Voyager © Diana Gabaldon 1994




Voyager, Chapter 54, Impetuous Pirate

Claire and Jaime are discussing what do with Claire's slave when they hear yelling. A sudden crash sends Claire to the floor. Pirates have boarded the Artemis. Jaime orders Claire and Marsali into the hold to hide. He tells them to stay hidden at the very back of the hold behind the guano. Claire and Marsali can hear the fighting on the deck. At one point there is an explosion and Marsali, fearing the ship is sinking, runs to the stairs. Claire runs after her, but not before a pirate grabs Marsali. Claire cuts off the pirate’s toe with a surgical knife and runs up the stairs with the pirate in pursuit. She runs head on into the full battle. The deck is covered with blood and the crew is busy fighting the pirates. Claire runs to the rail with no place to escape, climbs the rigging. Too late, tangling in her skirts, she realizes that she is no match for the sailor. The pirate swings his cutlass and barely misses Claire. Just as Claire anticipates the next killing blow she hears a sharp grunt and a thud. The pirate, attacked by Ping An, falls to the deck. By now, the crew has fought off the pirates. Claire climbs down the rigging onto the deck and sees that Jaime has suffered a minor head wound. There is a lot of blood, which turns out to be Claire’s. Claire has a deep cut on her arm. The pirate did not miss Claire. She simply did not feel the cutlass as it cut into her. She has a very deep wound on her upper arm that is bleeding.
Jamie is very angry. Again, Claire disobeyed him. He says that he wishes that he could bend her over the canon and take a rope to her backside.

Do you think if Claire were not so badly wounded he would have strapped her?

Mr Willoughby brings Claire tea and tells her that Jamie is not so much angry, but afraid for her. With the help of Fergus and Mr. Willoughby, Jamie cleans the wound with brandy. Mr. Willoughby uses acupuncture needles on Claire’s wrist and then stitches up the wound. Fergus comes in to show them a coin found on Claire’s dead pirate. The coin is one of the coins taken from the treasure.
Later, after Claire has slept, Jamie asks her if she felt being hit by the cutlass. He tells her that Murtaugh told him the killing blow never hurts. Jaime tells her of his experience at Culloden. It is the first time that Jamie has spoken to Claire of the battle.

Why is Jamie telling Claire of his experience? Why now?

Jamie tells Claire that he meant to die. He would have taken a musket ball for any of his comrades. He tells of running across the entire field with people being shot all around him. He remained untouched! To his surprise he found himself behind the English lines. Jamie kills the English gun crew but wonders the point of killing; the cause is lost. He knew the cause was lost, but blood lust keep him killing. He says he does not know why he was spared when so many others were killed. Everyone had more to lose than he. He was trying to be killed and he survived. Claire holds him and tells him he will never know. She says perhaps he was spared for her or his sister and family.

‘Too many folk have died, Sassenach, because they knew me-or suffered for the knowing. I would give my own body to save ye a moments pain-and yet I could wish to close my hand right now, that I might hear ye cry out and know for sure that I havena killed you, too ‘

Here we meet Jamie’s ghost. This is what he has been carrying around for 20 years. He feels responsible for all the deaths because he survived. He is worried that Claire will die because she is with him. What do you think? Why do you think he never spoke of this before?

Claire tells Jamie that he is not responsible and they dozed off in bed. Later Jamie quips that as much has he did not want to come home to Laoghaire, at least he knew that she would be where he left her. Claire quips back asking Jamie if that was the type of wife that he wanted; one that would stay put.

What are your thoughts about this chapter?

I think that it's natural after a battle and the adrenaline rush is over to reflect on what just happened and what happened in previous battles and Jamie is experiencing all of that. Does he want to strap her? Yeah, he probably does. Would he do that again? I doubt it. Although, I'm sure that there is a time or two that Claire feels like strapping him!

You can really see the inner scars that Jamie is carrying from the past in this chapter in particular. He has survivor guilt and is starting to get a little tired of all of the battles and the affects they have on the people around him.

The part about the wife is so funny. Not only does Claire not stay put in a place when he tells her, she doesn't stay put in a time period. I'm sure she wasn't too happy that he was thinking about L at that moment either. I wonder what other thoughts are running through his mind that he hasn't expressed?

Great summary Janet.

I don't think Jamie would ever strap Claire again. For one thing, he vowed a very long time ago not to do that ever again. And, for another, they are much older now and spent so much time apart that they are in a very different place in their relationship and I don't think he's consider strapping a good way to deal with her. I understand how he feels the desire since that is kind of the "simple" solution that many people of that time would use to deal with it, but I don't think he'd be seriously considering it.

I agree with Pauline that Jamie was thinking about Culloden in part because he was just involved in another battle. Also, I think he talked about it because he wanted to explain to Claire why he was so frightened for her and that was related to her not feeling the cut. He learned from Murtagh that one might not feel a fatal wound, and the fact that she was unaware that she was hurt and bleeding made him fear that her wound would be fatal. Especially since she wasn't in a position to treat herself and she was the best medical person, though Mr. Willoughby has some definite talents in that respect too.

The survivor's guilt is very sad because he intended to die at the battle (or afterwards when Lord Melton came) and failed to do so while so many who would have wanted to live were killed. The irony makes it worse than it might have been if he didn't go there intending to die. But, of course, it really wasn't his fault that he lived when others did not. It's something he, like many others, need to learn to live with, but it was a hard scene to read, especially with his loss of Murtagh who was one of the few people he knew he could trust.

The bit about a wife staying put was amusing, but largely because we know that Jamie would never really want that.

The scene where Claire was reading The Impetuous Pirate in the break room at the hospital was in Dragonfly, right? Or earlier in this book? Can't recall. Maybe this one since it had a bunch of flashbacks to her life with Frank and the scene of Jamie reading erotica at Helwater, so that would be parallel. [My memory is a sieve!] If you don't remember that scene, you can just take it as a straightforward reference to the pirate trying to catch Marsali and then Claire, but it's more amusing remembering the rather dreadful scenes from the novel Claire was reading when she first got to know Joe Abernathy.

BTW, where did Marsali end up while Claire was climbing the rigging? Was she right in the middle of the battle too? It never quite says where she went after going up the ladder.

Great discussion! Thank you, Janet!

ABL, I would also like to know what happened to Marsali during Claire's ordeal. However, the most important event here is that Claire nearly died. His recognition of her danger was the motivation for Jamie's reactions. I agree that they are much more mature characters here and react accordingly.

Thanks, Janet23 for your summary!

Did anyone else wonder why Mr. Willoughby didn't use his "wee stabbers" before they disinfected Claire's? Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but it seems it wouldn't have hurt to try! I found it a little funny that Fergus was trying to get Claire to stop screaming because she was upsetting the crew. They all seem used to the many injuries that all of the men endure, but Claire's injuries seem to cause them all a lot of distress. That was endearing.

I agree with everyone about Jamie's reasons for telling Claire about Culloden. It seems that by telling her what Murtagh said about fatal wounds Jamie was trying to impress upon Claire the seriousness of her actions and her wounds. I agree that he would never "strap" her again, and I think had she not been seriously injured the thought would never have crossed his mind.

Pauline, I thought the "wife staying put" part was pretty funny, too. I didn't even think about the reference to Claire not staying put in "time" either! Good point.

ABL and repoman - I, too, have no idea where Marsali was. I had wondered about that - especially since she had no injuries. I was a little upset with her for putting Claire in danger!

Hmm, I don't really think Marsali put Claire in much more danger than she was already in. Looked to me like the pirate was coming to search the hold, and just happened to run into pretty young Marsali once he got down there. And of course Claire ran to her rescue! LOL, how many of us would rush to do battle with an amputating saw in hand?!! Being a surgeon comes in handy in so many ways.

This is, of course, very trivial, but does anyone remember whether there are references in later books to Claire's arm having a scar? I would imagine she would have one, and quite dramatic too, given the length and depth of the wound, and the fact that she ended up getting stitched up by Mr. Willoughby, not a trained surgeon. I can't remember ever hearing about it again -- but my memory is also a sieve!

Interesting pages at the beginning of the chapter about what to do with the slave that Claire now owns. There really aren't any good choices, are there? Of course Claire hates the idea of owning anyone, and so does Jamie. It was fascinating to hear the obstacles to each possible solution. Sometimes doing the "right" thing can lead to further disasters, as Claire is discovering.

Lisa - I wondered about whether Claire ended up with a scar too (trivial though it may be). But, since Jamie's scars get mentioned repeatedly, it wouldn't be surprising for Claire's rather significant scar to get some mention too. My memory is that it does not, but if it does and someone can give a reference, we'd have to discuss that in the spoiler thread. On the other hand, although Mr. Willoughby is not a trained surgeon he does have experience with fairly precise small motions with his hands with both the placement of acupuncture needles and with writing beautiful calligraphy, so I suspect that the scar would be as minimal as possible.

I also think that if Marsali had stayed with Claire way back behind the guano that the pirate may not have seen them. For one thing, seeing and smelling that the hold was filled with guano may have cut his search off before he was very thorough. For another, it was very dark and even if he came toward the back, if they were quiet, he may have missed them (depending again on just how thorough his search was). Also, it might have been easier to deal with him - and disable him - given the element of surprise and not having him near the ladder. So, I think Marsali's actions did put Claire in somewhat more danger. That's not to say that there was no danger to staying where they were, but Marsali's actions increased it.

And, I completely agree that doing the right thing about the slave was very complicated. I was glad DG pointed out the possibilities and the problems with them because I hadn't realized how difficult it would be to free him and give him some sort of a decent life.

Oh, and Pauline, I forgot to comment on the staying put in time comment and that was something I hadn't thought of, but you are absolutely right. Claire really fails to stay put. (Thanks Trudy, for the reminder.)

Thanks for a great summary, Janet. I agree with everyone's comments.

TrudyJ, I was also surprised that Mr. W. din't use his needles to anesthetize Claire's arm prior to disinfecting the wound. Claire is getting a taste of her own medicine. I imagine her wails were more distressing to the crew because she is their physician and should be able to withstand anything even if she is only human.

That line about Laoghaire always staying has always stood out in my mind. It's as if Jamie is saying that even if L. was a pain in the ass, at least he didn't have to go searching for her all the time. She stayed out of trouble. Now where is the adventure in that! Something tells me Jamie wouldn't have cared much if L. had ventured off at some point. He might have even welcomed it.

Yes, I was surprised that Mr. W. didn't try to anesthetize Claire before disinfection. (I seem to respond to some things but not all in each of my posts here - my brain is a sieve - Sigh). And, I think her cries upset the crew in part because she is a woman and not too many women end up on ships. I think they are used to men's pain, but find the pain of women more upsetting in general, and maybe a woman they know and trust (she helps them with medical treatment and dealing with the parritch issue earlier) more specifically.