After decades apart, Jamie and Claire finally reunite and rekindle their emotional and physical bonds. But Jamie’s new business dealings jeopardize the couples’ hopes for a simple life together.
A. Malcolm begins with Jamie’s stock being tied by a flirtation Madame Jeanne before he sets off to start his day at the print shop where he finds Lesley and Hayes from Ardsmuir slept at Young Ian’s advice. Jamie sends them on an errand to Arbroath with some seditious papers. Geordie arrives and Lesley and Hayes poke of fun of him before being sent off by Mac Dubh (Jamie, means son of the black one which is supposed to refer to his father Brian’s dark hair). He then sends an annoyed Geordie on an errand while he proceeds to work printing.
Time passes and the bell above the door rings and Jamie calls out asking Geordie if he went all the way to Glasgow for the ash. Instead of Geordie answering a female voice says, “It isn’t Geordie. It’s me, Claire.” A stunned Jamie turns and stares up at the balcony where a smiling Claire looks down at him before fainting.
Jamie wakes to Claire over him, shocked that she’s really there. Claire blurts out that she thought he was dead. Jamie becomes distracted thinking he’s pissed himself but realizes he spilled the ale pot on himself. He stands and starts to take off his pants but gets self-conscious and asks Claire to turn around. She tells him it is all right because they are married. Jamie agrees that they are but also seems stunned by that realization.
Jamie approaches her and looks down at her hand which still sports his ring. Claire confesses she never took it off and Jamie asks her permission to kiss her which she readily grants. They kiss and then Jamie tells her he’s seen her dozens of times. She’d come to him when he was in fever or so lonely that he needed her and she’d smile at him but never touch him. Claire tells him, “Do not be afraid,” and Jamie finishes, “there’s the two of us now,” echoing Jamie’s words to her on their wedding night. They kiss passionately but are interrupted by Geordie who accuses Jamie of orgies before noon. Jamie and Claire laugh about it and Jamie says he’ll explain.
Jamie starts to the back for more trousers and then stops to ask Claire to join him if she doesn’t think it immoral. She joins him finding he has a bedroom setup in the back. Jamie tells her it if fine to see her and then asks after their child. Claire pulls out some photos, which she explains are light paintings only captured with light, for him so he can see their daughter. They are all of Brianna at different stages of her life.
Jamie proceeds to pull out some glasses so he can view the pictures clearly saying he used to have the eyes of a hawk and that he needs them for reading and such. (Not at all part of the book and a deviation enough that it will change something later unless the whole subject, between Jamie and the other two who are part of those scenes, never happens which was a major point of contention between Jamie and one of the future characters.) Claire tells him she looks dashing as ever. She then confesses she dyed her hair so she’d look the same.
He asks her name and Claire tells him Brianna which he thinks is terrible. She defends the name saying it is after his father and he tells her it is a beautiful name. She tells Jamie Brianna’s first word was dog and that she used to smile in her sleep like him and had his red hair which Jamie says is like Faith. Jamie is shocked by the picture of Brianna in a bikini (Claire put that one in there in the book so Jamie could see how Brianna was put together, much like himself). Jamie hands the photos over to Claire who assumes he’s upset by the bikini but he then confesses to having a son with a woman he didn’t love who died in childbirth. Jamie also tells her he is responsible for her death (because she was having his baby). He confesses he’ll never see his son again except in portraits and he couldn’t claim him as his own. His son is a bastard. Claire asks what his son is like and Jamie says he’s spoiled, stubborn and braw and strong (amongst other things).
Jamie asks if she left Frank to come to him and she tells him he died. Jamie wants to know if Frank took her back and still loved her. She says yes and that Frank loved Brianna. Jamie asks her if she was happy with Frank and she tells him she was happy raising Brianna with him. (Not the same thing.) The church bells chime and Jamie realizes he’s late for a meeting at the tavern.
Jamie and Claire make their way through the streets where Jamie ducks his hand when a Redcoat comes near and then stops Claire and points to a man who appears stunned at her presence. The man calls her milady and says, “God has restored you.” Claire is stunned it is Fergus and by his missing hand. Fergus says he lost it fighting the Redcoats which isn’t exactly accurate. Fergus asks where she’s been and she said she thought they were all dead and says that she didn’t want to bring trouble to Lallybroch and so she left for America. Fergus then says he needs to talk to Jamie about their friend Mr. Willoughby.
Jamie and Fergus got a few feet away and Fergus wonders if Milady will be staying with him and what about??? Jamie doesn’t think it will be a problem but they should consult Ned Gowan about it. Then Fergus tells Jamie that Mr. Willoughby started something at the tavern. Jamie sends Fergus off before going back to Claire.
Jamie tells her their friend got himself into some trouble and he needs to take care of it plus he’s late for a meeting not because of her but because of himself. Claire hopes Fergus wasn’t too shocked and tells him she hopes Fergus believed her though technically it was the truth minus the 200 years in the future.
At The World’s End, Mr. Willoughby is in a skirmish with a prostitute. Jamie pays the prostitute whose elbow Mr. Willoughby licked and then introduces Claire to him as his wife. Jamie leaves them together while he goes to take care of business.
Claire sits with Willoughby and says that she presumes that isn’t his real name. He tells her it is Yi Tien Cho (Leans against heaven) but his own name sounds like something bad in Gàidhlig and so Jamie thought it would be better to use Willoughby.
Sir Percival Turner is upset that Jamie left him waiting in a dank cellar of an unsavory establishment. He believes Jamie has branched out and wants to be compensated 25% more. Jamie says he only sells on the high street and he won’t pay more but Sir Percival warns that he will see if that is true.
Jamie comes out and we hear Willoughby tells Claire that Jamie gave him food and water and saved his life. He calls Jamie a true friend who he owes his life too. Jamie thinks they should go and Claire tells him Willoughby was just telling her about how he stowed away and was starving when Jamie saved him. Willoughby then calls her something in Chinese and Jamie says it means Honorable Wife though he doesn’t look happy with Willoughby. Claire says goodbye and makes a point to call him Yi Tien Cho.
Jamie takes Claire to a brothel where Madame Jeanne isn’t happy he brought a woman with him but he introduces her to his wife. Madame Jeanne is upset that he’d bring his wife to her establishment and insult the ladies. She looks more upset that she can’t have him. Claire doesn’t look happy about Madame Jeanne. Then go to his rooms where sounds of sex can be heard from the other rooms.
Jamie explains that he thought it would be more comfortable in his rooms here and that they needed a hot meal. Jamie tells her Madame Jeanne keeps a room for him because he’s often abroad late when he travels on business and he can show up there and have food and a bed at any hour.
Jamie wants to know why she came back. She says she came back now because she thought he was dead before. He tells her he tried hard enough. Jamie wonders how she found him and she says a young historian found him and she took a chance. Jamie still wants to know if she means to be his wife. He’s burned for her for 20 years but they know each other less than when they were first married.
Jamie has to know if she wants him, the man he’s become and she stays yes. She then asks if he wants her, maybe she’s a horrible person. But Jamie doesn’t care. They kiss but Pauline brings in their dinner and the two separate.
They sit down to dinner and get reacquainted with each other filling in the details of their lives apart. (More like dinner foreplay) Jamie asks if she’ll go to bed with him and she agrees. The two strip each other (so freaking slowly) until they stand before each other exposed. Claire gets self-conscious and Jamie tells her she’s the most beautiful women he’s ever seen. They are both scared and Claire reminds him that when they were first wed he told her they should hold hands so they would be more comfortable together.
The two embrace and try moving to the bed where her nose connects with his head. Claire thinks she broke her nose but Jamie says it would make a nasty crunching sound and bleed like a pig. The have another tangle before quickly getting reacquainted where Claire tells him to do it now and not be gentle.
Afterwards they lie together touching. Jamie is so happy to touch her and tells her he can’t be near her and not want her. She asks if it was like that when they were first together and he tells her it has always been forever for him. She says it is like riding a bicycle. Jamie wonders what a bicycle is and she tells him it means they knew what to do and says he hasn’t lost all his faculties yet. Claire wants him to tell him what it is he does. He wants to know her best guess and she tells him he’s not just a printer because he’s very fit.
Highway robbery, kidnapping, petty thievery. Can’t be a pirate unless he got over being sea sick. She says that being a traitor couldn’t pay that well and he tells her he’s still a traitor though not convicted recently. He tells her he was imprisoned for it years back and she tells him he knew that and a bit more. Jamie tells her he’s a printer and that he’s been arrested for sedition 6 times in the past 2 years though nothing could be proved. He wonders if she wants to leave now and she tells him she didn’t come back to sleep with him once. She came back to be with him.
Jamie says he can’t say what if felt like to find her again and that what it would be like to lose her again. She tells him he won’t lose her unless he’s done something immoral which he seems concerned about and then confesses to smuggling alcohol. (Clearly there is something more our Jamie doesn’t want to tell Claire.) Claire sees now that is how Madame Jeanne is a customer and he tells her that it works well as they store it in her cellars. She wonders if he takes out any of his price in trade but he says no and she says it isn’t her business but he says it is.
They make love again and then Claire notices Jamie’s leg scar. She asks him how and Jamie tells her Culloden but doesn’t say who gave it to him. (Does he remember?) She tells she will not leave him again and he tells her she did it for Brianna and that she’s a wonderful mother. Because of Brianna they will live forever and Brianna is safe because of Claire. The two fall asleep in each other’s arms.
The next morning, Jamie is watching Claire sleep and she wakes to find him watching her. She touches him to see if he’s really there and he says maybe he’s a ghost. Claire says he once asked her what was it between them when they lied together and she still doesn’t know. He says it is still there. Jamie tells her he never thought he’d lie in a woman’s bed and laugh. Never though he’d come to one without being a brute blind with need. She asks if that is what he did and he pulls away. She tells him they don’t have to rush it but asks if he ever fell in love with anyone else and he tells her no.
They start making love and are interrupted by a knock at the door for breakfast but Jamie tells them to go away. Claire wakes later to Jamie dressing and he tells her to go back to sleep. He has to go take care of some business even though he’d rather no leave her. He reminds her she’s Mrs. Malcolm in Edinburgh. He tells her not to leave.
Later, Claire is up when there is a knock on the door. The boy asks if she’s Jamie’s woman and she says she is. He says his name is Ian Murray. He’s about to leave when Claire calls him back and asks if he’s Ian and Jenny’s son. She tells him she knew them a long time ago and goes on to tell him she’s his Aunt Claire. Ian is stunned saying she’s dead but she tells him she’s not. He tells her some of the woman at Lallybroch thought she was a White Lady or a Fairy. He asks if she lived in a Dun and she passes along the story of the Colonies. He says it is good to meet her and to tell Uncle Jamie he’s looking for him.
Claire comes down seeking food and finds the prostitutes eating breakfast. They think she’s the new girl though a bit older than normal. They impart their wisdom as how to not get pregnant and then think they hear and early customer saying as she new; she has to take him and they’ll save her food. Madame Jeanne comes in and finds Claire and asks what she’s doing down there and she says getting food. She is surprised no one brought her food and says she’ll have the maid flayed for it.
Claire goes up and finds their rooms being ransacked by a man. She threatens him with Jamie, her husband. He asks her where Jamie’s ledgers are and she tells him she doesn’t know to which he tells her if he fucks her maybe that will jog her memory. He grabs Claire by the face as the screen goes to black…
