Malva Christie

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Malva Christie was the daughter of Thomas Christie and sister of Allan Christie. Although she was raised as Tom Christie's daughter, she was in fact his niece; Tom's wife had an affair with his brother, Edgar, while Tom was in prison after the Rising.

Events of the Novels

The Fiery Cross

Malva Christie comes to Fraser's Ridge with her father Tom and brother Allan, and Roger arranges their settlement on the Ridge while Jamie recovers from his illness.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Malva becomes an apprentice for Claire through her natural curiosity of how things work. Through much of the novel she is an adept student, proving her worth and talent when Claire begins to use ether for anesthesia; their first operation saves the life of young Aidan McCallum by removing his ruptured appendix. In addition to teaching her about the healing arts, Claire takes on an almost surrogate mother role to Malva. On one occasion Claire offers advice about sex, suggesting that people do it for pleasure, which runs contrary to Malva's understanding that sex is a necessary chore for wives. Meanwhile, finger bones are discovered at the favorite fishing hole on the Ridge as a sort of love spell.

An epidemic of dysentery spreads across the Ridge and Malva assists with ministrating to the victims. Claire and Tom Christie appear to fall victim to it as well, and it nearly kills the two of them. However, Claire feels that something is distinctly odd about their affliction because it is not what has been going around the Ridge, killing many. She escapes her sick bed to examine Tom and discover what she may about their illness.

Later, Tom discovers that Malva is pregnant, and in a dramatic revelation, she accuses Jamie of being the father. Upon this claim, Claire knocks her across the room and runs from the house. Ian Murray confesses that the child may be either his or Bobby Higgins. A few days later, Claire finds Malva's body in the lettuce patch with her throat slit and one of the bee hives knocked over in the garden. Claire, while obviously distraught, attempts to save the unborn child's life by removing it from her womb, but the baby dies almost immediately, being too premature. Both are buried.

Claire is charged with the murder when Richard Brown rides with his Committee of Safety onto the Ridge with the intention of executing Claire for his brother Lionel's death. He is thwarted, however, by Tom Christie who insists on coming along to ensure Claire's safety unto trial.

Tom later confesses to Malva's murder, although he did not do it; he tells Claire privately that he knew the girl was like her mother, a witch and a siren, luring men. He also tells her he found the remainder of Ephraim's bones in Malva's work basket, beating her for the truth. She confessed that when the love charm failed she became desperate. On a chance occasion, searching for plants, she had gone to help the sin-eater with illness and was present when the man died. Inspired by her training about germs, she collected blood and mucus from the dead sin-eater, let the mixture grow in a bottle placed in her dress, and contrived a way to get it into both his and Claire's food. She hoped that their deaths would be viewed as casualties of the existing epidemic, and with Claire out of the way, she could manipulate Jamie into providing shelter and money for her child. Tom believed that even though she had gotten away with the attempted murder, that there would be more attempts whereby she would eventually kill someone. Because of this and his love for Claire, he takes Claire's place as Malva's murderer.

Later, after Claire has returned to the Ridge, she is confessor to Allan Christie, who explains that he was the one that fathered Malva's child, and then murdered her. Although Claire tries to convince Allan not to kill himself, to just leave and never come back, Young Ian takes the decision out of either of their hands by shooting Allan in the back with an arrow, killing him.

Name

• Malva is a Latin word which refers to the mallow plant.
• Malva as a given name is possibly related to Malvina, a name invented by James Macpherson and which derives from the Gaelic mala mhinn, which means 'smooth brow'.
• Christie derives from the personal names Christian (from Greek χριω (chrio) "to anoint") or Christopher (from the Late Greek name Χριστοφορος (Christophoros) meaning "bearing Christ").