Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 45 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The crew is telling stories. We don’t get to hear the details, but Claire explains some are stories of the Kraken and others are of the sailors’ homes. It reminds me of Outlander Book 1 when the men are telling stories while they’re collecting the rents. This time, there’s no danger to the sailors, unlike the raid that happened after Rupert told the story about the water horses.

Attention turns to Mr. Willoughby, as the sailors ask why he left China. It’s best for Jamie to translate the story, showing his skilled knowledge of Mandarin. I’m not quite sure I believe that he became so skilled in the language when Mr. Willoughby didn’t have enough English to tell his own story, but I’m willing to overlook that for the story within the chapter.

Mr. Willoughby’s story involves him being a poet and he becomes the favorite of the Emperor’s second wife. However, to serve in the wife’s court, he must become a eunuch, and that’s not something he is willing to do. It’s either become a eunuch or death.

He chooses a third option. He runs away and is nearly caught because of the length of his fingernails. It’s clear he doesn’t work with his hands.

He manages to stow away on a ship to Edinburgh, and that’s how we catch up with the story that Jamie told of meeting Mr. Willoughby in Edinburgh.

Things would have been found if he left it there. However, Mr. Willoughby started insulting European women. While Mr. Willoughby loves all women, he favors his own people. And that’s not all too surprising. Chinese women are smaller. They’re dainty, and to a Chinese man, who is also small, that is likely preferred.

However, he loses the sympathy of the crew that he was gaining. Even Fergus, who doesn’t have a lot of nice words to say about Mr. Willoughby anyway, threatens him. After all, bad things about European women means bad things about Marsali.

Claire doesn’t think too much about it, just that Mr. Willoughby has lost the sympathies of the crew. It’s a shame, because there was a lot more to take from this story, and I don’t really blame Mr. Willoughby for his thoughts. He’s in a world that isn’t really his and he’s exiled from his own country. On top of that, his actions have dishonored his whole family, and he has to live with that guilt.

There is a lot to be angry about, especially around people who view him as a heathen because he’s different. Claire, of all people, would be able to understand this. She’s someone out of her time. She also has had negative thoughts about the people of the time and has even spoken them now and then, leading to Jamie reminding her of her place and time. She could have had a lot more positive things to think about Mr. Willoughby than she did.

At the end of the chapter, Mr. Willoughby has one thought. Sometimes, he doesn’t think the choice he made was worth it.