Outlander Book Club: Book 1, Chapter 10 breakdown

Just a look at the Outlander chapter

This chapter starts with Claire focused on her plan to escape. She mentions how she’s gathered supplies. While she doesn’t have a water flask, she’s managed to store enough to allow her to ride through the night and days that she needs to get to Craigh na Dun.

We get a sense of her naivety in this chapter. When she does trip over Jamie in the stables, he points out a major flaw in his plan. There is no way that everyone would be in the castle. It had only been 50 years or so since one massacre in the Highlands. Colum wasn’t going to take that chance that it could happen to his clan.

Up to this point, we’d also had a reminder that she had shadows throughout the castle. It really is surprising that she’d think her shadows were gone that night. It’s something the show touches on, and I’ll get to that soon.

In the end, Claire is escorted back to Castle Leoch for the Gathering. However, it leads to Jamie being found by Rupert. Of course, Rupert, seeing Jamie as Colum’s nephew, doesn’t think anything of taking Jamie to the Gathering. He doesn’t realize the danger, but Claire understands because of the conversation Jamie and Alec had had at the stables.

That’s when we learn Jamie’s clan motto. Je suis prest. Claire mentions that it means “I am ready,” and the motto clearly means the world to Jamie. He’s not going to change his last name to MacKenzie and join the clan, so he has to find a way around that. He certainly does it in style, proving that he is certainly part MacKenzie.

Finally, the chapter touches on the games. There are far more games than mentioned in the show, but the important one in the chapter is the boar hunt. It leads to Geordie being gravely injured, and all Claire can do is help ease the man’s death with comforting words. She sees a side to Dougal that is not often seen; one of pain but comfort.

I have a lot of respect for Dougal in this chapter. He doesn’t blame Claire for not healing Geordie. He knows a wound is a death sentence from looking at it, but he also knows that Claire is more than just a traditional healer. She’s seen men die from wounds in battle, which seems to make him more suspicious of her. Why would she have seen men die from terrible wounds in the 18th century?

At the very end, Dougal tells both Claire and Jamie that they’re going out on the rent party with him. All Claire can think about is a chance to get back to Craigh na Dun.