Written in My Own Heart's Blood

Ian, Rachel, Denny, and Dottie meet on the steps of the Philadelphia Quaker meeting house. Ian will be joining the Rebel army as a scout and Denny as an army surgeon, aided by Dottie and Rachel. Before they leave, Denny leaves his written testimony for the Quakers Yearly Meeting which explains why he feels called upon to practice medicine in the army (Quakers are pacifists).

Jamie asks if Claire knows anything about the upcoming battle from the future. She doesn’t but worries about making a mistake anyway. Stopping Jamie in the past from killing Jack Randall had no consequences in the future, and Jack Randall’s death could have saved Claire’s first child, Faith. She then realizes that her first husband’s ancestor Denys Randall may be alive in this timeline.

William becomes General Henry Clinton’s aide-de-camp and is charged with delivering dispatches through the train of citizens and troops fleeing Philadelphia. When he finds his friends the Endicotts stranded on the side of the road with a broken wagon wheel, he leaves to find a cooper (someone who repairs casks and barrels). He encounters his former compatriot Denys Randall, who tells him that John’s commission has been reactivated and warns William to have nothing to do with Captain Richardson.

John, disguised as Bert Armstrong, is marching with Reverend Wordsworth to join General Washington’s troops. Afflicted with a severe headache and double vision from his injured eye, John recognizes Germain when the boy asks him for some food he is too sick to eat. Knowing that the disclosure of his identity will result in his hanging, he convinces Germain to keep his identity secret. In return, John takes Germain under his wing, keeping the boy safe until he can return him to Jamie.

Claire has dreams of trying to obtain syringes to administer morphine to WW2 soldiers. In the dream, she is helpless to aid the soldiers, crushing the syringe glass and dropping the opiate granules. When she awakes, she prays that Jamie will have a chance to talk to William despite the upcoming battle.

William takes a quick swim while crossing a creek and is surprised by Jane and her younger sister, Fanny. The two girls ran away from Philadelphia to join the camp followers because Captain Harkness returned to the brothel for revenge. Jane asks for William’s protection until they reach New York. William promises her his help and tells her to meet him at sundown the next day.

Jamie learns he is to serve under General Lee, a man he does not respect because of Lee’s slovenly manners and jealousy of General Washington. Ian and his dog Rollo meet up with Jamie and Claire, arriving at the Ferry to rendezvous with General Washington and other senior officers. Claire stumbles into the Marquis de Lafayette while searching for the kitchens. He invites her to the officer’s dining tent. Jamie, Ian, and Rollo shortly join her, and they dine on a sumptuous feast provided in part by Lafayette. When they leave, Ian calls General Lee a “Sassenach,” a derogatory term for an Englishman.

Quartered with a local family, Claire cannot sleep and leaves to assist at the infirmary. There she finds Denny and Dottie helping a large drunk pregnant woman, Mrs. Peabody. Denny leaves to find a birthing stool, while Claire instructs Dottie on sexual intercourse, per Dottie’s request. They are discovered by Ian and Rachel. Claire sends Ian to find Denny and continues her instruction to both Rachel and Dottie while they finish a jug of beer. Ian returns with Denny, Jamie, and Mr. Peabody, and everyone except Jamie and Claire help Mr. Peabody haul his wife home. Jamie and Claire take advantage of the empty infirmary tent to make love.

Colenso, William’s groom, is in the infirmary with a fever and the replacement groom, Zeb, is afraid of William’s horse, having already been bitten once. William tells Zeb that if he makes sure all of the belongings are put on the baggage wagon and finds something for William to eat, then he will get a groom from Lord Sutherland to take care of Goth. Riding to Sutherland’s troops, he runs into Captain Richardson, but William abruptly cuts him off before he can ask William to help him.

Jamie instructs Ian to both report as a scout to Colonel Wilbur and find horses for him and Jamie. Ian finds Rachel at the well and tells her he will try not to kill anyone while serving as a scout, though Rachel assures him that he must follow his own path. He walks Rachel to Denny’s wagon, and Denny invites him to a Friend’s Meeting later, hosted in Jamie’s tent. Afterwards, Jamie joins Ian and they discuss the privilege of the Quaker’s pacificism, which cannot happen unless others undertake to protect them.

William reaches Clinton’s camp and finds no sign of his grooms or baggage. He hurries to meet Jane just before sundown. She scolds him for not taking care of his servants and brings him to her lean-to shed in the woods, where Colenso suffers from stomach cramps and Zeb still hasn’t seen the surgeon for the bite on his arm. After taking Zeb to get his arm fixed, William tells Jane he will give her money when they reach New York if she and Fanny will take care of Colenso and Zeb and do William’s laundry as well, but Jane must not prostitute herself while in camp.

John and Germain arrive at General Washington’s camp. John is surprised to spot Perseverance Wainwright, his stepbrother and ex-lover, and to learn that Jamie is now a general.

Jamie accompanies the Quartermaster, Nathaniel Greene, on reconnaissance, wishing to question the ex-Quaker about marriage on Ian’s behalf. Nathaniel warns him that it will be difficult, given that Rachel left her meeting after her brother Denny was put out. They come across Ian and Rollo is laying bleeding across his saddle. Jamie agrees to bring Rollo, who has caught his leg in a trap, to Claire. In return, Ian tells the two men that the British Army is just ahead.

Jamie asks Claire to accompany a review of his troops so she can weed out those who are too sick or injured to fight. Claire returns to their tent to discover Captain Jared Leckie, an army physician, rummaging through her medical box. He refuses to believe she is a physician, and when he misdiagnoses a child, she tells Leckie that he is wrong and treats the child correctly. Offended, Leckie leaves the tent empty handed.

During Jamie’s troop review, Claire discovers John and Germain among the troops. John immediately surrenders to Jamie personally. Claire is examining John’s eye in their tent when Percy Wainwright enters. Germain identifies Percy as the man who was searching for Fergus, Germain’s father, earlier in the year. Percy demands that John accompany him to meet the Marquis de Lafayette, but Jamie enters on his heels and announces that John is a prisoner of war and must stay. After Percy leaves, Claire performs a grisly operation and successfully pops John’s eye muscle free.

News of John’s capture will soon place him in danger in the camp. Claire asks him if he would consider escaping, but he has given his parole. Meanwhile, Germain has found the man who stole Clarence the mule from him. Claire leaves Rollo to guard John so she and Germain can rescue Clarence.

The teamster (driver of an animal team) who stole Clarence is large and violent, nursing a bite from the mule. Claire slowly stitches the bite, while Germain, with the help of Percy Beauchamp, finds and rescues Clarence. However, when they return with the mule, the teamster attacks Percy, Germain and even Clarence, biting the mule’s lip. The ensuing melee is quashed by the arrival of Fergus, who fires a gun at the foot of the teamster. Fergus publicly gives the mule to General Fraser in service to the American army.

Claire coats John’s eye with honey, then sends Fergus and Germain out to find food for the patient. As she binds John’s eye, they discuss whether Percy’s claim that Fergus is the lost heir to a great fortune is true. John tells her it is doubtful, and that she and Fergus should be careful of any dealings with Percy.

Jamie worries about taking charge of 300 men and keeping them safe in battle but assures General Lee that he has a competent army surgeon. Reverend Wordsworth is concerned that John may not be safe from the Rebels once word of his presence sweeps through camp. He urges Jamie to not be hasty in his judgment, as John is a good man. When Jamie admits that Germain is his grandson, he also implicitly admits that he also knows John personally, a problem if John becomes known as a spy. In addition to the 300 lives already in Jamie’s hands, he must now add John.

Jamie and Claire make a bed by the riverbank the night before battle. After making love, Claire falls asleep, but Jamie stays awake so he won’t dream of past battles.

Ian prepares himself by applying his warpaint. He feels the presence of his deceased father and tells this spirit that he does not intend to die. He is joined by Jamie, who has been washing in the river and speaking to his own dead. Jamie helps Ian put on his traditional warpaint and adds a white dove on Ian’s right shoulder to symbolize Rachel.

Though not allowed to fight, the proximity of the upcoming battle keeps William awake. Jane enters his tent, but William throws her out (he is sharing a tent with two other sleeping officers). He tells her that he is not fighting tomorrow and reminds her that she is no longer a sex worker. Unable to resist, he kisses her until he is on the point of losing his self-control, then pushes her away, telling her that when they reach New York, he will rethink the nature of their relationship.