Written in My Own Heart's Blood

After finding Henri-Christian, Claire walks to the docks but feels a malignant presence. She spies Jamie and Fergus, who take her into a coffeehouse to rest. Germain arrives, alerting Fergus that Mr. Sorrell is harassing Marsali at home. Fergus is also worried about Percy Wainwright, who has threatened that if he doesn’t accept the estates that Percy claims are his, then it will fall to a more amenable Germain if Fergus dies. When Claire tells Jamie about the threatening note, Jamie asks for a copy to compare it to Percy’s handwriting.

Ian decides to accompany Dottie to New York to be with Hal. Her brother, Adam Grey, wrote Henry Grey that Ben was buried, and Dottie feels her place is at her father’s side. Rachel will stay with Denny in the army camp until Ian returns. During supper, Claire notices signs that Marsali is pregnant again.

When they retire to bed, Claire discovers that Jamie has sold his sword to raise money to travel to South Carolina. Fergus can sell the printing press in Philadelphia, replacing it with Jamie’s old printing press from Scotland. Until Jamie can reclaim the gold and whiskey he hid in a cave, they will need to sell everything to buy passage on a ship. Although Fergus’s family will not settle at the Ridge, they will open a new print shop in the south, closer to Jamie and Claire.

In New York, John plans to travel to New Jersey to find Ben’s alleged widow, Amaranthus, and her son. He will travel in uniform, carrying paperwork to identify his mission as personal. He wakes the next morning when Dottie arrives, and she insists on accompanying him. Hal tells Dottie his suspicions about Captain Richardson, which she believes is a flimsy reason to disbelieve the reports of Ben’s death.

In Philadelphia, Claire wakes to find Jamie in the throes of a nightmare. She soothes him tentatively, knowing that he will react violently if she wakes him suddenly. He rouses enough to escape the dream and falls back to sleep.

In a boarding house across the city, Rachel also wakes while Ian has a nightmare. She tries to rouse him, but he throttles her while still asleep. Kneeing his crotch, she wakes him fully, and he tells her he was dreaming of killing the Abenaki. As he falls back asleep, she feels a quickening in her womb and knows she is pregnant. The next morning, they discover Rollo has died in his sleep.

In New Jersey, William kills a buck on his way to Watchung Mountain, where Middlebrook Encampment is located and where Ben was buried. William hopes the venison will ensure his welcome among the people who knew Ben there.

In Philadelphia, Benedict Arnold visits the print shop, searching for Claire. His Loyalist friend Shippen needs a physician to attend his badly injured nephew. The nephew, Tench Bledsoe, was assaulted by the Sons of Liberty, tarred, and left to die in the river. Jamie demands to go with Claire and when they arrive, they are met by Shippen’s daughter Peggy. Tench has two compound fractures in his leg from jumping off the dock into the riverbed, and the leg must be amputated. Arnold, who is in love with Peggy, wants Tench out of the house as it is too dangerous for Peggy to harbor a British sympathizer. However, Tench goes into shock before they can move him, and Claire amputates the leg then faints.

Tench survives surgery and is brought to the Chestnut Street house to recover. Claire, accosted by a gang of teenage boys on the street, is helped by a carter who gives Claire a ride home. Terrified by the experience and experiencing flashbacks to her rape, she retires to the garden in the back of the house, where Jamie comforts her.

William locates an officer who is willing to take him to Ben’s grave. After visiting the site, he starts to leave town, but beset by a feeling that Ben isn’t dead. Cursing, he returns to the grave to exhume Ben’s corpse. When he reaches the bottom of the shallow grave, he finds the corpse of a common thief, not Ben.

Claire is roused by smoke and the sound of flames and wakes Jamie, and they both stir the rest of the household to flee. Fergus runs back into the burning building, realizing that Germain and Henri-Christian are missing, but Claire must drag him outside when he is overcome by smoke. Meanwhile, Germain and Henri-Christian appear in the loading door leading into the loft, attempting to escape the fire. Jamie urges the boys to jump while Fergus yells to Germain to throw his brother down. Instead, Germain attempts to shinny down a rope with Henri on his back, but his brother loses his grip and falls to his death.

Germain blames himself for Henri’s death, while a grieving Marsali holds Henri’s body all night. Reverend Figg opens his church for the wake. Claire remembers the note that threatened Marsali with fire and loss of her children, and wonders if Percy could have sent it. However, Percy sends money for Marsali and Fergus in a note to Claire, asking to remain anonymous. When George Sorrel enters the wake, drunk and antagonistic, Fergus accosts him, but Rachel breaks up the two men, reminding them that their conflict will further distress Marsali.

The Fraser family carry Henri’s coffin to the same spot in the woods where Ian earlier erected cairns for Jamie, Janet, and Rollo.