The information from Horrocks is not good news. He confirms that Jamie didn't shoot the sergeant-major… Randall did.
Jamie wonders where to flee to: Rome? France?
But first they have to go back to Leoch. The Duke of Sandringham is expecting them.
They return, and Laoghaire finds out that Jamie and Claire are wed. She is not happy.
Claire finds herself jealous of the girl, and asks Jamie if he's having an affair with her.
His response: "We've been back to the Castle less than an hour […] and ye think I've gone straight out to seduce a maid of sixteen?" (23.104). In other words, Claire, you be trippin', girl.
He gives Claire a new wedding ring, and they have some pretty intense sex, "tearing each other's flesh in the consuming desire to be one" (23. 176). As John Mellencamp would say: it hurts so good.