Outlander Book Club: Voyager Chapter 54 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Claire and Jamie discussing Temeraire. Claire can’t own a slave. It’s something she never thought she would have to even consider, just knowing that she would never buy a person.
However, the deed is now done. It was the only thing Jamie could do after the scene Claire caused at the slave market, even though he doesn’t agree with slavery either.
They’re stuck until they figure out what they can do for Temeraire. It’s not like they can just free him anywhere. As a Black man, he is going to be taken by someone else and resold into slavery. If you didn’t think that happened, you just have to watch 12 Years a Slave to see what white people did to free Black people.
While there are free Black people relatively safe on Hispaniola, that’s not the case in Jamaica. Claire also thinks about how they can’t just take Temeraire back to his home in Africa. Not only would the journey be difficult, but he wouldn’t be accepted back by his village. And there’s a chance he’d become a slave again, whether to white colonists or the African slave owners.
It’s certainly a tricky situation, but not one they have long to consider. Pirates board the ship, so Jamie rushes to the top and sends Claire and Marsali to the bat guano where they should remain safe. Of course, Marsali doesn’t stay there and Claire rushes after her. That leads to Claire almost being attacked, but she runs for it.
Claire ends up climbing the rigging while the fight goes on. Eventually, she falls from the rigging at Jamie’s feet. Her arm has a deep cut all the way down it, which Jamie later tells her he worried about. A cut that deep that Claire didn’t feel meant he feared it was fatal.
Fortunately, Mr. Willoughby is able to stitch it up. Jamie gets a chance to tell Claire about finding Murtagh at Culloden. “It doesna hurt a bit to die,” were his last words.
Jamie feels the weight of Culloden still. All those men died and yet he survived. Why? It’s a question he’ll never get the answer to.