How It All Goes Down
Colum's Hall
- When Part 2 (Castle Leoch) begins, Claire is lucky enough to sit with Colum at dinner, along with his son, Hamish, and his brother, Dougal, and Dougal's family.
- At dinner, she wonders aloud if Jamie is okay. When she finds out that he was sent to the stables to work, she worries that he'll injure himself again.
- She doesn't have time to follow up, though, and after dinner, she stumbles through the dark castle to her room and returns to sleep.
- The next morning, Mrs. FitzGibbons wakes Claire again. This time, she has makeup to prepare her for "Hall," which seems to require a bit more fancy dress.
- It turns out Hall is a court proceeding for Colum to hear people's complaints and dispense justice. He's basically the Judge Judy of Castle Leoch.
- They listen to Claire, too, deciding that she may be an English spy but they'll still tolerate her for a bit.
- Next is the case of a girl accused of "loose behavior" (6.55). She's ordered to be whipped… but Jamie steps in and takes her punishment instead.
- He chooses to take fists instead of a belt, and is punched until the man jabs him in the face and almost breaks his nose.
- Claire tends to him, of course (who else will?), and he admits that he doesn't know the girl, named Laoghaire; he just didn't want to see her shamed in front of the whole castle.
- Mrs. FitzGibbons assists, and she has a helpful piece of advice: leeches. The leeches bring down the swelling on Jamie's face.
- The next day, Claire checks on Jamie at the stables.
- He shares a story about how he once ate grass because he was living on the run in the woods and had no other food. Then he has to go back to work.
- Claire leaves, and realizes that she listened to his story, but forgot to ask him about his shoulder.