Voyager: Part Seven

Chapter 39: Lost, and by the Wind Grieved

© Diana Gabaldon 1994


Please discuss Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager ONLY in this thread. Thanks!


The Spoiler thread can be found HERE: voyager-spoiler-thread-t2572.html

So, Ian and Jenny have given their assent, with reluctance, to Young Ian swimming to the silkies’ isle to obtain some of the treasure there as payment for Jamie’s recently acknowledged debt to Laoghaire. What do you think of Young Ian, or his brothers before him, tackling this daunting swim?

Young Ian is nervously talkative as they approach the coast. Jamie coaches him to use the current in his swim to the isle. The weather is dreadful, but these are hardy Scots. The mists hide Ian from view of Jamie and Claire. Through the mists, Jamie discovers a boat pulling ashore on the isle. Then they see that men on the isle have taken a limp Ian. Jamie is helpless. The boat takes Ian to a waiting ship. All that Jamie and Claire can do is observe the ship for further identification. The ship’s crew spots them and warns them off with a few cannon shots. The real problem is that Ian has been captured, hopefully without serious injury.

This development must be a nightmare for Jamie. Of all his concerns, a ship capturing Young Ian was probably nowhere on his list. What do you think of this event?

All thought of treasure is gone. Young Ian’s care has been entrusted to Jamie. How can he ever face Jenny and Ian having lost their son? Is it hope or desperation that causes Jamie to climb down the cliff – Ellen’s tower – to retrieve Ian’s few possessions?

Jamie is full of self doubt. Why has this trip gone so horribly wrong? Is it wrong for him to want Claire?

Claire tries to comfort him and calm his doubts. She assures Jamie that she wanted to come to him. He did not take her away from her life with Brianna. They are exhausted, but too despondent to stop and rest.

From the time we met Young Ian, have you had the feeling that a dark cloud hangs over him and producing danger at every opportunity?

Do you agree with Jamie pursuing Young Ian without notifying Jenny of these events?

Jamie and Claire make their way from the coast to Inverness for the previously arranged passage to France. Jamie’s only plan is to seek assistance from Jared to identify the kidnapping ship and try to rescue Young Ian.

I think that it was Jamie who said that Ian reminded him of Claire in that bad things always seem to happen when he's around. Jamie seems to go into a self-loathing funk when all of this happens as if all of this happened because he wanted Claire and she was finally back. He goes into this whole "I don't deserve happiness and when it appears, something bad happens to those around me" but bad things happened to Jamie before Claire appeared in his life and also while she was away. He has a certain destiny that those around him are swept into.

I can't really blame him for hightailing it to France to find the most knowledgeable person he knows who can track any ship and provide him with the means to follow it. There's no time for going back to Lallybroch and losing time.

I think Jamie was right to go straight to the one person who could help - going back to Lallybroch would have slowed their progress considerably, and wouldn't have achieved anything.

I think Jamie always feels guilt when something goes wrong - and he DID promise to look after Ian - and no doubt telling Jenny before he found Ian would have been pointless - we've already seen Jenny's wrath !!

This was a different time. Boys and girls were considered men and women long before they are now. This would be unthinkable today. During those days it was different.

That's a good point. Ian is about 15 I think at this time and would have been considered a man at 16 ready for higher education which Jamie was considering in his request to take him to France.

I agree that it made sense to head straight in search of information to try to find the ship and Ian with it. Taking time away to go back to Lallybroch could have made it even more difficult to track. And, I certainly wouldn't have wanted to face Jenny and Ian at that point. Ian may be close to adulthood in that time, but he is still their youngest child, so even if he were 30, they'd be upset to hear he was kidnapped and possibly hurt and no one knows where he is or how to get him back.

Jamie certainly takes a lot of guilt onto himself. He could never have foreseen this event, but I don't think it happened because he was happy to have Claire back. Ian was a trouble-magnet even before Claire's return, so I don't think the events are related and clearly neither does Claire.

This was quite an unexpected turn of events and a definite shift in the story.

Absolutely! Without the events of this chapter, the entire series would have gone in a different direction. And poor Jamie might have been spare an ocean crossing!

Interesting to imagine how their lives might have turned out if they'd successfully gotten the treasure, went and settled down in France for a few years, then returned to live at Lallybroch. Certainly a lot less drama. Although -- given the fact that all three of them attract danger wherever they go -- I'm sure they'd still wind up in at least one life-threatening situation per year.

I agree, as well, that there was no way for Jamie to have foreseen what happened to Ian. Jenny and Ian would be devastated, of course, but they agreed to let Ian go, as they had agreed with their two older boys. Everything that happens is not Jamie's fault! Now, if only someone could convince Jamie of that.