Outlander Book Club: Book 1, Chapter 36 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with the people who rescued Claire from the wolves at the end of the previous chapter. He meets Marcus MacRannoch, who doesn’t initially want to help Jamie escape. It’s a dangerous mission and Marcus doesn’t see how he could possibly help. The last thing he wants is for the soldiers at Wentworth Prison to cause a problem for him and his family.
It’s an understandable position to be in. Marcus has to think of many others around him.
Murtagh is the one who convinces Marcus otherwise. It starts with a conversation about the tusks that Murtagh had been given during the Gathering 30 years ago. Claire realizes that the tusks were made into bracelets for Ellen, putting everything from a few chapters ago together.
That leads to Claire offering to pay for Marcus’s help with the pearls. Marcus shares that he was the one to give Ellen those pearls. This is the first time he realizes that Jamie is the one behind the walls of Wentworth. He wants to help but still worries about trouble.
We find out that some of Marcus’s cattle are missing. It shouldn’t be all that surprising to find out Rupert stole the cattle. They can use the cattle to get Jamie out, which is exactly what they do.
The group manage to get Jamie out, which is when Claire has to start healing him. She needs to make sure his hand is repaired as much as possible to avoid him becoming a cripple in the future. Jamie will need painkillers for it, but Jamie doesn’t want anything. He needs to be awake in case the soldiers come to them. He refuses to be passed out if they come to take him back to Wentworth.
It’s clear to Claire that Marcus and his wife have done this before. How many other prisoners have they managed to help as they’ve escaped the prison? Or how many men have they healed after a fight with the English?
During the chapter, Claire overhears Marcus and Jamie talk. Marcus realizes what happened to Jamie while in the prison but passes no judgment. It leads to Jamie asking Marcus to cut out Black Jack Randall’s brand out of his skin.
After Marcus has gone to bed, Claire joins Jamie again. This gives Jamie the chance to share a little about what happened with Black Jack Randall. It’s only that BJR forced him to crawl on his knees and beg, but it’s a start. Claire knows that Jamie will need to talk to someone to get the demons out of his head. She doesn’t really want it to be her, but she will be that person if needed.
In the end, Jamie goes into a little shock. His body temperature drops and he feels sleepy. Claire strips off to make sure she can use her own body heat to regulate his temperature while he sleeps.