Chapter 4 - I Come to the Castle

Clearly, everything I've heard about the descriptive narration is true: it's so vivid and lucid that the imagery of 18th century Scotland simply comes to life around the characters.

Favorite quotes:
I have several from this chapter that seemed to strike a chord with me in some fashion, beginning with the opening of the chapter:

"The rest of the journey passed uneventfully...at least we were not set upon by highwaymen, we encountered no wild beasts, and it didn't rain."

Yeah, you know you're having an uneventful day when none of those things happen.

Kinda reminds me of a quote from the animated movie "Chicken Run" (believe it or not). The chickens are penned up in a chicken pen that resembles a WWII prisoner of war camp, and are destined to be made into chicken pies. The ringleader chicken named Ginger is always trying to encourage them to escape and at one point tries to motivate them by shouting, "Listen, we either die free chickens, or we die trying to escape!" To this rallying cry, one of the the other chickens pipes up with the very reasonable request: "Are those the only choices?"

I guess for Jamie and Claire, not being attacked by highwaymen or wild beasts and not getting rained on really is reasonably uneventful, certainly compared to what they've been through already. If those are the only choices, then they are indeed having an uneventful journey the rest of the way.

Then Claire describes Jamie's appearance, as she tends to his wounds while he shares the story about his sister Jenny and Randall:

"...shirtless, scarred and blood-smeared, with stubbled cheeks and reddened eyelids from the long night ride, he looked thoroughly disreputable. And tired or not, he looked entirely capable of further mayhem, should the need arise."

To me, this is the timeless description of every woman's "bad boy." Whether he's a biker, or an ex-con, pirate, or some other ne'er-do-well, the gallant scrapper who is noble yet "capable of further mayhem, should the need arise" shouts to me of the protector that every woman dreams of. No wonder Jamie's so popular! I'll let your comments determine otherwise... ;)

"In older, more primitive times...it was an act of trust to sleep in the presence of another person. If the trust was mutual, simple sleep could bring you closer together than the joining of bodies."

I thought this was a great perspective on demonstrating how they are growing closer. And it makes sense, too, knowing that any number of (hazardous) things can happen while you are asleep. That very descriptive previous phrase: "to actually sleep with someone did give you this sense of intimacy, as though your dreams had flowed out of you to mingle with his and fold you both in a blanket of unconscious knowing." Wow. But I can tell you my wife has some crazy dreams, and I'm not sure I want those to mingle with mine!

This is my favorite description so far, as Claire is trying to describe what the castle looks like:

"It looked, in fact, like an eighteenth-century castle."

Ha! Every one of our mind's eyes filled in all the details; beautiful!

As Claire and Jamie are beginning to grow closer together, some questions are being posed in the narration almost as quickly as they come to my mind:

• If this is really happening, what is her relationship with Frank? If he's not alive yet (in time), isn't that the same as being dead, leaving her a widow, as Jamie suggests? That's just a weird thought to me.
• From Claire's perspective, what would Frank be doing when she turns up missing in 1945? What could he do?

I know these are the questions that have answers later on, and it must be hard for you to restrain the spoilers in the comments, but I'm trying to give you my perspective as it happens. I must say, I feel a bit transparent and exposed, but I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and support! Thanks!