Outlander Book Club: Book 2, Chapter 10 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

We pick up the chapter off the back of Dragonfly in Amber Chapter 9. Claire comes around from fainting, seeing Frank over her. However, it’s not Frank.

Nor is it Black Jack Randall.

She wakes to find Alexander Randall there. It’s interesting that she still notes the similarities to Frank. I’ll get to that in the next section.

Nothing is mentioned of Jonathan Randall in this conversation. Instead, the focus is on how Alex is here. He’s the Duke of Sandringham’s secretary. It turns out that while he wanted to take the Holy Orders, but that wouldn’t pay well. This is the second Randall who has turned to the Duke of Sandringham for financial reasons, and I can’t help but wonder at this point if Black Jack Randall asked for Sandringham to do this.

After the meeting with Alex, Claire notes to Jamie that Frank had never bothered with research into the man. As he wasn’t a direct ancestor, Frank had no interest in the man. It is a little shortsighted, but it shows the type of man Frank is. He’s focused with one clear goal in mind.

The whole situation leads to Claire having a dream of Frank. And this time it is Frank. He’s giving a lecture about history. It’s a vivid dream, as we see how Frank manages to draw the attention of his students in and he’s talking about history. It’s clear that Claire has sat in on one of his lectures in the past and has heard him teach, especially with the details of Pepys’s diary entries.

In the dream, Claire notices that the miniature that Frank is holding is of her. After that, she wakes from the dream in tears, and it turns out she spoke Frank’s name in her sleep. Jamie is jealous of the man, but he doesn’t hold anything against Claire or Frank. It settles him a little that she mourns him, knowing that she’d mourn Jamie should anything happen.

This certainly shows the maturity in Jamie. It also shows that Claire is still connected to Frank, even though she chose Jamie.