Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 31 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

Roger makes it to Fiona and Ernie’s. They’ve turned the manse into a boarding house, and Roger gets to sleep in his own room.

Throughout the chapter, he explains that he’s tried to find Brianna. People have seen her—it’s hard not to recognize someone so tall with red hair—but they don’t know much. The driver who took her to the stones says that she told him she was meeting friends and wouldn’t need him to wait for her.

It’s clear this is where she’s gone. And Roger works it out that she went on Beltane. He isn’t going to wait for October. He’ll go through Midsummer’s Day.

Before he can put a plan together, Fiona questions him about a picture Roger has on his desk. She recognizes Gillian Edgars. You see, not only was Gillian in the papers for murder, but she was one of the dancers at the calling of the stones. Gillian was too interested in the song to call the dawn, something that Fiona knows because she is now the caller. Only the caller and successor know all the words.

Fiona shouldn’t even be telling Roger this.

In the end, Fiona admits that she has Gillian’s book. It was something she should have taken to the police, but it was stored in the dancers’ secret spots, so Fiona got a bad idea about it and kept it. She gives it to Roger to look through.