Outlander Book Club: Book 1, Chapter 33 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

We start by finding out that Jamie has been taken by The Watch. At first, we don’t get to find out who took him.

Ian is the one with the information. The Watch had taken Ian’s leg while he and Jamie were out in the fields for harvest. It meant Ian took longer than normal to get back to Lallybroch, which gave The Watch a bit of a head start.

However, it’s clear that Jenny knows The Watch well enough to get a rough idea of where they are heading. She, despite just giving birth days earlier, and Claire ride out in search for The Watch. When they find them on the road, they take the back man to find out where Jamie is.

The man shares that Jamie is likely dead. Jamie escaped into a river and never came up for air. The men assumed he’d died and moved on. Jenny knows her brother better than that and also knows that The Watch won’t just assume Jamie is dead. They’ll go in search of the man too, so Jenny and Claire need to find him first.

Jenny can’t stay on the search for Jamie, though. She needs to get back to baby Maggie. Claire has to leave alone in the search for her husband. Claire is ready to do that, just as Murtagh shows up—making a point that the women weren’t paying any attention to the things around them.

Ian had sent for Murtagh, presumably from his own home, and sent Murtagh out to find the women. Murtagh goes on the search for Jamie with Claire, which is what we’ll cover in the next chapter breakdown.

Murtagh does now know how Jamie was turned over to The Watch in the first place. Remember when he beat MacNab to get Rabbie? MacNab decided to get his revenge by turning Jamie over to The Watch for the bounty. Murtagh shares that MacNab is now dead and his home burned, so Jenny should expect to find a new kitchen maid in the form of his wife. Jenny doesn’t begrudge Ian giving this woman a place to stay since it wasn’t her fault that her husband was an abusive lout.

Before Jenny leaves the two, she gives Claire a knife and a small bag of money. Claire will need the rents from Quarter Day more than Jenny will.

Claire leaves Jenny with information of things to come. Jenny admits that Jamie had told her Claire could have knowledge of the future and to just listen to it. Claire tells Jenny to plant potatoes and sell anything non-useful for gold.

She also suggests that Jenny creates a priest hole. While she wants Jamie to stay out of the war that’s to come, she knows that someone may need that.

With that, the sisters part. Claire and Murtagh start their search for Jamie.