"Previously..." "Someone tried to poison me." "For you, Madonna." "It will change color in the presence of poison." "If St. Germain is behind this, you need to connect him to the gang," "Les Disciples." " There's nothing in here." " Look again, Madonna." " How did you do that?" " A little sleight of hand." "Apostle spoons." "Christening gift for the bairn." "Monsieur Forez confided to me that he's preparing for multiple executions." "You're in danger, Master Raymond." "You can't kill Randall." "It would be as if you're killing Frank too." "A year, not one day more." "Milord got into a fight with an English officer." "He promised." "Jamie!" "Claire!" "_" "Look, Mama." "What a pretty bird." "Let me see." "That is a pretty bird, isn't it?" "What kind of bird is this?" "That is a heron." "Have you ever seen one in real life?" "Yes, I have." " Where?" " In Scotland." "When were you in Scotland, Mama?" "A long time ago." "Claire?" "Be still, my child." "My baby." "I am here." "We will take care of you." "Jamie." "Monsieur Forez is working." "My baby..." "You must stay quiet." "You must." "I am here." "Where's my baby?" "Wh... where is my baby?" "Chère Madame, do not trouble yourself." "You must save your strength." "Where's my baby?" "I don't want any water." "I..." "I want my baby." "I am sorry, Madame." "She has joined the angels." "She was... _" "No." "No." "It's not possible." "_" "_" "I want my baby." "My... bring me my baby." "Bring me my baby." "Bring me my baby!" "I want my baby!" "Baby!" "Shh." "Shh." "Where is she now?" "I baptized her." "And gave her a name." "Faith." "You must understand, it is illegal unless the child is living." "But I wanted her to be buried in hallowed ground." "This, ma chère, will stay between you, me, and God." "Mère Hildegarde... _" "_" "This is Father Laurentin." "It is customary to perform an unction of the sick, my child." "It has been several days now." "Your fever is very high." "It is wise to prepare the soul." "I need my husband." "I'm sorry, ma chère, there has been no word." "_" "_" "My sins are all I have left." " Amen." " Amen." "Bouton... _" "_" "Be still now." " Jamie..." " Shh, shh, shh." "Hush, Madonna." "If they find me here, I'm finished." "Master Raymond." "Tell me what you see, Madonna." "Oh, wings." "Blue wings." "Mm, blue with the color of healing." "The wings will carry your pain away, if you let them." "A white hotness burned deep in my bones." "I knew what it was." "Puerperal fever." "The baby had come, but part of the placenta had not." "It festered inside my womb, but as Raymond's hands moved over the meridians of my body," "I could feel the tiny deaths of the bacteria that inhabited my blood, small explosions as each scintilla of infection disappeared." "The fever drained from my bones, and my tortured body relaxed gratefully into the frame of his hands, melting and reforming like molded wax." "Call him." "Call to him." "Jamie!" "I don't know what he did or how he did it..." "But he healed me." "Once more, he saved my life." "Madame?" "_" "_" "_" "_" "I must go now." "Be well, Madonna." "I am no Madonna." "I have no child." "I didn't call you Madonna because you were with child, my dear." "Everyone has a color about them, all around them like a cloud." "Yours is blue." "Like the Virgin's cloak." "Like my own." "You shouldn't have come." "It's too dangerous." "You were right about the king." "He wants blood now." "_" "But these are things you do for your friends." "Will I ever see you again?" "As I told you before, we will see each other again." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Mère, has there been any word from Monsieur Fraser?" "He is unable to come, Madame." "He was arrested for dueling with the English captain, and is being detained in the Bastille Saint-Antoine." "For how long?" "Dueling is a serious offense." "I'm afraid your husband will remain in prison at the king's pleasure." "If your husband had killed his opponent, the penalty would have been much worse." "He's not dead?" "The English captain?" "He is badly wounded, and the British ambassador begged for him to be allowed to recover from his injuries in England." "So Jack Randall was still alive." "The cat with nine lives." "And thus, so was Frank." "But at what cost?" "That is fortunate, no?" "Yes." "Fortunate." "But my husband betrayed me, Mother." "Revenge mattered more to him than me... or his child." "How so?" "One year of grace is all I asked, to which he agreed." "One year." "He may as well have run his sword through me." "God says we must revel in mercy." "Tread sins underfoot and hurl iniquities into the sea." "I'm not sure there's a sea deep enough." "I laid in that bed for weeks." "My body had healed." "My soul had not." "One day Fergus came." "He brought flowers and asked me to come home." "I'd lost my husband and my child." "Where else could I go?" "Welcome home..." "Milady." "Thank you, Magnus." "Thank you, Fergus." "That was nice." "What is it?" "N... nothing, Milady." "No!" "What is he doing?" "Stop!" "Fergus?" "Wake up." "It's just a bad dream." "Do you want to tell me about it?" "No." "No, Milady." "Might make you feel better." "It's... it... it's not just a dream." "What is it?" "The... the Englishman, Milady." "What Englishman?" "Fergus, tell me." "I-I went with Milord to..." "to Maison Elise." "Prince Charles owed money." "He told me to wait." "Milord told me to stay put, but I have a talent for stealing and I couldn't resist." "O... one of the rooms was open... and I saw a bottle of perfume there." "I-I-I wanted to bring it to Milady as a gift." "It smelled so nice." "I put it in my pocket." "I kept the bottle, but... but I was too afraid to give it to you after what happened." "It's lavender, Milady." "When I turned around, he was there." "The Englishman." "You're not what I ordered." "But, um... no, you'll do." "Jesus Christ." "I-I tried to get away, I swear I did." "I told him Milord was there, but he... he wouldn't listen." "He said that h-h-h-he wanted me to..." "I can't say it in front of a lady." "Stop!" "Stop!" "Why... why didn't you tell me this sooner?" "I-I wanted to, but... but I was ashamed." "It's all right, Fergus." "No!" "No, it's not." "It's all my fault." "I should have kept quiet." "I didn't cry or scream at first, but..." "I couldn't help it." "Stop!" "Stop!" "Stop!" "Milord!" "Milord heard it and... and he came running." "Milord!" "I hid under the dressing table." "Get off!" "Then the fight was broken up." "A-as soon as Milord was taken away," "I heard him challenge the Englishman to a duel." "You sick bastard!" "A duel!" "I demand a duel!" "No!" "And then he was taken away." "It's not your fault, Fergus." "I-I didn't know." "I didn't know he would go to fight the Englishman." "I didn't know." "A... and now Milord is gone." "He will never come back." "Come here." "Oh, it's all right." "A private audience with the king?" "You have mentioned you are the goddaughter of the Old Sun King." "Surely you have an entrée or know someone who does." "It is possible." "I wish to petition for my husband's release from the Bastille." "So, ma chère, you have found a deep enough sea." "I learned the reason he broke his promise." "I was angry at him." "Still am." "But he is the father of my child." "His Majesty is a mercurial man." "There is a price to such requests." "Which is?" "The king may expect to lie with you." "If it comes to sacrificing my virtue, Mother," "I'll add it to the list of things" "I have already lost in Paris." "Madame Claire Fraser, Lady Broch Tuarach." "_" "_" "No." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Mmm." "Now, tell me what it is that I may do for you." "My husband is in the Bastille." "For dueling." "Your husband has broken a royal decree." "I understand that." "But he was provoked." "As you know, he is a Scot." "They are most fierce where questions of their honor are concerned." "Quite so." "Quite so, Madame." " However..." " I would be most grateful..." "Your Majesty." "Is this his ring?" "Yes, Sire." "And this other one?" "I was married once before." "And yet you still wear his ring." "Your loyalty is most... noteworthy." "I am inclined towards mercy, ma chère Madame, but..." "He was called Louis the Well-Beloved." "His rule was absolute." "He could free Jamie with a word or kill him." "He could do with me as he liked." "I waited to see what His Majesty's pleasure might be." "Tell me, if I was to grant your request to free your husband... would you be inclined to grant me a small favor in return?" "I am at Your Majesty's complete disposal." "Ah." "Très bien." "Très bien, ma chère." "Come." "So pale." "So fine." "I can see why they call you La Dame Blanche." "The king asks that you give us the benefit of your skills." "When I saw Monsieur Forez, the king's executioner," "I knew his presence could mean only one thing:" "there would be death here today." "I'm not sure what you mean, Sire." "_" "_" "Maître Raymond et Comte St. Germain," "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "We have no quarrel with the proper search for wisdom." "But while much good may be found, so, too, may evil be discovered." "And the search for wisdom be perverted into the desire for power and wealth for one's own depraved and immoral purpose." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ." "I beseech you to use your talents, look into their souls and if there is darkness within, they will be handed over to M'sieur Forez and put to death." "It will be an honor to assist Your Majesty in this task." "Very well." "Let us commence." "I see a shadow... behind your eyes, Comte." "I see an image." "A gang of men in the street... dressed as aristocrats, but wearing masks." "There is a name in your mind, Monsieur..." ""Les Disciples."" "What do you know of "Les Disciples," Monsieur?" "I know nothing of these "Disciples" of which you speak." " You are lying, sir." " I am not lying." "I am not lying!" "I am not lying, Sire!" "This woman is a liar and a witch." "This woman has also been known to drink poison and survive." "And how do you come to this knowledge?" "Because I gave her the poison myself." "She tried to ruin my livelihood." "She had my ship destroyed with her false condemnations." "She is a witch." "And she doesn't deny it." "No." "I don't deny it." "La Dame Blanche is a white witch, and I practice... white magic, Sire." "Madame Fraser is not on trial here." "Even knowing St. Germain tried to poison me," "I found it hard to condemn him cold-bloodedly to death." "I see darkness in his soul." "Also in his." "But only the normal darkness that lives in the souls of... all men." "Even a king's." "For without darkness... there can be no light." "Nevertheless, if I am to cleanse this city," "I must make an example." "Perhaps we can aid your decision." "_" "The Bible claims that a true believer can handle serpents and they will not harm him, for they are the servants of God." "Perhaps, Your Majesty," "I may suggest another test." "It is true I drank the Comte's poison and it did not kill me." "Let him drink mine and see what happens." "Let them both drink it." "With your permission?" "Very well." "I decided to take a page out of Master Raymond's book, so to speak." "I looked through the evidence, the remnants from his shop and found the herb I was looking for." "Bitter cascara." "I knew the cascara would make both men ill, but wouldn't kill them." "And perhaps Louis, having had his show, would be appeased and set them free." "This potion will give you your answers, Sire." "We may have a death... or two." "But I ask one thing:" "if both these men survive, you will set them free." "We shall see if it pleases the king." "I never saw Raymond add anything to it, no one had." "It was another amazing feat, a sleight of hand like the one he'd shown me in his shop." "Give him the cup." "Hand it to him." "All I knew was that this time, inside the cup, was death." "St. Germain knew it too." "Oh, well..." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "_" "Perhaps it was the shock of what I'd been through, but as Master Raymond was led away, what ran through my brain was a line from a film." "You know the one:" ""I'm going to miss you most of all."" "Your Majesty will honor my request?" "First, there's still a matter of the payment." "I closed my eyes and thought of England." "I will issue a pardon for your husband and arrange one with the English crown should you wish to return to Scotland." "I don't even know if it was a boy... or a girl." "Claire?" "Will ye make me beg?" "It was a girl." "Mother Hildegarde baptized her." "Gave her a name." "Faith." "Mother Hildegarde has a very odd sense of humor." "She's buried in the cemetery, next to the convent." "I did try to keep my promise." "Fergus told me what happened." "Then ye see how I couldna let Randall go unpunished for what he did to the wee lad?" "Do ye hate me for it, Claire?" "I did hate you." "Mother Hildegarde let me see her, so I wouldn't have to imagine." "She was beautiful." "So small." "I could cup her head in the palm of my hand." "The ears stuck out just a little." "You could see the light through them." "And the light through her skin as well." "Like the light on a pearl that's still wet from the sea." "Her eyes were closed." "No lashes yet." "They were slanted a bit, like yours." "She had wisps of the most... beautiful copper hair." "How long has it been?" "Since this morning." "_" "Ma chère Claire." "She's beautiful, isn't she?" "Oui." "Ten fingers." "And ten toes." "She's an angel." "May I hold her?" "_" "So yes..." "I hated you." "Aye." "But... it was me... who asked the impossible of you." "It was me that put Frank before our family." "It was me... who followed you to the woods." "Frank is your family too." "But he's not here." "And now, neither is our daughter." "It's not your fault." "It's not even Randall's fault, not this time." "It's my fault." "I asked your forgiveness once." "You said there's nothing to forgive." "Truth is..." "I already forgave you, long before today." "For this and anything else you could ever do." "There is something else." "I slept with the king." "To buy your freedom." "You did it to save my life." "Just like I gave myself to Randall to save you." "How can we ever be the same?" "No, we can't be." "The weight of what has happened here is... too much for any one of us to bear alone." "The only way we can live with it is to carry it... together." "Are you sure you want to do that?" "We lost our child." "But by the grace of God, we may be given another." "Then bring me home." "To Scotland." "Aye." "Scotland." "But there's something I'd like to do first." "_" "St. Andrew." "If we must bury you here in France, let's leave a bit of Scotland wi' ye."