Outlander Book Club: Book 2, Chapter 43 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
We pick up with Claire and Jamie in Stirling. They’re heading to Falkirk, which is where the next battle is. However, they’re caught off guard. The British have attacked, and now Claire must get to a church for sanctuary.
There’s nobody in the church. Claire takes her horse inside and waits things out, hearing the shooting and yelling from outside. She thinks about how she didn’t witness the Battle of Prestonpans but did experience the aftermath. She needs to get ready for the aftermath of this battle.
She can’t get out of the church, though. Dougal and a small group of his MacKenzie men rush into the church. They’ve ran from the battle with a gravely injured Rupert.
When Claire checks him over, she feels the entry wound but there’s no exit wound. Rupert tells her that there wasn’t one, and Claire can feel that he’s coughing up blood. His lungs are filling up with blood and there’s nothing but surgery (and surgery she doesn’t have the knowledge to do) that can save him now.
Jamie arrives through the window, which temporarily takes the focus off Rupert. However, the attention returns to him, with him asking Dougal to kill him out of mercy. Dougal desperately wants Claire to be able to help but accepts that she can’t and agrees to the mercy kill.
It’s devastating, but I don’t feel like we get much time to mourn this character. Instead, the focus is turned on the British Army outside the church. Jamie made a note that it wouldn’t be hard to find the MacKenzies even if there were other buildings around. The men had left footprints all the way up the hillside!
The British Army is willing to set the thatch roof alight, killing them in the falling debris. Claire can’t help but call out against it since this is a church. When they realize there’s an English woman in there, Dougal gets an idea. He tells them that they have an English hostage. They’re willing to trade for their lives.
Jamie doesn’t like the idea, but Claire agrees to it. Jamie figures out where they will likely take her. They will get Claire back. However, Claire should say nothing and pretend that she’s in shock, otherwise it could be to the Tower of London for all of them!