Outlander

Geillis finds Claire in her physician’s office and asks if Claire would like to go on an expedition to the nearby foothills with her. Claire agrees. Claire tells Geillis about finding the dried plants in her bed, which symbolize an ill-wish. Geillis says she can help Claire find out who sent her the ill-wish. While in the foothills, Claire finds a crying baby, who is clearly ill. Geillis instructs Claire to leave the baby there because the baby is a changeling. Claire starts to go back for the baby. Geillis grows impatient and calls Claire a “pig-headed English ass,” accusing her of putting both of their lives in danger (697). As Claire tries to find the baby, she runs into Jamie, who has come to meet her because night is falling. He too insists that the baby is dead and tells Claire that the changeling folklore is an excuse for grieving parents to mourn their sick child. “[M]aybe it will ease them a bit,” Jamie says of the parents, “to believe that it is the changeling who died, and think of their own child healthy and well, living forever with the fairies” (700). Claire notices the castle lanterns blazing in the distance and Jamie’s fancy dress.