Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 30 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

We start off pretty light. Roger agrees to look after some Americans at a conference instead of going back to Scotland. It’s not like there’s anything waiting for him up there. After all, Brianna has written to say that she’s not coming during the summer after all.

She’s made up some excuses. There is a conference abroad and some job opportunities that she can’t turn down. Roger gets it in his mind that she’s leaving him behind; she’s met someone else.

However, Roger soon learns that Bree lied to him. She hasn’t gone on a conference after all. When she sends him a box of her history, he realizes that her grandmother’s pearls are missing. There’s no way she’d take them on some sort of conference to Sri Lanka. Roger immediately realizes what it means, but he decides to call her to make sure.

Her phone has been disconnected, so Roger phones Dr. Joe Abernathy. Joe thought Brianna was heading to Roger in April and is concerned she’s not there. Roger knows what this means.

It turns out Joe knows all about the stones. He knows that Claire went back in time, and now Bree has done the same. He doesn’t seem all that worried at first. Roger makes it clear that there are no guarantees that Brianna went through the stones fully or to the right time.

I love that Claire trusted Joe enough to tell him. We never really get that confirmation until this point in the story, but it shows the type of relationship Claire and Joe had once they became friends.

Roger decides to head up to Scotland. After all, he can’t blame Brianna for going through the stones, but he does want to know why she didn’t say anything to him.