Outlander Book Club: Book 1, Chapter 28 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
Claire experiences more of life at Lallybroch, which for this chapter is seeing Jamie try to get the mill turning again. It’s something that Ian remarks that he can’t do because he’s not the greatest swimmer anymore.
On the way to the mill, Claire learns more about Jamie’s first kiss. It was with Dougal’s daughter. We get a funny story of Jamie waking up with Dougal’s hand in a certain private place warning Jamie away from his daughter. It’s an understandable reaction for a father in those days, I believe.
Claire also shares when she had her first kiss. She was eight in Egypt. It continues to show the worldly life that Claire lived, as well as the different styles of parenting she received with Uncle Lamb compared to the type of treatment Jamie had at the hands of his uncle (or even the style of parenting from his father).
Speaking of parenting, this comes up during the chapter. As Claire watches Jamie at work, she’s joined by Grannie MacNab, who goes off on a few tangents while sharing why she’s there. She wants her grandson Rabbie to be taken on as a stable boy. It’s a way to protect Rabbie from his father, who sounds like a mean drunk and abuses the boy.
It’s interesting to see that even in a time when beatings were used as punishments, there was still a line between discipline and abuse. It’s even something Jamie has talked about before. Grannie MacNab believes in discipline but she doesn’t agree with abuse. It’s something she didn’t even take from her own husband—and I have to love her comments about thinking she’d killed her husband is focused on raising children alone and not about actually killing her husband.
The conversation can’t go on. The two are interrupted by dragoons riding in. While Claire is relieved not to see one she recognizes, she still can’t speak. She’d never mask her Englishness, and Grannie MacNab immediately understands that without being told. Grannie MacNab comes up with a story, that Claire is her daughter-in-law who hasn’t spoken a word since the loss of her child. Grannie MacNab also can’t move from where she’s sitting to look after her daughter-in-law.
This is something the dragoons take at face value. It’s clear that it’s not the first time a woman has gone mute with grief, making me feel sad for the women of the time—although stillbirths and death during childbirth are still highly common now, they were far more common in the past.
The tension in the chapter is that Jamie is still in the water. While there’s likely an air pocket in places, it looks like the corporal of the dragoons will get in the water. Fortunately, Jamie gets the mill working just in time and the dragoons ride off with Brian Fraser’s pants.