Outlander Book Club: Book 2, Chapter 42 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
We pick up the chapter in Edinburgh. Jamie and Claire are back, trying to find out what is going on. It turns out the Lallybroch men were captured trying to desert. They’re currently at Tollbooth Prison, which was the worst prison in Scotland. In fact, centuries earlier, that was where the people accused to witchcraft were kept and mistreated.
Jamie and Claire also learn that Dougal is now Charles’s favorite man. Not only did Dougal bring 250 men, but he also brought £10,000. Claire realizes that it’s the money Geillis mentioned while in Thieves’ Hole. It’s stolen money that Colum would never have used but Dougal would definitely offer to be a major part of the cause.
Jamie needs Dougal’s help to get Charles to release the Lallybroch men. It doesn’t sound like Dougal puts up too much of a fight, especially with Young Simon Fraser there.
While Jamie heads off to Stirling to talk to Charles about the situation, Claire tends to the men. She is able to bribe the guards so she can speak to Ross the smith, who claims that the situation was his fault. He didn’t follow Jamie’s orders of one man leaving at a time. The Lallybroch men had barely been away from Lallybroch, so they would have got lost on the way home and he couldn’t let that happen.
There’s no point in blaming anyone, though. Claire just focuses on helping tend to their needs, including getting them food and medicine. Ross asks for blankets.
The only way Claire can get blankets is to pawn items. It looks like she pawns the pearl necklace Jamie had given her; the one that was Ellen’s. It gets her enough money to send Fergus to buy blankets and take them back to the prison.
Why not her? Claire runs into Mary Hawkins, who is extremely happy and excited to see Claire. It turns out Alex had written to Mary, so she arranged to visit her aunt in Edinburgh. Now she can visit Alex Randall each day.
Claire joins Mary to see Alex, who is coping well but he is resigned to not having much time. Claire does note that he and Mary are too busy looking longingly between each other to really care about that. It’s so bittersweet.
Black Jack Randall interrupts the reunion. He has news that Cope has been succeeded and now the British Army is after Stirling Castle. Claire needs to ride out to Stirling to send the news. She learns the Lallybroch men are to be released at the same time, so she decides to lead them to Jamie at Stirling.