quarters after he is recaptured, but Jamie refuses to tell John why he escaped or if it had anything to do with the gold. John knows he cannot treat Jamie harshly if he is to find out about the gold, and he invites him to dinner the next day. John continues to invite Jamie to dinner weekly in an attempt to draw him into conversation about the gold, and the two become friendly. John writes to his brother, Lord Melton, telling him about his predicament with Jamie and the gold. He asks him to investigate Jamie’s family and what they might know. Upon learning the names of Jamie’s family members a few days later, John threatens to have Jenny and Ian’s family arrested if he doesn’t tell him the full truth. Jamie eventually admits that the wanderer’s words had more meaning to Jamie, and he visited a shrine dedicated to someone called the white witch—also a name that was used for Claire—when he escaped the prison. Jamie says that he found some gold and jewels at the shrine but threw them into the sea rather than let John have them. Jamie gives John a sapphire to prove he was telling the truth.

Jamie and John continue their weekly dinners, where Jamie unexpectedly brings up Lord Melton, acknowledging their prior meeting for the first time. Jamie said he was angry with Lord Melton for not shooting him, saying he wanted to die after Culloden, and John admits he had a similar feeling, as he lost someone who was important to him in battle. They briefly talk about Claire and Hector, and Jamie thanks John for trying to defend Claire when they first met. John wonders if Jamie killed Hector, and weeks later, he wonders if he could possibly have feelings for Jamie. When he reaches for Jamie’s hand one night while they are playing chess, Jamie threatens to kill John if he doesn’t take his hand off him and leaves abruptly.

Months later, during a cleaning of the prison cells, the guards find a piece of MacKenzie tartan, something that had been outlawed. Jamie claims the tartan is his, and the other men gather in support of him. John tells the guards to take him to be whipped. Jamie remembers when he was flogged at 19. The men in his cell help to heal Jamie’s wounds and try to distract him from the fact that other prisoners are beating the man to whom the piece of tartan actually belonged.

Roger finds Claire asleep in the study the morning after she discovers Jamie’s name in the historical documents. He immediately sees her discovery.