This post is an addendum to a former one, Malva’s Mother as a Time-Traveler, which I considered hypothetical. First, I exposed two possible explanations for Malva’s mother background.
- She is a person from the eighteenth century with good observation skills who was able to develop a substance similar to ether.
- She is a time-traveler with similar skills to those that Claire has.
In regards to Edgar’s death, it is mentioned in An Echo in the Bone that he was poisoned and not burned. What this detail brings to a reader’s mind is the event in which Claire had to resuscitate Aidan McCallum in A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Was Edgar killed with a substance similar to ether? How would somebody know that Edgar was actually poisoned especially back in the eighteenth century when forensic analysis was not developed and not even applied to dead bodies? It seems that Mona had the reputation of using ether constantly.
According to Tom Christie, Mona was a witch and not a nice person. Is this true? I tend to think that Tom’s information about both Malva and her mother are biased, even though there is a strong correlation between Mona and Geillis. There is also the event in which Tom whips Malva, which was most likely a repetitive occurrence in her life. One can claim that children were given a good hiding as a chastisement. Jamie and Jenny were whipped by Black Brian but they never felt mistreated or not loved (and of course not to the point of creating psychological or physical damage). The only issue that I have with this assessment is that it seems that Tom never whipped Allan. There is absolutely no evidence for this and when Allan is violent towards other characters, such as Roger, Tom does not intervene at all. He does not even calm his son.
The Evidence from Moby
While trying to purchase vitriol in an apothecary in Savannah, Claire muses about how ether was invented.
. . . The substance was known, I knew – someone or other had discovered it back in the eighth century, or so I was told in medical school – but its use as an anesthetic wouldn’t be developed ’til somewhere in the nineteenth century. I wondered idly whether anyone in the intervening eleven hundred years had noticed that the stuff put people to sleep, but had inadvertently killed them and thus abandoned further experimentation. (MOBY, ch. 130)
Claire is then told that ether is developed to treat seasickness (which means most likely that the person suffering seasickness is not conscious onboard).
MOBY reveals that Malva’s mother was an apothecary (as Claire originally assumed). She was able to develop ether (she probably learned it from somebody). It is highly likely that she accidentally killed Tom’s brother, and that Edgar’s wife took advantage of this to have her executed. It also confirms that Malva’s mother is not a time-traveler but a smart person from the eighteenth century with good observation skills. It also explains Malva’s fascination and Tom’s possible familiarity with ether before meeting Claire as detailed in my former post.
In the next few weeks I will be writing the last two post from A Breath of Snow and Ashes. I will also write another post about My Peak Challenge, and book 7, An Echo in the Bone (colour symbolism mainly). Thanks for reading.
Works Cited
Gabaldon, Diana. Written In My Own Heart’s Blood. 2014. New York: Bantam Dell. 2015. Print.