Fergus Fraser

Fergus Fraser, formerly known as Claudel, is a French emigrant to the American colonies via Scotland. Born in Paris, he grew up in a brothel, not knowing who his true parents were or if they still lived. In 1744, while Jamie and Claire Fraser lived in Paris, Jamie hired him as a pickpocket and gave him his new Scottish name.
== Personal History ==
Fergus was born "Claudel" in Madame Elise's brothel in Paris, to one of the prostitutes – he never knew which one, and had no idea who his father was. Madame Elise let him sleep in a closet under the stairs, and he was allowed to come out in the early hours of the morning, when business was winding down, and the ladies of the brothel would sometimes share breakfast with him. He would also brush their hair and "help them with their underthings," of which he was quite proud.
It is revealed later in Dragonfly in Amber that he was molested from time to time by male customers with "certain tastes" – a fact that leads Jamie to challenge Jack Randall to a duel after catching him molesting Fergus.
== Personality ==
Despite spending most of his life on a farm in Scotland, Fergus retains his "Frenchness" to such a marked degree that no one would mistake him for a Highlander upon meeting him. His haughtiness belies his humble beginnings as a juvenile pickpocket living on the streets of Paris, yet there is something inherently aristocratic about his mannerisms.
== Appearance ==
As a boy of ten, Fergus is small for his age with black hair, pale, sallow skin, big, long-lashed dark eyes, and large, perfect front teeth that are "square as a squirrel's". His slightly beaked nose and long mouth lend him an aristocratic look, and Jamie notes that the bones of the boy's face suggest he will be a handsome man when he is grown. Jamie's prediction proves a prescient one, as Claire notes upon her return to the past that Fergus has become a very handsome man after twenty years.
At age fifteen, while delivering a cask of ale to Jamie in the cave near Lallybroch, Fergus encounters redcoats that try to steal the cask from him, and Fergus foolishly taunts them and tries to get away. In a small scuffle, one of the soldiers draws his sword and brings it down on Fergus's wrist, severing his hand clean off. As an adult, Fergus customarily wears a hook in place of the missing left hand, or a filled glove when wanting to avoid undue notice.
== Name ==
== Trivia ==
Category:Characters
Category:Characters in Season 4
Category:Characters in Season 5
Category:Characters in Season 6
Category:Characters in Season 3
Category:Characters in Season 2
Category:18th century characters
Category:Amputees