Dear Diana,
First, I want to say a heartfelt thank you for the Outlander series. I am a latecomer to the books. I bought Outlander at a church garage sale last autumn and didn't get around to reading it until this past March before leaving on a spring break trip. I was looking through my book collection for something nice and fat that would get me through the flights to and from Denver and Loreto (Baja). Needless to say, Outlander did that and hooked me in a major way.
I am an avid reader, always have been, but there are only three book series that I "had" to own: Lord of the Rings, the Vorkosigan books, and the Outlander series. I think what I most appreciate is that the characters of all these books come alive for me, I care about them as I'm reading.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes answered most of the questions I had been wondering about as I made my way through the books. Only one has remained: Who diddled Claire's toes (among other body parts) when she was in bed the night before Jocasta's wedding? I won't say that an answer will make my life complete, but it certainly would be fun to know ;-).
Thanks for your time!
Gail Bonner
And this is the reply I received today, what fun!
Dear Gail,
Thanks for writing and I apologize for taking so long to reply to your question.
Well, I'm sure that while Jamie was very intoxicated and _seemed_ unable to locate his own foot in the dark, most of the evidence for the 'midnight masseuse' points towards him anyway. Many people have speculated that perhaps Phillip Wylie hunted for Claire in another attempt to woo her, or even that it was Ulysses, Jocasta's black butler (!). Remember, in these books, not everything is as it seems.
If Claire got up and went into the hallway to see Jamie there "waiting" for her on the stairs, who else would it have been tickling her feet? In a crowded room, it wouldn't have been feasible (or morally proper, wife or no) for Jamie to toss pebbles at the window to draw Claire out to meet him. By creeping through the mass of bodies he was instinctively able to discern which was his beloved wife, let her know that it was indeed Himself (the counting of the "piggies") and by his familiar touch, aroused her to a point where she was unable to return to sleep -- just as Jamie had hoped.
Thanks for writing and I hope you continue to enjoy the next book(s) in the series.
Best wishes,
--Diana Gabaldon
