5He says she’ll never forget
She’s ashamed that she asked, but she tells him that she wants to kill the man who raped her and needs to know if it would help. She gets angry when he seems more amused than dismayed by her question. He asks what good will killing the man do, it won’t erase the child inside her or bring back her virginity. She says Claire told her he had tried to kill Jack Randall in Paris so what good did he think would happen then? He answers he meant to take back his manhood and honor and she says what about her honor? She demands he answer her question, and he admits he doesn’t remember if he killed Jack Randall or not. He only knows that when he came to after the battle on Culloden, Jack Randall was dead and his corpse was on top of him.
Brianna asks if he’s all right, after what Randall did to him. Jamie says few die from it, not him and not her. Brianna points out that she very may well die of it in six months’ time. He’s rattled by that, but assures her she’ll be fine. She insists she’s going to die and there’s nothing he or her mother can do to stop it, especially without a hospital and medicines, that if something goes wrong all Claire can do is save the baby. She tells him it was all her fault and he says it wasn’t. Brianna thinks that if she kills Bonnet, then maybe she can forget about what he did to her.
He tells her that he will find her a husband and once the baby is born, she won’t have time to worry about it. She asks what he meant about a husband, and he says if she won’t tell him the name of the man who did this to her, then he’ll have to find another man who will take her. She asks if he thinks she would marry her rapist, and he says he thinks that maybe she didn’t tell the whole truth, that she wouldn’t be the first young woman to cry rape after making a mistake. She grows angry as he continues on until finally she swings at him. He easily blocks her and she struggles, and he blocks her every time, until finally she ends up on her knees with her arm twisted behind her and him pressing on top of her so she is unable to break free.
She begs him to stop, and he tells her he could break her neck and kill her, and he could do whatever he wanted to and asks if she could stop him. Finally, she admits she couldn’t, and he lets her go. She damns him and is so mad she could kill him, and he calmly says she can’t. She realizes that he did that to make a point, that there was no way she could have fought off Bonnet, and it wasn’t her fault. She says he just could have told her, but he said a demonstration was more effective. She asks why didn’t he fight against Jack Randall, and he said because he had given his word for her mother’s life and never regretted it. She asks if it’s true she’ll never forget, and he says it is, but after a time it won’t matter anymore.
He tells her how when his mother died, ten-year-old Jenny took up her mother’s responsibilities the day after the funeral
Jamie tells her she is very strong, and she says he just proved she was not, and he says that’s not what he means. He says he knows how strong women are, and she’s strong enough for what must be done. As he goes to the cow and prepares his dirk just in case he has to slaughter her, she realizes that both of her parents are alike in that they can mingle compassion with sheer ruthlessness. She realizes that Jamie would be as ruthless with himself as anyone and wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to her were it necessary. She takes comfort that he’ll always be there fighting for her.