“I’m so mad at Jenny!  She’s so mean to Claire!”  That is a statement I hear over and over from fans.  I personally love Jenny.  Jenny is great!  Jenny is just as fiercely loyal to her family as Jamie, loves her baby brother maybe more than Claire does because she has been his sister, mother, and protector for much of her life.  

When Ellen McKenzie Fraser died, it was Jenny who took over the matriarchal duties at Lallybroch.  She was what, 10?  Can you imagine running a large mansion and estate at age 10?  I can’t.  Overseeing the cooking, cleaning, farm duties, weaving, candle making and everything else that must occur for an 18th century homestead and surrounding crofts to survive – that’s a TON of responsibility.  Not saying Brian Fraser was a slacker, not by any means.  But let’s face it: women rule.

So finally, a woman worthy of Jamie comes along: Claire.  When they first meet, there is a bit of testing the waters that happens but essentially, Jenny deems Claire worthy of loving her baby brother and allows the marriage to continue.  Stubborn as Jamie may be, if Jenny really disapproved of Claire, it would not have continued.  Claire proved her salt to Jenny when she went dashing off to rescue him.

And then Culloden happened.  Culloden changed everything.

All Jenny knew is that Claire, the most gifted healer in all the land, the one who swore to stay by her brother’s side, poofed and disappeared without a trace, leaving her baby brother to die on the battlefield.  Jamie’s wounds were horrid.  He was near death.  The fact that Jenny had to see him through that alone, untrained, scared her to pieces.  How DARE Claire leave him when he needed her most.  Perhaps Jenny doesn’t have the sight, but she surely knew her brother was lying when he simply said “Claire’s gone.”  Jenny didn’t buy that line for a minute.

And then Claire suddenly returns.   *POOF* and she’s back, looking, smelling and acting like she just took a trip around the block.  And everyone is OK with that, except Jenny.  To Jenny, Claire left her brother when he needed her most.  Ditched him for some safe zone in the America’s.  Claire left all the dirty work to her, sitting alone by Jamie’s side night after night, wondering if each breath was his last,  forcing her to do the nasty business of cutting the rotted flesh away from Jamie’s wound, cleansing it with boiling wine, something that she knew had to be painful to Jamie who was already writhing in pain.  She hated doing it, but knew it had to be done.  And Claire should have been there to do it, but she wasn’t.  So it is no wonder that there were some hard feelings there.  You would have them too.

Jamie is lucky to have a sister like Jenny… everyone should have a big sister like her.