Dragonfly in Amber

Claire decides to stop working at the hospital and put herself on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy. Claire and Jamie learn a few days later that there has been an outbreak of smallpox in Portugal. They decide to use this information to sabotage Charles’s shipment of wine. Claire gives Murtagh some plants that can mimic the symptoms of smallpox and Jamie instructs him to board Charles’s ship in Portugal. Jamie will board as well and be a witness when Murtagh becomes ill. Jamie will then offer to buy the wine to save the ship from being destroyed and sell it in Spain. This will ruin Charles’s reputation and make it difficult for him to continue in this business.

Jamie and Claire receive a visit from Monsieur Forez, whom Claire has recently learned is a professional hangman. Monsieur Forez describes what it is like to hang, draw, and quarter a traitor properly. Jamie and Claire guess that Mother Hildegarde sent him with the intention of reminding them what might happen should they be caught in their scheme to stop the Stuarts. Jamie admits that he’s already thought about it quite often but is determined to protect his people.

A short time later, Claire receives a visit from Charles Stuart. He tells her that he came to ask Jamie if he would sell a supply of wine that he is in the process of buying from Portugal. Claire is surprised that Charles would ask Jamie such a thing since his business partner is the Comte St. Germain, Jamie’s number one rival. The following morning, Jamie receives a message from his warehouse foreman. The man has gotten into trouble at a brothel and needs Jamie to come bail him out. Later in the afternoon, Claire is told she has visitors. She goes downstairs and overhears Louise and Marie d’Arbanville talk about Jamie getting into a fight with Jack Randall at a brothel. When Claire returns to her room, she finds a note from Jamie that is only an apology. It says that Jamie intends to duel Jack.

Claire spends a sleepless night alone. In the morning, she goes to the Bois de Boulogne where Jamie had his first duel. She is sick and has back pain but manages to walk to the clearing where she finds Jamie and Jack. She watches the sword fight as a terrible pain begins in her belly and she starts to bleed. She cries out, aware that she is likely suffering a placental eruption. She believes she’s going to die.

Claire wakes off and on in the hospital. She is vaguely aware that she has lost the baby and is suffering an infection. Mother Hildegarde nurses her personally and leaves her dog, Bouton, at her bedside. Claire wakes another time to find Master Raymond at her side. He is dragged away by Mother Hildegarde and Sister Celeste. Master Raymond comes again and touches her. Claire is unsure what he is doing, but as he does it, she feels the fever leave her body. Sister Celeste comes to check on Claire and is shocked to find that she is recovering.

Louise comes and takes Claire to her summer house in Fontainebleau. On the ride, they see three bodies hanging in the trees. Louise explains that one, a woman, was hung for being a witch. The other two are Protestant heretics. Fergus has accompanied Claire, but he is depressed because Jamie is not around. Claire tells him he needs a bath, but Fergus runs away. Claire goes after him, but instead of finding Fergus, she discovers a Protestant preacher hiding in an old shed. He asks Claire if she is La Dame Blanche and she admits that she is, but she means him no harm. He asks if she knows Master Raymond and she admits she does. He says he knows him as well, that he knew him in Geneva when he was a respected doctor and healer. He tells Claire that Master Raymond left Geneva about the same time a French man, du Carrefours, came under suspicion of being a witch and was subsequently burned at the Bastille. He believes Master Raymond took over du Carrefours’s business.

Claire receives a visit from Magnus, who gives her a letter from Murtagh that gives the time of departure for Charles’s ship in Portugal. She knows that Jamie should have seen the letter and left for Portugal already, therefore she is upset when she learns he has been in the Bastille since the dual. Claire goes to Mother Hildegarde to find out how to get him out, learning that her only choice is to make a deal with King Louis that will likely require her to sleep with him.

Claire meets with King Louis in his private chambers. When she tells him what she wants, he explains that Jamie will have to leave France if he is freed. Claire agrees. The king takes Claire into another chamber where a group of men in hoods sit at a table where two men are facing a trial. The two men on trial are Master Raymond and the Comte St. Germain. The king explains that these men are accused of “sorcery, of witchcraft, of the perversion of the legitimate search for knowledge into an exploration of arcane arts” (492). As La Dame Blanche, the king would like Claire to serve as judge.

The Comte St. Germain steps forward to defend himself, explaining that there is much that could benefit humanity with research into ancient philosophy. Claire asks about Les Disciples du Mal. St. Germain pulls out a small snake to test Claire. Master Raymond speaks up, claiming that he has a cup of dragon’s blood that is harmless to the pure of heart. He has Claire drink from it, then takes a drink himself. He then asks Claire to give the cup to St. Germain. Claire knows Raymond has slipped a poison into it somehow, but she gives it to St. Germain anyway. St. Germain dies.

Back in Fountainbleau, Claire accidentally discovers that Fergus was sexually assaulted by Jack Randall and Jamie walked in on it. Therefore, Jamie betrayed Claire by challenging Jack to a duel. Jamie arrives in Foutainbleau and tells Claire that he was successful in ruining Charles’s wine shipment and Claire confesses that she knows why he dueled with Jack.

Jamie and Claire go for a walk. Jamie reveals that he knows Claire had sex with King Louis even though she tried to hide it from him. They discuss it and begin to forgive each other, a task that is easier for Claire when she learns that Jack Randall survived the duel. However, Jamie wounded him in a way that made it impossible for him to father children.