Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 35 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

Brianna, Ian, and Young Jamie are at the docks ready to get Bree passage on one of the ships to the colonies. Ian is arranging that while Young Jamie takes Brianna to find a manservant to go with her. Neither Ian nor Jamie will let her travel alone.

We know the colonies are dangerous. Having someone indentured to her is wrong from her viewpoint, but it is necessary. In the end, she agrees to travel with someone because she can see that the men aren’t going to take no for an answer.

While Young Jamie looks for someone, Brianna gets some hot pies, where she becomes the center of attention due to her height. She’s embarrassed about it and decides to just glare at a guy and find a place to sit and eat her food.

Maybe her height is a good thing for one person, though. A man comes up to Brianna with a request. He’d like Bree to take his daughter as her servant. This man explains that his daughter is going to be sold to someone who will use her as a concubine, and he can’t possibly allow that to happen.

Brianna is reluctant, making it clear that she’s heading to the colonies. The man would rather never see his daughter again than see her ruined, and I do think this is an important part of this chapter. It reminds us of the dangers of the time.

Claire was extremely lucky when she fell through the stones to end up in the hands of the MacKenzie clan and then married to Jamie. Brianna was very lucky to grow up in the 20th century and have enough with her to get to Lallybroch, where she’d get help to travel across to the colonies. Not everyone would be in that position. People had to literally sell themselves into indentured servant contracts just to survive.

Brianna still doesn’t really want a servant, but then she sees Lizzie. She’s just a 14-year-old girl. “A puppy.” It was always puppies at the pound that made Bree’s heart melt.

In the end, Bree tells Ian and Jamie that she will have Lizzie. In fact, Lizzie ate some of Bree’s food, so it’s settled. Jamie isn’t impressed, especially with Bree having her own opinions. He is very much a man of his time.

However, Ian can see that Brianna will not be swayed. I do have to wonder what went through Ian’s mind. While some of this would be Fraser stubbornness, Ian would also have known Claire well enough to see some of Claire’s personality in Brianna.

And so, Brianna and Lizzie end up on a ship to the colonies. At first, Brianna feels sadness for a country she doesn’t really know and people she’s only really met. But she’s said goodbye to so many people in the past, she’ll get through it. Lizzie is crying, leaving her dad behind. Brianna just comforts her ready for their journey.