Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 40 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
We catch up with Claire and Jamie in France. Jared, who is now in his 70s, is going to help the two find Young Ian. He’ll also get some business done along the way.
Jared will arrange for a ship to take Jamie and Claire to the West Indies. That is where he believes the ship that attacked came from and is heading back to. Jamie notes that the ship was carrying low in the water, suggesting it had cargo to take back.
It’s going to be a week or so before they can travel. And they will be on the waters for a couple of months at the least. The weather right now could make it three months on water, which isn’t something Jamie is going to look forward to.
During this chapter, though, we find out that Jamie is a freemason. This will come in handy in the West Indies as there are freemasons there who will help Jamie find Young Ian.
That night, Claire is making a list of all the items she’ll need to take with her. Some of the herbs’ names she has forgotten but they start to come back to her. It turns out she used some of the older natural techniques in the hospital in Boston now and then, which had a lot of people talking. They do have real medicinal purposes.
Jamie brings up the need for lime juice. Claire makes a note of it. We all know it’s to prevent scurvy.
Interrupting them is a visit from a man. It’s someone Jared has sent to talk about the coins that Jamie found on the island. He needs to get to the bottom of who put the coins there to know who would want to take them now.
It turns out the coins could be linked to the money the Duke of Sandringham promised. If that was the case, why would anyone want them now? After all, Sandringham is dead and nobody seemed to know where this gold was. Oh, there’s definitely more to come here.
Claire does ask for the expert’s name, noting that he is a Jew. The man says that Jews of Frankfort aren’t allowed family names, but the neighbors call them after the red sheild on their home. That translates to Rothschild, which is the name of a prominent banking family in Germany. In fact, this man is called Mayer, and it was Mayer Rothschild who started the business in the 1760s.
Everyone has to start somewhere.
While Jared and Jamie deal with the stuff they need, Claire heads to where Master Raymond’s apothecary used to be. It’s not there anymore. Master Raymond hasn’t been heard of in a long time, but it doesn’t sound like he has died or been killed.
We know now that there is far more to this story. Master Raymond is a time traveler, but it wouldn’t be until The Space Between that we’d learn this. I can’t wait for a Master Raymond novel!
While looking for Master Raymond, Mr. Willoughby and Claire run into Archibald Campbell. Mr. Willoughby says that the reverend is not a good man. Archibald would visit the brothels in Edinburgh, but it does sound like there’s something Mr. Willoughby isn’t saying.
To end the chapter, Claire heads to the charity hospital in Paris. She doesn’t know if Mother Hildegarde will be there, but she needs to see the stone of her daughter’s grave. We get this moment of Claire showing even after 20 years there’s no way she has forgotten Faith.
Mother Hildegarde is still there, now with a new Buton after the one Claire knew 20 years ago has died. Mother Hildegarde continues to run the hospital, but also offers a warm welcome to Claire after all these years. It’s a beautiful moment before we start the voyage across the seas.