The topic of the Jewish attackers comes up in Virgins section 9. At the same time, Ian is worried about the wounds on Jamie’s back.
There is a lot of talk about the thieves who robbed the wagon in this section, but we also get to know a little more about the Jewish people. It turns out that Jamie knows a lot, and that’s likely due to his previous time in Paris. Of course, that comes up toward the end of the section.
Breaking down Virgins section 9
This section starts with Ian worried about Jamie. The wounds on Jamie’s back aren’t healing properly, and it’s clear that he’s worried about an infection, not that he would have called it that back then. Jamie is running a fever, although Ian notes that Jamie shivers a couple of times, so maybe that’s a good sign. I did often wonder about how Jamie was healed from his wounds on his back, and it looks like not much care was taken. He was lucky not to get a major infection.
The group of mercenaries talk about the man who was killed for information. His name was Ephraim bar-Sefer, and they all wonder if it’s better to know the name or not. At least now they can pray for him by name, but later on Ian has dreams of him and wonders if knowing the name is a bad thing because it makes it more personal.
Before Ian’s dreams, we get to find out what the thieves were doing. They managed to get word that the wagon was on route, and they were a band of professional thieves. Jamie explains that the Jewish people will write ahead, so it’s possible that someone decided to give word to the thieves. What doesn’t make sense is why they would take rugs. Ian points out that there is some gold and silver at the front of the wagon, and to get to that, the rugs would need to be removed.
There is also a discussion about who would have told the thieves about the wagon. It could have been one of their three Jewish people they’re working for, but that doesn’t make any sense. Jamie does point out that the Jewish people will rob other Jewish people rather than the French Army so that they don’t end up with the French coming after them.
Later that night, the conversation moves on to whether Ian or Jamie have been with a woman yet. The two seem to be in competition with each other, and while neither of them say they haven’t been with a woman, it’s clear that they are still virgins, as the title of the short story suggests.
Ian doubts it, though. Jamie was with plenty of women when he was at university in Paris, so he must have had plenty of them to be with. We know the honorable man that Jamie is, but he is still a man, so I’ll admit that it still surprises me that he didn’t lose his virginity to someone in Paris, maybe not a prostitute, but someone he thought he loved.
It’s a light end to a rather heavy section of the story.
Could this section be used in a TV adaptation?
This is certainly a section that we would need to have included, but I do wonder whether we would end up seeing the torture of the thief from Virgins. If not the full beating, at least the point where he tells the story. This would allow us to put a face and personality to the name, and it makes that scene more visceral for us, so that we can feel what the mercenaries are feeling.
I would love to see the end conversation between Ian and Jamie. This is one of those friendship conversations that shows off their bond, and we would need to see that in a prequel series considering what we know in the main series.
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