Outlander Book Club: Book 2, Chapter 45 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

We start with Claire, Jamie, and the others getting back to Edinburgh. They had to take their time getting through England, and it did lead to some malnutrition. However, Claire and Jamie tried to keep everyone fed and healthy foraging for food.

While they’d heard Falkirk was a success, they had no idea where Charles’s army now was. They head to Edinburgh because of that. There will be word somewhere there.

I do admit that I’m confused about why Claire wouldn’t even think about where Charles’s army could be. She knows it’s the middle of April and she knows when the Battle of Culloden will take place. Why wouldn’t she know that Charles would likely be in Inverness? It does strike me as odd and just a reason to wrap up the Frank Randall lineage storyline.

Jamie learns they’ve gone to Inverness, but before they set out, Claire and Jamie visit Alex Randall. Alex purposely asked for both of them to attend him that morning. With Mary (who had laid with Alex all night in her riding clothes) and the appearance of Black Jack Randall, it was soon clear what was going to happen.

Mary is pregnant with Alex’s child. He refuses for her to be destituted and shamed because of their love for each other, so Alex wants Mary to marry Jonathan. It’s a request Jonathan doesn’t want to follow through with, but he doesn’t have a choice. We have to remember that he knows he’s going to die in a few days. He believes the date Claire told him.

Claire and Jamie (I really don’t like that Jamie just stands there with Black Jack Randall in the room after everything) act as witnesses and Alex preceeds over it. And so, the two are married. This is where the confusion about Frank’s lineage comes in. Everyone would assume Mary got pregnant with Randall’s child before his death at Culloden. She would be the widow of a fallen British officer.

At the end of the chapter, Claire notes that Frank is alive in the future. Jamie isn’t happy about hearing Frank’s name. In fact, he’s angry about the Randall name in general. He’s jealous of anyone having Claire other than him.

I’ll be honest and say this is why I don’t swoon over Jamie as so many do. I find him possessive and violent at times. He’s a man of his time, so I’ll accept he is the way he is. I wouldn’t be one to try to change him. I also wouldn’t be one to choose to be with him.

He also has a bad habit of “needing” Claire and not really caring if she wants to have sex with him or not. Sure, she does, but what if she didn’t? There are parts of Jamie’s character I just really don’t like. It makes him human, though. I’m glad to have a main male character with a lot of shade, but that doesn’t mean I have to like him.