Outlander Book Club: Book 2, Chapter 18 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
We start off with the mention of the explosion in Paris. It explains why Claire needs to be at the hospital. While the explosion was on the other side of the city, the hospitals fill up quickly and the charity hospital is needed to care for some of the wounded.
Claire is back in her element. This is the type of nursing she is used to, although she doesn’t think too much of what it was like during the Second World War.
It does mean she’ll be late back, which Jamie knows about in advance. Murtagh and Fergus wait for her, but when it comes to leaving, there are no cabs to get. They need to head through an alleyway to another part of the city to get a cab, which leads them down a dark passageway that has some attackers.
These attackers quickly knock Murtagh out (Fergus has already ran ahead) and they attack Claire and Mary. It’s clear to Claire that the men aren’t the rougher sort of people who usually attack. They are from nobility just based on their clothing and the way they speak. That doesn’t stop one of them from raping Mary and trying to rape Claire.
When they get a glimpse of who Claire is, they scream “La Dame Blanche” and run away. Claire is confused about what it means, but she’s too busy trying to help Mary.
Alex Randall and Jamie both show up in the alleyway. It turns out Alex is in love with Mary and has been following her around a few places. Fergus had got to Jamie to tell him what was going on. The two men help wake Murtagh and get everyone back to the house.
There isn’t much time to think about what to do with Mary. There’s a dinner party in the house, so Alex wants to stay with an unconscious Mary to keep her safe.
Of course, that leads to disaster. During the dinner party, which involves Comte St. Germain telling everyone that he’s started a business relationship with Charles Stuart through a loan Charles got from Rome, Mary screams and everyone rushes in to see what’s going on.
Alex is caught in a compromising situation. It looks like he’s trying to rape her, and it also looks like Jamie and Claire have knowingly let this happen.
Uh oh!