Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 18 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
We start the chapter on the plane, with Claire focusing on how she’s left Brianna to continue the search for Jamie. Claire needs to head back to Boston. Whether she goes back in time or not, there are things in her own life that she needs to organize, and her vacation time is up.
While on the plane, she looks at a novel that she’s brought to read. It’s a type of novel that she reads because of Joe. He left the book in the doctor’s lounge and she happened to read it. We get a flashback of Claire’s friendship with Joe.
They didn’t have a strong friendship at first. Their bond came from being outcasts in their class. Claire was the only woman and Joe was the only Black man. That wasn’t enough to immediately start a strong friendship though, and they were wary around each other.
It was only after a surgery when Claire went to the doctor’s lounge one day that their friendship actually got started. A romance novel was on the table and Claire started to read it. She learns that Joe has also read it. In fact, he knows which part of the novel Claire is on without even seeing the chapter.
When Joe calls her Lady Jane, she questions why. It’s a name others have given her because of her accent. She sounds like she’s just come from having tea with the Queen. Claire doesn’t take offense. Instead, the conversation moves onto the way Claire speaks in a way that she expects to get what she wants, but if she doesn’t, then she knows why. She also has a look that gets people to do things.
Claire notes that she saw plenty of matrons give a look that would get orderlies and nurses to do some work. She picked up on that.
Joe shares some of his backstory, including that his mom wanted him to be a pastor. Joe’s mom wasn’t overly supportive of the idea of him being a surgeon, just like Frank wasn’t with Claire. They connect over people telling them that they can’t do something they want because of who they are or the color of their skin.
And so, their bond begins.