When the mail arrives, Jamie throws a letter on the table with disgust. “This one’s for you,” he says to Claire, sneering. “It’s from your former husband.” I will say: I do love, in scenes related to the notorious LJG, how INSTANTLY bothered Jamie becomes, and how that always confuses Claire just a little, like, “Oh, this again?!” And with good reason! The men were great friends for a very long time!
Anyway, the letter says that Lord John is in Savannah and would like Bree to come there to paint a portrait of Amaranthus and her son. The very simple request makes Jamie even pissier; when he references Claire’s short marriage to the Brit, and how he “swived” her, she’s like “Ohhhhhhhhhkayyyyyy ENOUGH.”
“I thought we were done with that?” she asks, irked. If Jamie’s rather childish behavior is any indicator, I’d say the answer is: No. Fanny overhears them arguing and (oh honey) automatically assumes that, because Jamie is (tangentially) mad at William, and William asked the Frasers to take care of her, that she’ll have to leave and go back to work at a brothel. Claire gently straightens the girl out, saying she’ll always have a home with them.
Later, Brianna asks why Jamie and Lord John are beefing. “When I thought Jamie was dead, I married him,” Claire under-explains. “It’s not like you slept together,” Bree says, confused… until the penny drops. “Mama!” she cries, laughing through her outrage. Claire looks slightly chagrined as she goes into the details: it only happened once, all parties were soused, etc. “Wait, I don’t have to call him ‘Da’ now, do I?” Bree cheekily shoots back. The ladies chuckle… and then quickly agree that Jamie should never hear that joke.
After Jamie fumes around the ridge a while longer, and everything comes to a head that night as they get ready for bed. Jamie reminds Claire that she promised him honesty. She reminds him that he’s already forgiven her — but he corrects her that, while he will love her forever, he has not forgiven her. Then he forgives her. (Oh Jamie, you are EXHAUSTING sometimes.)
Now it’s Claire’s turn to be angry — “You think I was unfaithful to you, and I wasn’t” — and eventually they arrive at the root of the problem: Jamie gets teary as he admits that he’s worried he won’t be able to sleep with her without thinking about John with her. So Claire takes pity on her poor, beleaguered husband and decides to fix the situation with a little nookie. They get it on, sitting up, on the edge of the bed; Jamie’s face reaches near-wedding-night levels of ecstasy.
When it’s over, Claire wonders if they’ve gotten the fight out of their system. “Aye,” he says, smiling and sated, “we have.”
But even the power of Claire’s lovin’ can’t cure everything: Not long after, Frank’s voice pops up in Jamie’s ear, mocking him that what Frank put it the book is 100 percent going to happen.