A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Jamie, Claire, and Ian leave immediately. Jamie and Claire discuss Christie’s confession, neither one believing that he actually murdered Malva; both wonder who did. They start to make love, but Claire stops Jamie, feeling like Frank, Christie, and Malva are all there, trying to get in. She deeply grieves the people who’ve loved her and whom she couldn’t save. Jamie holds her and urges her to let the ghosts come so she can grieve for them.

At River Run, a scared Jem tells Brianna his friend saw of the ghost of Hector Cameron walking through the graveyard. She soothes Jem, telling him to cross himself and say a prayer to his angels when he gets scared. Brianna worries that he’ll cross himself in the Catholic way in front of someone he shouldn’t in Roger’s Protestant flock, and she frets about the possibility of having to convert. She tells Jem to run off and then promptly vomits in a wash bin, thinking perhaps she’s pregnant.

Brianna hears Duncan speaking animatedly with another man in the next room; deep in Loyalist country, many think the violence up north will simply blow over. Duncan bursts in, asking if she’s seen anyone near Cameron’s grave.