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Outlander Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the Outlander novel. A total of 245 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : PART ONE
Inverness, 1945
1
A NEW BEGINNING
It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearan
PART ONE
Inverness, 1945
1
A NEW BEGINNING
It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance. Mrs. Baird’s was like a thousand other Highland bed-and-breakfast establishments in 1945; clean and quiet, with fading floral wallpaper,
- 148 “Mr. Fraser will do,” Jamie a.s.sured him, taking the tray with bowl and razor in one hand. “A less seaworthy captain doesna bear thinking of.” He paused, listening to the thump of feet above our heads. “Though since I am the captain,” he said slowly, “I
- 147 The sentry near the trees paced slowly up and down, musket carried at the ready, a wistful eye on the cool green shadows. He pa.s.sed close enough on one circuit for me to see the dark, greasy curls dangling down his neck, and the pockmarks on his plump c
- 146 “Maman has seen much worse than you,” the little girl a.s.sured him. “Come on!” He smiled and thanked her, and allowed them to lead him down the hill, staggering slightly, as his land legs had not yet returned. He found it odd but somehow comforting that
- 145 “Let go! I’ll tell you, but for pity’s sake, let go!” Jamie lessened his grasp, but didn’t let go. “Tell me where my wife is!” he said, in a tone that had made stronger men than Harry Tompkins fall over their feet to obey. “She’s lost!” the man blurted. “
- 144 “Murphy!” I said, and kissed him, caught up in the joy of the moment. “Hoy!” he said, shocked. He wriggled madly, trying to get out from under me. “Milady!” Fergus appeared at my side, crumpled and vivid, his beautiful smile dazzling in a sun-dark face. “
- 143 “I have seen one such cave,” he added reflectively. “Abandawe, the Maroons call it. They consider it a most sinister and sacred spot, though I do not know why.” Encouraged by my close attention, he took another gulp of sangria and continued his natural hi
- 141 “Fried plantain, mixed with manioc and red beans,” Lawrence explained, seeing my hesitation. He took a large spoonful of the steaming pulp himself and ate it without pausing for it to cool. I had expected something of an inquisition about my presence, ide
- 140 I breathed in deeply, a lovely smell of gra.s.s and flowers, with minor notes of sheep and sun-warmed dust. A brown speck lighted for a moment on my sleeve and clung, long enough for me to see the velvet scales on its wing, and the tiny curled hose of its
- 139 All right, then, which way? Toward the mountain; it was the only thing I could see above the sea of mangroves. I pushed my way through the branches as fast as I could, ignoring the ripping of my skirts and the increasing pull of each wave on my legs. The
- 138 “See—Caicos Pa.s.sage,” she said, sketching a pair of lines. At the top, between the lines, she sketched the small triangle of a sail. “Go through,” she said, indicating the Caicos Pa.s.sage, “but mast is gone. Now—” She quickly drew several irregular cir
- 137 “No sore ear,” I said, in explanation, and Annekje nodded in approval. Then the goatling was free, and went plunging back into the herd, to b.u.t.t its head against its mother’s side in a frantic search for milky rea.s.surance. Annekje looked about for th
- 136 My mind followed the same dizzying lines my feet had traveled earlier, seeing faces—faces contorted in anguish or smoothing slowly in the slackness of death, but all of them looking at me. At me. I lifted my futile hand and slammed it hard against the rai
- 135 “But what about the Customs officer who was killed on the road?” I asked sharply. I couldn’t repress a small shudder, at memory of that dreadful face. “Who did that? There were only five men among the smugglers who could possibly have done it, and none of
- 134 Elias was the natural place to begin. I waited until the end of the day to ask, trusting to fatigue to dull his natural curiosity. “Tompkins?” The boy’s round face drew together in a brief frown, then cleared. “Oh, yes, ma’am. One o’ the forecastle hands.
- 133 “Ma’am, Ruthven says as somebody’s been a-drinking of the pure alcohol again.” Elias Pound popped up at my elbow, his round pink face looking drawn and wan, substantially thinned by the pressures of the last few days. I said something extremely bad, and
- 132 “Well…” Mr. Overholt looked profoundly uneasy. “There is a small quant.i.ty of dried figs, ten pound of sugar, some coffee, a quant.i.ty of Naples biscuit, and a large cask of Madeira wine, but of course we cannot use that.” “Why not?” I stared at him, an
- 131 If not for the headache, it could be simple gastroenteritis—but not with this many men stricken. Something very contagious indeed, and I was fairly sure what. Not malaria, coming from Europe to the Caribbean. Typhus was a possibility; spread by the common
- 130 “You are the captain of this s.h.i.+p?” The Englishman’s eyes were red-rimmed from tiredness, but he picked Raines from the crowd of grim-faced hands at a glance. “I am acting captain Thomas Leonard, of His Majesty’s s.h.i.+p Porpoise. For the love of G.o
- 129 She stopped and sighed. I sat quietly, waiting. When she resumed, it was haltingly, as though she had trouble choosing her words. “I canna remember my father. I was only three when the English took him away. But I was old enough when my mother wed—wed Jam
- 128 Once reaching the coast, he had made his way to the waterfront, and tried there to pa.s.s himself off as a seaman, but failed utterly, as his fingers, so skillful with brush and ink, knew nothing of the art of knots and lines. There were several foreign s
- 127 I paused one day to watch Mr. Willoughby at his work, staying out of sight behind the shelter of the mast. He sat for a moment, a look of quiet satisfaction on his face, contemplating the finished page. I couldn’t read the characters, of course, but the s
- 126 Triumphant shouts from the boat, and a spreading circle of deep red in the water. There was a tremendous thras.h.i.+ng as one shark was gaffed and hauled behind the small boat by a rope about its tail. Then everything was confusion, as the men in the boat
- 125 “Why, that perverted little beast!” Jamie laughed at my indignation. “Aye, well, that’s about what the crew thinks, too. Of course, he canna get quite the same effect wi’ a European woman, but I gather he…tries, now and then.” I began to understand the ge
- 124 The cells were not large, and the men lay close together for warmth in the night. With no modesty save darkness, and no privacy save silence, it was impossible to remain unaware of the accommodation each man made to his own needs. “I was in irons for more
- 123 “Oh, ’twas the blood poison,” he said, casually. “I tore a small hole in my hand wi’ a nail one day, and it festered.” I stared at the sleeve, empty from the shoulder. “I suppose it did,” I said faintly. “Oh, aye. It was a lucky thing, though; it was that
- 122 I probed for the gallbladder, just in case, wondering as I did so just what I would do, should it prove to be an acute attack of cholecyst.i.tis or an inflamed appendix. I could envision the cavity of the belly in my mind, as though it lay open in fact be
- 121 His face began to relax, just slightly. “You took me from need,” he said. “When we wed.” “And I came back for love,” I said. “Do you think I needed you any less, only because I could feed myself?” The lines of his face eased, and the shoulder under my han
- 120 I saw the normal run of crushed fingers, burnt hands, skin infections, abscessed teeth, and digestive ills, but in a crew of only thirty-two men, there was seldom enough work to keep me busy beyond the hour of sick call each morning. In consequence, both
- 119 Slowly, the other eye opened. He said nothing, but the pair of blue orbs swiveled around, resting on me with an expression of such ferocious eloquence that I hastily withdrew the pickle. The eyelids drooped slowly shut once more. I surveyed the wreckage,
- 118 “The New Testament?” I saw no particular relevance to that, and said so. “Oh, but there is, milady—or might be, I should say,” Fergus corrected himself. “You see, the booklet was one that milord himself had printed.” “I see,” I said slowly, “or at least I
- 117 Jamie and Fergus had similar berths. Jamie was lying on his side, wedged into one of these like a snail into its sh.e.l.l; one of which beasts he strongly resembled at the moment, being a pale and viscid gray in color, with streaks of green and yellow tha
- 116 “I can’t,” I said. “There weren’t any dates on it. Just your name—and mine.” “Yours?” His eyes popped open. I nodded again, feeling my throat tighten at the memory of that granite slab. It had been what they call a “marriage stone,” a quarter-circle carve
- 115 The sound of a galloping horse echoed along the sh.o.r.e, the scrunch of hoofbeats on gravel echoing from the cliffside well in advance of its appearance. “There he is, the wee fool,” Jamie said, his relief evident in voice and body. He turned to Captain
- 114 “Especially when they’re asleep,” I said, looking down again at the little white stone. “You can always see the baby then.” “Ah.” Mother nodded, satisfied. “I thought you had had more children; you have the look, somehow.” “One more.” I glanced at her. “A
- 113 Mr. Willoughby, who did not speak French, was peering with marked contempt at a porcelain jar painted with pheasants, done in an Oriental style. “Thank you,” I said, “but I think not. I’ll try Krasner.” Mr. Willoughby had attracted relatively little atten
- 112 Jamie listened with attention, a slight smile on his lips. While he had no great interest in ancient money himself, he did have a great appreciation for a man with a pa.s.sion. A quarter of an hour more, another consultation of the catalogue, and the busi
- 111 “I believe he’s gone to sleep in the stable.” Jamie yawned, and stretched himself luxuriously. “Mathilde said she wasna accustomed to have heathens in the house and didna mean to start now. She was sprinkling the kitchen wi’ holy water after he ate supper
- 110 Jared eyed him dubiously, well aware of his response to seagoing craft of any kind. Jamie could scarcely set foot on a s.h.i.+p at anchor without going green; the prospect of his crossing the Atlantic, sealed inescapably in a small and constantly tossing
- 109 Jamie’s face was flushed from the climb, but at my words, the blood drained from his cheeks. His hands tightened on the bundle. “Oh, aye,” he said, very softly, with great bitterness. “Aye, I shall go home and tell my sister that I have lost her youngest
- 108 “Jamie!” I shrieked, as loudly as I could. He looked up from the rocks at his feet, saw where I was pointing, and hurled himself flat in the rubble as the gun went off. The report wasn’t terribly loud, but there was a sort of whistling noise past my head
- 107 “No,” Jenny said again, but I thought her heart wasn’t in it. Ian was already nodding thoughtfully. “Would ye take him with ye to France, too, Jamie?” Jamie nodded. “Aye, that’s the thing. I shall have to leave Lallybroch, and stay away for a good bit, f
- 106 Ned Gowan inclined his head ceremoniously. “Weel, ye must understand,” he began, “that a successful suit brought under the charges as described might result in Miss MacKenzie and her brother mulcting ye in substantial damages—verra substantial indeed,” he
- 105 I searched helplessly for words to rea.s.sure her. “But I won’t. I won’t go again. I only want to stay here with him—always.” I laid a hand on her arm and she stiffened slightly. After a moment, she laid her own hand over mine. It was chilled, and the tip
- 104 “It’s a thought,” she said, teeth flas.h.i.+ng in a brief, reluctant smile. “If I could drag your stubborn carca.s.s that far, I’d club ye myself.” She shook her head and sighed. “All right, Jamie, ye’ll have it your way. But ye’ll try not to make a mess
- 103 But strangest of all was Jenny’s absence. She was the hearthfire of Lallybroch; I had never been in the house when it was not suffused with her presence, all the inhabitants in orbit about her like planets about the sun. I could think of nothing less like
- 102 I didn’t go upstairs to bed that night, either. We didn’t talk much, just lay close together in the narrow bed, scarcely moving, so as not to jar his injured arm. The rest of the house was quiet, everyone safely in bed, and there was no sound but the hiss
- 101 Jamie smiled, seeing my pleasure. “Oh, aye. I expect they’ll have to knock him on the head wi’ an ax to kill him. He looks just the same as he always did, though he must be past seventy now.” “Does he still live at Castle Leoch?” He nodded, reaching to th
- 100 "This," said Brianna through her teeth, "is silly!" "No, it isn't," said Roger. He felt suddenly breathless, as though a constricting band had squeezed the air from his chest. "There's a light over there." It was barely there—no more than a flic
- 99 "Yeah," said Roger. "Thanks." He took a small sip of his drink. Brianna, offended, turned her back on Edgars and affected to be examining the contents of the china closet through the bevel-cut gla.s.s doors. There seemed no point in beating around the
- 98 "No," said Roger, eyeing Dr. McEwan with some austerity. "That's why we're asking about her." "Is there anything…" Claire paused delicately, inviting, "that you think perhaps the committee should know, Dr. McEwan?" She leaned forward, opening he
- 97 "That's right." She gazed at him appraisingly, head c.o.c.ked to one side. "I knew it must be, when I saw you. The eyes, you know. They're hers." Roger sat down, feeling suddenly quite cold, in spite of the bookshelf blocking the draft, and the newl
- 96 "I never thought…it never occurred to me," she said, blowing her nose again. "I didn't know how much it would mean, to have someone believe me." "Even if it isn't Brianna?" She grimaced slightly at his words, brus.h.i.+ng back her hair with one ha
- 95 I rolled to the side and lifted myself to watch him, to see the light touch the bold shape of his face, innocent in sleep, to see the dawning sun touch his hair with flame—for the last time. A wave of anguish broke through me, so acute that I must have ma
- 94 Practically breathless with the enormity of the responsibility entrusted to him, Fergus stood up straight, hands clasped over his middle. "I will not fail you, milord!" A faint smile crossed Jamie's lips, and he rested a hand briefly on the smooth cap
- 93 "If he were to die…now. Today. Or tonight. Jamie, without Charles, there's nothing to fight for. No one to order the men to Culloden. There wouldn't be a battle." The long muscles of his throat rippled briefly as he swallowed. He opened his eyes and s
- 92 "It wasn't long, poor chap. It was as though he was only waiting to see her safely taken care of. I sent word to her aunt's house; the aunt and two cousins came to fetch her. They'll take care of…him." I sipped gratefully at the brandy. It burned my
- 91 "I swear to thee, friend, and may G.o.d Almighty bear me witness. For the sake of your love to me, never shall those that are yours go wanting, while I have aught to give." He knelt unmoving for a long moment, and there was no sound in the cottage but t
- 90 I didn't think she was going to consider an armed Highlander an adequate subst.i.tute for her absent lover. I could feel Jamie tense beside me, trying to overcome his scruples against striking a woman. Another instant, and she would turn, see him, and sc
- 89 "Hoy!" I roared. Covered as they were by bars, I couldn't crank the cas.e.m.e.nts outward. I ran across the room to fetch one of the heavy silver candlesticks, dashed back, and smashed a pane of gla.s.s, heedless of the flying fragments. "Help! Ahoy,
- 88 Clutching the rough homespun around me, I followed Jamie down yet another flight of dark stairs. This was the third, and the narrowest yet; the lantern he held lit the stone blocks of walls no more than eighteen inches apart. It felt rather like being swa
- 87 France was the most likely. We both spoke French fluently. While Jamie could do as well in Spanish, German, or Italian, I was not so linguistically blessed. Also, the Fraser family was rich in connections here; perhaps we could find a place on an estate o
- 86 “You have been gone from your place for nearly a year. Your first husband will have begun to reconcile himself to your loss. Much as he may have loved you, loss is common to all men, and we are given means of overcoming it for our good. He will have start
- 85 And I told him. Everything. Who I was and how I came there. About Frank, and about Jamie. And about the young English dragoon with the pale, spotty face, dying against the snow. He showed no change of expression while I spoke, except that the round brown
- 84 Indifferently rendered as it was, the tapestry was of heavy silk and wool, and excluded all but the strongest drafts. I lifted the lower edge and flapped it, urging the charcoal smoke out through the stone arch. The cold, damp air that streamed in was ref
- 83 At the hour when time began to slow, I genuflected in the aisle of the chapel of St. Giles. Anselm was there, elegant shoulders straight beneath his habit, but no other. He neither moved nor looked around, but the living silence of the chapel embraced me.
- 82 Unable to rest, I had not bothered to undress, and so was ready when a tap at my door announced Anselm’s presence. The monastery was quiet, in the way that all large inst.i.tutions grow quiet at night; the rapid pulse of the day’s activities has dropped,
- 81 “Thank you,” I said. “I’m most grateful for your help.” The monk waved a graceful hand, dismissing my thanks. “I was pleased to be able to a.s.sist you,” he said, and I noticed that he spoke excellent English, though with a faint French accent. “I was pa.
- 80 Murtagh, pretending vast stupidity, had succeeded in drawing the soldiers ahead to the crest of the hill, so that they could point out that the road to Dingwall was the only road in sight, which ran down the other side of the hill. It ran through Ballagh,
- 79 “Claire? Are you all right, love?” “Am I all right? My G.o.d, Jamie!” Tears stung my eyelids and I blinked hard, sniffing. He raised his good hand slowly, as though it were weighted with chains, and stroked my hair. He drew me toward him, but I pulled awa
- 78 “What did he tell you?” I demanded fiercely. “Where are you going?” The dark stringy little man hesitated for a moment, but answered evenly, “I’m to go wi’ young Absalom toward Wentworth and keep watch in that direction. If any Redcoats are headin’ this w
- 77 Most worrying of all, of course, was the fear that everything might work, and might be still too late. Waiting hangsman or no, Randall might go too far. I knew too well, from stories told by returning soldiers from POW camps, that nothing is easier than f
- 76 Wearily I turned to see where the sound had come from. I was in the open away from the prison by this time; no wall to brace my back against, and no weapon to hand. It had been luck as much as anything that helped me with the first wolf; there was not a c
- 74 I was puzzled by his condition. He was clearly dazed and every line of his body was eloquent with pain, but I could see no obvious damage. There was no blood and no wound visible. I dropped to my knees and began methodically to try the keys of my ring on
- 73 “Do ye, then? Hmm.” He replaced the dirk and resumed his pacing, stopping to demand, “How much money have ye, la.s.s?” I fumbled in the pocket of my gown. I had Dougal’s purse, the money Jenny had forced me to take, and my string of pearls. Rupert rejecte
- 72 He stood suddenly and took a step toward me. “Who knows?” he said again, very softly. “If I were to plow that pretty brown-haired furrow and seed it deep each day…” The shadows on the cavern wall s.h.i.+fted suddenly as he took another step toward me. “We
- 71 Snow fell the next day. Only a light fall, enough to dust the ground with a white like the flour on the millhouse floor, but it worried me. I didn’t like to think of Jamie, alone and unsheltered in the heather, braving winter’s storms in nothing but the s
- 70 I didn’t much care for the thought of having to hunt alone through the Scottish Highlands for a man who might be anywhere, either, but I put a bold face on it. “I’ll manage,” I said. “It could be worse. At least he’s alive.” “True.” She glanced at the sun
- 69 Outraged, I stamped over to the desk and gripped Ian by the shoulder, shaking him roughly and ignoring Jamie, who pushed himself upright, saying, “Sa.s.senach, wait…” Ian was not quite unconscious. His head came up reluctantly, and he looked at me with a
- 68 Jamie stood leaning on the fence, exchanging pleasantries as other tenants wended their ways homeward, until the untidy figure of MacNab was out of sight over the crest of the hill. He straightened, gazing down the road, then turned and gave a whistle. A
- 67 “I’ll tell ye this, mo duinne. One day Jack Randall will die at my hands. And when he is dead, I shall send back that book to the mother of Alex MacGregor, with word that her son is avenged.” The air of tension was broken by the sudden reappearance of Jen
- 66 “Oh, I could tell ye that.” He promptly doubled up, clasping himself, and rolled his eyes back in his head with a hideous gurgling groan. “Is that not right, Ian?” he asked, turning his head toward the stool where Ian sat laughing, wooden leg propped on t
- 65 Jenny suddenly started to laugh. “I just remembered,” she said, “Da used to tell that story about you, Jamie, about thras.h.i.+ng you, and what he said to you. He said when he sent ye back to the house after, you came halfway down, then all of a sudden st
- 64 “Good morrow to you, ladies,” said the leader. He was a corporal, but not, I was pleased to see, Corporal Hawkins. A quick glance showed me that none of the men were among those I had seen at Fort William, and I relaxed my grip on the handle of my basket
- 63 Ian and I exchanged smiles. If there was any regret that such feats were now beyond him, it was hidden beneath his pleasure in seeing Jamie’s exuberance. “It’s good to have him back,” he said. “I only wish we could stay,” I said, with regret. The soft bro
- 62 I had the nurturing and the loving of him as a boy. What will you do with the man I helped make? “Jamie says as you’re a rare fine healer.” “I mended his shoulder for him when we first met.” Yes, I am capable, and kind. I will care for him. “I hear ye mar
- 61 “Oh, I expect you’ve something to do with it. But she’d take it out of him whether you were here or not. She loves Jamie something fierce, ye know, and she worried a lot while he was gone, especially with her father goin’ so sudden. Ye’ll know about that?
- 60 As we drew near, there was a sudden terrible racket from the direction of the outbuildings, and Donas s.h.i.+ed and reared. No horseman, I promptly fell off, landing ignominiously in the dusty road. With an eye for the relative importance of things, Jamie
- 59 As the evening star began to glow among the black pines’ branches, I concluded that in this situation reason was of little use. I would have to rely on something else; just what, I wasn’t sure. I turned toward the split rock and took a step, then another,
- 58 The question seemed so preposterous that it took me a minute to think. “I’m twenty-seven…or maybe twenty-eight,” I added. That rattled him for a moment. At twenty-eight, women in this time were usually on the verge of middle-age. “Oh,” he said. He took a
- 57 The mood of the crowd now swayed to and fro, uncertain. The bloodl.u.s.t that had driven it earlier was dissipating, but it might still tilt like a cresting wave and crush us. Mutt and Jeff glanced at each other, undecided; taken aback by this last develo
- 56 It was a n.o.ble performance. He talked. And he talked. And he talked some more, seeming occasionally to pause respectfully for instruction from the bench, but in fact only drawing breath for another onslaught of verbiage. With my life hanging in the bala
- 55 “And how much longer will you live?” I asked. The irony turned inward, but the silver voice stayed steady. “A bit less than that, I expect. No great matter. I’ve managed a good deal in the time I had; ten thousand pounds diverted to France, and the distri
- 54 The Duncans’ house when I arrived had an air of neglected abandon, a sense of disorder that extended through the house itself. There was no answer to my knock, and when I pushed the door open, I found the entry hall and parlor scattered with books and dir
- 53 Or it might have been the smell of lavender water. Geilie’s loose, flowing gowns smelled always of the essences she distilled: marigold, chamomile, bay leaf, spikenard, mint, marjoram. Today, though, it was lavender that drifted from the folds of the whit
- 52 She caught me from behind and pushed me flat on my face into the shallow water. Floundering and gasping, I managed to rise to my knees, slos.h.i.+ng water in all directions. Geilie stood calf-deep in the stream, skirts soaked, glaring down at me. “You b.l
- 51 Jamie pushed back the bench and rose from the table, handing me out. He put an arm around my shoulders and smiled back at Rupert. “Well, then, I suppose the two of us will just have to fight it out back-to-back.” Rupert’s eyes flew open in horrified disma
- 50 There was a m.u.f.fled thump from the far side of the landing, and I risked peeping out. It was the girl Laoghaire, pale as the plastered wall behind her. She was holding a tray with a decanter; a pewter cup had fallen from the tray to the carpeted floor,
- 49 The priest did not respond, but hunched his round shoulders and hitched his way up the garden stair a step at a time, like a penguin hopping up an ice floe. “That man doesn’t care overmuch for women, does he?” I remarked to Jamie. “Considering his occupat
- 48 “I don’t suppose,” I asked hopefully, “that you could tell Alec you’re sick, and come back to bed?” He laughed and bent to kiss me before groping under the bed for his stockings. “Would that I could, Sa.s.senach. I doubt much short of pox, plague, or grie
- 47 Jamie stayed motionless, knowing that the stallion couldn’t reach him. Hamish jumped back with a squeak, clearly scared speechless by the sudden appearance of that monstrous s.h.i.+mmering head, with its rolling, bloodshot eyes and flaring nostrils. “I di