Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 34 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
Who is calling Jamie “Daddy?” That’s the big question.
Claire sees two girls at the door. One is a teenager and the other is a young girl with red hair. Naturally, it seems like the younger one could, in fact, be Jamie’s biological daughter.
There isn’t much time to deal with this just yet. Laoghaire shows up. Jamie married Laoghaire, the girl who had tried to have Claire tried and executed as a witch. Laoghaire’s wish very nearly happened if it hadn’t been for Jamie, and for Geillis’s intended sacrifice. Claire doesn’t know if Jamie realizes that Laoghaire did arrange all that, but that isn’t really the point.
As Jamie goes out of the room to sort out the situation, Claire thinks about whether she should stay. There’s time for some exposition, getting to know her thoughts as she thinks about her options.
She’s understandably angry and hurt about the entire situation. Had Jamie been honest with her right away, she’d have had time to process it. She could have helped him figure out what the options were. Instead, he kept this from her.
When Jamie returns, she finds out more about the girls and the marriage to Laoghaire. The girls aren’t his. Laoghaire had been widowed twice and had the girls. He married Laoghaire a couple of years ago but they haven’t lived together. Jamie doesn’t go into the details, but it’s clear that he doesn’t love Laoghaire.
Is that a good thing, though? Claire questions why he’d marry someone he didn’t love.
Something that Claire does point out is that Jamie lied to her. He doesn’t think he did, but Claire is adamant that’s the case. When you think about it, in an earlier chapter she brought up Jamie being married to someone else. He’d stiffened but didn’t say that he had. It was an omission.
Why didn’t he tell her the truth? He was scared of her leaving.
Naturally, an argument starts. That argument turns into passionate lovemaking, as arguments tend to do in the Outlander books. There’s still the question left hanging over them as to whether this will work out.
Oh, and Jenny cuts them off anyway. She throws the water over the top of them making it clear that it’s inappropriate. And with the way the sound probably travels in that house, maybe she’s right.