Outlander Book Club: Book 2, Chapter 14 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
We start off with Claire at home. She comments on how Fergus has been able to steal plenty of letters, but he often has to take them back before she’s had a chance to copy them all. However, it doesn’t matter too much right now. The Frasers still haven’t been able to crack the code. Maybe they need a spymaster like Frank around!
Claire thinks about Louise, who she comments is becoming a close friend. However, she is thankful that she’s able to get away from Louise in the afternoons, which is when she goes to the charity hospital. Mary accompanies her, which is when they have the conversations about men.
Mary doesn’t want to marry a Frenchmen. She hears that they want to, well, I won’t go into the humorous explanation from Mary, but she finds out they want to have sex with women. Little does she realize but this is how babies are born. Claire is the one to give her the birds and the bees talk, but it happens off screen.
It’s such a sweet moment. We see the type of sheltered upbringing Mary has had so far. It’s important to remember that she’s only 15. Now, we can get all sorts of information from TV or on the internet. That certainly wasn’t the case in the 18th century and it shows.
While at the hospital, Claire has the chance to see Monsieur Forez at work. He’s a bonesetter, and it’s clear that he doesn’t want to jump straight to amputation if he can help it. Instead, he manages to fix a broken leg and gets Claire to help him. Claire learns all about how to prevent pain in the lower leg, which seems to be using a form of acupuncture.
It’s after the resetting of the bones that Forez realizes that he’s not speaking to a nurse, showing that he’s very much into his work. When he learns that this is Claire Fraser, it’s clear he has heard of her. He’s honored to work with her in the way that she’s honored to work with him.
Since it’s so late, Monsieur Forez offers to escort Claire home. That day she has Fergus as her escort and not Murtagh, and Forez doesn’t feel like it is safe on the Parisian streets.
When they get home, Jamie is worried because it is so late. Fergus is also extremely apologetic and is ready to take a beating. Jamie has no choice but to give him it, even though he and Claire didn’t want this to happen. Fergus takes the beating without making a sound, and Jamie realizes that Fergus would rather have the beating than be fired from his job.
There’s no way that Fergus wants to be put back out on the streets. It’s a tough life out there, which Claire comments on after seeing the homeless children that night.
At the same time, Jamie realizes that being a father is going to be tougher than he thought. He now understands how hard the beatings were for his dad, even though Jamie was the one receiving them.