Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 43 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Claire needing to help Duncan Innes. He’s struggling with stomach cramps, and Claire knows exactly why. She can tell just by looking.
Remember in an earlier chapter, Joe points out that Claire is a great diagnostician. She can tell someone’s ailments quickly, and we get to see that in action in this chapter. However, she still goes through the motions to check everything else to ensure it is just constipation and trapped wind, as she thought it was.
Sure enough, that’s exactly what it is. The cook isn’t making the oats up that Claire brought onboard. The normal sailors are used to the regular diet of salted meats, but Jamie’s smugglers aren’t. They’re used to a high fiber diet, and they need that now.
They didn’t want to turn to Jamie for help with the cook. Well, now it’s time for Claire to solve the situation, and she thinks about how the tenants at Lallybroch would have gone to Jamie. These men aren’t as close. Jamie has noticed it too.
One thing Claire does realize is that Duncan couldn’t be the traitor. With only one arm, he wouldn’t have been able to string up the exciseman in the tree that night at the beach. It has to be someone else.
Toward the end of the chapter, Claire gets to know Duncan more. Because of his loss of an arm, he didn’t get sent to the Colonies like the other prisoners. Duncan was pardoned and released back in Scotland, but he was left starving. While the chapter doesn’t go into it, with only one arm, it would have been difficult for him to find work. Remember how worried Fergus was about the idea of the loss of a limb.
When Jamie returned from his time at Helwater, he made sure Duncan was looked after. That’s helped their bond, but the others spent time in the Colonies and not all made it back. It’s something important to take in when it comes to the attitudes of the men.
This is also the time Duncan Innes shares that he feels pain in his limb. Not in the actual limb, but the part that is no longer attached. Claire notes that it’s known as phantom limb pain.
We have a funny moment with Mr. Willoughby and his own medicine and beliefs. He believes it’s the ghost limb that is trying to reconnect with the body and that’s what causes the pain. After using herbs, he then spits on Duncan’s chest, which makes Duncan angry. However, Duncan has to admit that he doesn’t feel any pain after Mr. Willoughby’s actions.
As much as I haven’t always liked the caricature that Mr. Willoughby is in the books, there are moments that I can’t help but giggle at. This didn’t feel over the top, and more just about people learning a little about his culture.