Jamie considers a duel in The Scottish Prisoner Chapter 10, although he knows that he shouldn’t. It’s the first time we have Jamie and John in a scene together.
This chapter is a big one. We catch up on everything that happened off the page in the book, including Jamie seeing Harry Quarry for the first time since Ardsmuir. This leads to a suggestion of a duel, which would be bad news for all involved.
Jamie also comes across Quinn again, who offers to get Jamie to Ireland. It’s clear that all paths are going to lead to that country.
Breaking down The Scottish Prisoner Chapter 10
There was a lot that happened off the page between this chapter and the last time we saw Jamie and Hal together. I did feel like I missed a chapter with everything going on. I would have loved to see Jamie see Harry for the first time since Ardsmuir. It takes John explaining to Hal that Harry was the one to put Jamie in fetters as a reminder of why Jamie reacted so negatively to Harry at first.
Harry thinks that he and Jamie should duel, which Hal believes is a bad idea. It’s illegal! However, John offers to second Harry and they go to find Jamie, who is watching a Punch and Judy performance. He was there with Quinn, who showed up with the offer to get Jamie to Ireland, away from Hal and co. Jamie refused that, but when John offers a duel, Jamie considers is.
John even offers to be Jamie’s second, and Jamie wonders what would happen for John as the second for both men should both of them die. John notes that he would get a surgeon to dispose of the bodies and then kill himself. Jamie declines the duel, and he doesn’t want John to get rid of Harry so that it looks like he’s afraid of the man.
As Jamie heads back, he runs into Minnie. She wants to talk to Jamie later, and that helps to quell some of Jamie’s anger.
It’s all back to the Siverly case, and the topic of what they want to see happen to Siverly comes up. Hal doesn’t really want to see Siverly dead, as that would be too quick for the man. He wants to see Siverly suffer, which makes Jamie laugh. It looks like it wasn’t mercy when Hal decided not to shoot Jamie.
Could this chapter be used in a TV series adaptation?
I could certainly see a lot of this chapter being used. After all, it’s the first time that we see John and Jamie interact with each other in The Scottish Prisoner, making it a huge moment for the book. It’s also a big part of the plot in terms of getting to Ireland.
We’d need to see Jamie get the offer from Quinn, and for Jamie to decline it. We’d need to see that moment Jamie and Harry see each other, considering their bad blood. Having the moment with the duel discussion would also be important in the grand scheme of things. After all, Jamie was very quick to duel Black Jack Randall despite it being illegal. He was not ready to throw everything away for Harry, although he considered it. And this is him thinking that he’d never see Claire again.
So yes, I would expect to see this chapter used in the TV series if there was one.