25 Days of Claire-mas Day 16: Did Claire ever search for Jamie in Outlander?
On the 16th day of Claire-mas, we look at whether Claire stuck to her promise not to search for Jamie when she returned to Frank in Outlander.
When Claire made it back to the 20th century, it wasn’t by choice. Culloden was happening, and Jamie wanted to make sure she and their unborn child were safe. He trusted Frank to return and look after them.
At first, Frank wasn’t sure, but he did step up as a husband and a father. However, there were some conditions. One of those was for Claire not to search for Jamie in the past at all. We know that didn’t stop Frank from researching, but Claire promised not to do it. She would focus on being in the present day with her family.
Claire-mas Day 16: Did Claire look for Jamie in Outlander?
Did Claire stick to that promise? For the whole time that Frank was alive, we can say that she did. We’d have known from her chapters in the books if she looked up anything that would involve the love of her life.
Claire believed Jamie to be dead. In fact, when she gave Roger the list of names to eventually look into, she didn’t include Jamie’s name on that list. Part of her was sure that he gave his life for the hope of Scottish freedom. And she didn’t give those names over until after Frank’s death.
It was actually Roger who looked into the name James MacKenzie Fraser. He wondered why Claire had missed off that name. When it turned out that Jamie was still alive and Roger and Bree learned the truth about time travel and who Jamie was, he was then able to share the truth. Only after Frank’s death did Claire break her promise—but can you really break a promise when the person is dead? She never promised not to look for Jamie after Frank’s death, only while they were together raising Brianna.
Claire is a woman of her word. There have been times she’s had to lie to protect herself, but she’s not the greatest liar in the world. Frank would have known if she’d looked for Jamie, and why would she have bothered when she was certain he died on the battlefield?
dark. Next. How long were Claire and Frank together in Outlander?