Outlander Book Club: Book 1, Chapter 8 breakdown
Just looking at the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Claire focused on her work in the surgery. She mentions how she’s happy to be working. At heart, she’s a nurse. While it was clear in the 20th century that she’d considered giving up her work as a nurse, working in the castle reminds her of the love for it.
She’s no longer working in the battlefield all that time. Of course, her experiences in World War II certainly set her up for treating ailments and problems in the 18th century, but she’s not just a battlefield nurse right now. She’s treating everyday patients for their everyday needs.
However, she quickly moves onto the evening activities, which is when she gets another chance to talk to Colum. While making it clear that she’d like to leave to get to her “family in France,” Colum makes it clear that he doesn’t trust her. Colum isn’t just keeping her around because she’s useful, but because he wonders if she’s a spy.
Claire isn’t naïve to think otherwise. She knows that Colum distrusts her, and she is lying at times, anyway. But that doesn’t mean she’s willing to just stick around.
As she struggles to keep up charades, though, she decides to leave Colum and have another wander around the hall. That’s when she gets a chance to speak to Laoghaire, who she knows has a crush on Jamie. At this point, she’s also sure that Jamie is interested in Laoghaire. It’s soon clear that he’s not. He doesn’t even remember her from his time at the castle.
To be honest, Jamie’s words don’t surprise me. He mentions how at 16 he wasn’t looking at children, and Laoghaire was about seven at the time. She’d be at the age where she was looking up to older men, and this is just a hint of things to come—we’ll get to that in a moment.
A lot of the chapter is focused on Gwyllyn the Bard. The Welshman has some beautiful stories to tell, and one of those was about a woman who traveled through time. This is a story that connects to Claire for obvious reasons. She starts to wonder if the stories are true; if some of the folklore is based on fact after all.
After the music, Jamie escorts Claire back to her room after realizing that she’s had too much of Colum’s Renish. This is when the two get to spend a little more time together, which leads to more conversations about Jamie’s back. We can feel something growing in Claire about Jamie, but she’s not quite there yet with her focus being on returning to Frank.
It’s why there is no essence of jealous when Claire sees Jamie kissing Laoghaire. At this point, she just wants to get home, so she’s not ashamed to tease Jamie into a relationship with Laoghaire.