Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone

Jamie and Claire discuss Cunningham’s plan to arrest Jamie that night. Jamie assures Claire that Cunningham does not want to kill him, so whatever happens, he will be okay. However, Jamie has arranged for some of the patriots on the ridge to help him at the meeting, and he has hidden a gun nearby. Jamie also takes Claire’s knife. When he arrives, he watches everyone to try to guess who is on his side and who is on Cunningham’s. When Cunningham arrives, Jamie knows what is coming. Jamie can only hope none of the Cherokees come to support Cunningham.

The meeting goes as usual, but when it is over, Jamie makes a run for it, determined to make his arrest as difficult as possible, as a fight breaks out inside the building. At the same time, Elspeth comes to Claire’s surgery to wait for word, both women anxious to learn the results of the evening. As they wait, Elspeth takes comfort in the fact that she and her son believe he won’t die for another five years. As they wait, a storm arrives.

Jamie suddenly explodes through the door, Cunningham in his arms. Cunningham has been shot in the back, and Jamie appears to be bleeding. Claire sends Jamie into the sitting room, where the girls care for his wound while she removes a bullet from the small of Cunningham’s back. Claire asks if there are more injuries and learns that there was a landslide caused by the rain, but everyone got out without more than a few minor cuts and bruises.

Claire leaves Elspeth with Cunningham and goes to check on Jamie. He has been cut by a sword from his right shoulder to the center of his left chest. Claire wants to put stitches in, but Jamie wants to move upstairs first. Claire goes to check on Cunningham and finds Elspeth reading about spinal cord injuries in the Merck manual. It’s not clear how bad Cunningham’s injury is, but he currently has little to no mobility in his lower extremities. Claire hopes he will improve but has no way of knowing.

Claire snags one of Cunningham’s lieutenants, Oliver Esterhazy, and asks him to help her take Jamie upstairs. On the way, he tells her that the other lieutenant, Gilbert Bembridge, is missing. Jamie tells her that a portion of the mountain fell during the rain just as Cunningham caught up to him and sliced him across the chest with his sword. Jamie says he saw Cunningham get shot but doesn’t know who did it. As Claire begins to stitch Jamie up, he demands she write down a list of names of the men who were conspiring with Cunningham. Jamie insists they must be removed from the ridge to protect the family.

Jamie writes a letter to Cunningham’s supporters, evicting them from Fraser’s Ridge. Oliver comes to the room and asks permission to search for Gilbert, implying that he feels he is now Jamie’s prisoner. Jamie grants him permission but insists Claire accompany him.

Claire and Esterhazy leave, starting their search near the meeting house. They make their way over the path Jamie described when he told Claire about the events of the night before, eventually coming to the landslide. Claire grows suspicious of Oliver’s behavior, especially when they find Gilbert buried in the landslide and Oliver is reluctant to allow Claire to help him. At the same time, Jamie learns that Agnes is pregnant but doesn’t know if Oliver or Gilbert is the child’s father. Jamie, fearing for Claire, sends a couple of men to help her. As Claire tries to extract Gilbert from the rocks and debris of the landslide, Oliver pushes her aside. Claire spots a man in the distance and calls to him, overjoyed to realize that the man, the Sachem, is with Ian and his family.

After Gilbert is freed from the landslide, Ian takes Claire to the wagon where Rachel, Jenny, Silvia, and the children wait. Ian briefly explains who the strangers are and then gives Claire a ride back to the New Big House.

Jamie is overjoyed to see Ian, and the women help Claire keep Jamie still long enough for her to finish putting stitches in his wound. Ian brings news that the loyalist band coming to help Cunningham was stopped by a small patriot militia Jamie contacted. Silvia comes to see Jamie, and he promises to take her under his protection in return for the help she once offered him.

The Sachem takes Claire to a small spring to ask her about a strange fungus he found there. While looking at the item, the Sachem tells Claire that Ian told Joseph Brant that Claire is from the future. The Sachem wants to know about Claire’s experience with Otter-Tooth, or Robert Springer, another time traveler who explained the use of gemstones for protection when going through the standing stones. The Sachem then tells Claire how he once died of a snakebite but came back with the ability to see ghosts. He tells Claire he sometimes sees Frank Randall around her and Jamie. This conversation leads Claire to believe that whatever Frank wrote in his book about Jamie was meant as a warning, not a threat.

William tells Amaranthus what he knows about Benjamin, and she admits to having known his plan. She claims she asked him to fake his death not only to protect Trevor but also to prevent Benjamin from being hanged for treason. Amaranthus also worries what Hal might do to Benjamin based on the shame his treason will cause the family. When John Grey arrives home, Amaranthus insists on telling him the truth despite William’s protests.

Brianna presents her finished portrait to John Cinnamon and William. They are both very impressed, and John Cinnamon immediately rushes out to ask John Grey to help him send the portrait to England. William stays behind, and Brianna shows him the other portraits she has completed, including the one of Jane. He is impressed by her skill.

William tells Brianna about the situation with Amaranthus and Benjamin. She offers some advice, including the possibility that Amaranthus could divorce Benjamin. As they talk, Brianna points out a few characteristics William shares with Jamie and his mother.

Five wives of the men Jamie evicted from Fraser’s Ridge come to the house with their children to beg for Jamie’s mercy. After listening to the arguments, Jamie agrees to allow the men to stay if they swear their loyalty to him. However, he insists on rewriting the tenant agreements in the women’s names rather than their husbands; this way, if the husbands fail to live up to their loyalty oath, Jamie can run them off and allow the women to remain. Later, Elspeth comes and asks to take Agnes with her when she returns to England with her injured son. She says that she will need help with Cunningham but that she knows Agnes is pregnant; Elspeth will see that Agnes marries either Gilbert or Oliver. Jamie and Claire agree as long as Elspeth promises to see to it that Agnes has a basic education.

Hiram comes to ask Jamie that Cyrus be made a part of his militia. Jamie begins his training by giving him the use of Fanny’s horse. They practice calvary maneuvers around trees Jamie felled for this purpose. As they practice, a wagon approaches, and Jamie is thrilled to see that it is Brianna and Roger returning to the ridge.

Claire examines Brianna the next morning while Brianna talks about William. Claire realizes there is a second heartbeat in Brianna’s belly. Claire reads a note Brianna brought Claire from Hal asking for a poison to kill rats. She advises him to use foxglove leaves.

John Cinnamon has received a response to his portrait from his father and will go to visit him in London.

William moves in with John Grey and notices that Amaranthus is not as social as she had been before. John explains that attending parties as a merry widow is far better than socializing now that the truth is out. William speaks with Amaranthus, encouraging her to get a divorce, but she argues that Benjamin’s treason would become public and endanger Benjamin. Charles Town falls to the British, which leads to Hal expressing the hope that Benjamin died in the fighting. Amaranthus overhears this, and she disappears in the night, leaving a note saying she has gone to her father.

Roger and Brianna discuss some of her theories regarding their ability to time travel, focusing on her struggle to figure out why some travelers die when they go through the stones or suffer a physical ailment such as Buck’s heart attack, while others do not. She also wonders if these occurrences have anything to do with the number of times a person travels through the stones.

The following day, Roger finds Brianna in her father’s study, translating the time-traveler handbook she has been writing for the children into pig Latin in order to avoid any unintended readers learning their secrets. She has included the idea that there must be a balance of living souls in each time period and that when the balance is off, it can lead to the deaths of the travelers.

Several officials from the Presbyterian church have come to Fraser’s Ridge to perform Roger’s ordination. The ceremony reminds Jamie of a Catholic ordination he once witnessed. Later, Jamie wonders if he will ever hear a Catholic mass again. Claire assures him that when the Americans win the war, they will write a constitution that guarantees freedom of religion.

William decides to go after Amaranthus, starting in Charles Town where Tarleton is stationed. If that fails, he plans to go to her father’s business in Philadelphia. As William prepares, Hal has an asthma attack and takes to his bed, but William learns that Hal plans to travel to England in a month to speak to the House of Lords. Hal arranges a temporary British military commission for William to protect him on his travels.

William arrives in Charles Town but discovers that Tarleton has been traveling south and was not in Charles Town when Amaranthus would have arrived. William decides to go to Philadelphia, but he runs into Denys Randall escorting a man to a ship. Denys rushes away and leaves William with the strange man, returning just in time to see the man safely away on the ship. Denys tells William this man was Haym Salomon, a man sentenced to hang in New York for spying. Denys makes it clear he was helping Salomon on behalf of the patriots, and William feels as though Denys is threatening him when Ezekiel Richardson joins them. Ezekiel tries to threaten William with the information of his birth, but William refuses to fall for it. Ezekiel tells William he knows Brianna.

Jamie and Claire are enjoying a quiet morning when three British military officers arrive at the house. The man in charge is Ulysses, the former butler at the home of Jamie’s aunt. The man asks if Jamie knows where the aunt is, but Jamie denies knowledge. Ulysses presents Jamie with a letter from the secretary of state of the colonies that tells Jamie he obtained his land illegally and must vacate immediately so that Ulysses can take over the land grant. This is based on the fact that Jamie is Catholic, and Catholics cannot be landowners. Jamie gathers a group of trusted men and goes after Ulysses, wanting to get the letter and the land grant to his land. During a small fight between Jamie’s men and Ulysses’s men, a boar attacks and breaks the leg of Corporal Sipio Jackson. Claire sets Sipio’s leg.

Jamie talks to Sipio, informing him that he wasn’t a prisoner and asking why the British soldiers are in the area. After their conversation, Jamie sends word to Cunningham that Sipio is at his house and he should send Oliver and Gilbert to retrieve him. After Sipio leaves, Jamie tells Claire he wants to go after Ulysses on his own, but she convinces him not to.

William sends Brianna a letter that includes a drawing of Ezekiel in order to warn her of what Ezekiel said about knowing her. Brianna recognizes the man in the drawing as one of Rob Cameron’s men, Michael Callahan. She shows the drawing to Roger. He doesn’t recognize the man, suspecting he’s had plastic surgery.

William finds Amaranthus at her father’s print shop. Amaranthus tells him that she went to Benjamin and found him in bed with another woman whom he claimed to be married to. William asks Amaranthus to marry him and return to Savannah.

William tells Amaranthus that he plans to renounce his titles. He also tells her about his biological father, Jamie Fraser. Two weeks later, William and Amaranthus return to Savannah to learn that Hal has left for Charles Town and John Grey is missing.

Several days before, John Grey received a letter asking him to go to the docks and pay for passage for a friend named Thomas Byrd. John suspected it was a trap, so he was cautious in approaching the ship. However, he was kidnapped while surveying the ships. John finds himself on a ship with Ezekiel. He claims to have proof that John is a gay man. Part of this proof, John learns, is a confession by Percy.

William and Amaranthus discover the brandy in John Grey’s study has been spiked with foxglove. William goes to Charles Town to find Hal but learns he is no longer there. William runs into Denys, who tells him that Hal has gone north. William presumes he’s going to see Benjamin. When William returns to Savannah, he is greeted with a letter from Ezekiel claiming he has arrested John and wants to speak to Hal.

Ezekiel tells John Grey that he is a time traveler like Claire and that he wants to stop the American victory of the Revolutionary War. To do this, he has identified several moments that lead to this victory, and one is Hal’s speech to the House of Lords. Ezekiel claims that Britain is on the verge of outlawing enslavement and that if America loses the war, that law will end enslavement in America as well.

Claire wakes in the middle of the night to find Jamie after a bad dream. He describes it to her as the Battle of Culloden but different from past dreams. In this one, he could see his old friends clearly.

Brianna gives birth to a baby boy that they name David. Afterward, they pass the baby around the room. Fanny claims she never wants to get married.

Jamie receives a letter from Francis asking that he move his militia down south to help Francis’s regiment fight British soldiers in that area. Jamie briefly considers the idea because it will take him away from Kings Mountain but decides against it.

Jamie receives word that Ferguson’s loyalist militia is moving closer to Fraser’s Ridge. Jamie writes out a new will, leaving all his possessions to Claire with the exception of a few small sums he leaves to each of his children and grandchildren, as well as Ian and Jenny.

Jamie’s militia has joined the Overmountain men’s militia, and they are in pursuit of Ferguson’s militia. Claire is traveling with them. The combined militias are unorganized and unsure of what to do, but they eventually choose a single leader, William Campbell. One night, Jamie tells Claire that Mandy has a way of seeing who can travel and who can’t. She told Jamie that David can’t. Jamie asks Claire to travel back into the future if he dies but to leave David with Ian and Rachel. He also asks for a Catholic mass for his soul and that she remember him.

The militia has captured a group of loyalists, and some are arguing that they should hang them. Jamie arrives and realizes one of the men is a tenant from Fraser’s Ridge that he evicted. As the men are arguing, Jamie frees his former tenant and sends him away.

The militia catches up with Ferguson. As they prepare to go into battle, Jamie tells Roger to keep Claire away. However, Roger knows about the book and plans to go stand with Jamie, but he is told to stay back. As Jamie begins to march his men up the mountain, he asks Roger to pray for him.

As Jamie fights the battle, Claire makes her way up the mountain to him. Several men tell her to leave. At the same time, Jamie is bitten by a snake that distracts him. He is shot in the chest.

Claire watches the battle until she senses a change. She goes forward, searching for Jamie, and sees a young man with Jamie’s gun. She demands to know where Jamie is, but the boy tells her Jamie is dead. Jamie isn’t dead when Claire finds him, but he is losing a lot of blood. Jamie falls unconscious, but Claire sets about to evaluate his wounds, finding four. The chest wound is the worst. Ian finds her and tries to pull her away, insisting Jamie is dead, but she won’t let him. Claire works to stop the bleeding and then lays her head on Jamie’s chest to listen for his heartbeat. She stays for a long time, refusing to leave, aware of the coldness of his body, but then the musket ball falls out of Jamie’s chest. Claire begs Jamie to live.

Claire sits with Jamie for nearly two days. Roger and Ian are with her when Jamie finally wakes. He is alive. They take him to a nearby farmhouse.

Claire operates on Jamie’s shattered knee cap. Afterward, she sits with Jenny in the kitchen, and Jenny tells Claire that the Sachem is going back to New York and he wants Jenny to go with him. Jenny doesn’t want to leave her family, but the Sachem promised to come back after the war is over.

Claire is worried about Jamie because he seems to be healing slowly and showing signs of depression. While Claire and Jamie are checking on the bees, John Quincy comes with a letter for Claire. She opens it to discover it is from Sipio. There is a note that has been written on the land grant for Fraser’s Ridge to Ulysses.

Percy comes to visit John Grey and tell him he’s sorry and that he loves him. Percy tells John that he is free to come and go from the ship, so John asks him to go to William and tell him he loves him.

Percy arrives at John Grey’s home and tells William that John has been kidnapped by Ezekiel and is on a ship that is constantly moving. Amaranthus and William step out to discuss the situation. When they return, they find that Percy has drunk the poisoned brandy.

Germain arrives at Fraser’s Ridge with his sisters. Fergus has sent a letter explaining that something happened at their Wilmington home. Fergus wanted to send Marsali and the twins as well, but Marsali refused to leave. Later, Fanny tells Germain’s story, explaining that two men broke into the print shop and tried to kill Fergus. Instead, Fergus killed them and hid their bodies behind the print shop.

Jamie comes to Claire to help negotiate a proposal. Silvia and Bobby have gathered with their children to discuss the possibility of getting married. The children convince them that they could help each other. Silvia agrees to marry Bobby.

The wedding takes place at the meeting house. There is no Quaker minister, so the children take up the role of minister. Afterward, everyone gathers at the New Big House to celebrate. Claire witnesses Silvia’s daughters assuring Fanny that she is considered one of their sisters and questioning Cyrus’s attention to Silvia. Jamie makes Claire sit down to eat. As she does, a rider approaches. It turns out to be William asking Jamie for help.