Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 44 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts relatively light, with Jamie focusing more on his thoughts of Brianna than anything else. He’s so happy that Bree is with them. She is his flesh and blood.

When Brianna kisses him on the cheek, he realizes that she can feel the scars on his shoulder. He wonders how much Claire has told Brianna about those scars. He knows Claire will have said something, but will it have been everything?

There isn’t much time to think through those thoughts. Instead, Lizzie turns up. She’s nervous, but that’s not uncommon. It’s important to remember at this point that she’s just a young teenager, 14 at best. Sure, that’s old enough back then for marriage, but at the same time, she was still a young girl who knew some of the dangers of men.

So, she shares that a man named MacKenzie has shown up at the woods. This man is someone who Brianna knew, and Lizzie is sure that Brianna was scared of “MacKenzie.” She never followed Brianna when Bree said to leave her, which Jamie isn’t impressed with. However, Young Ian stands up for Lizzie reminding Jamie that she’s just a young girl. Again, it’s important to remember this.

Lizzie then tells Jamie that she could smell “MacKenzie’s” seed on Brianna when Bree did return. Lizzie is sure that Bree was a virgin before being with  MacKenzie, and she’s sure that MacKenzie raped Brianna.

There’s more. Brianna is pregnant. Lizzie knows that Bree hasn’t had her courses in two months, and Jamie now thinks about how Bree is glowing and knows that his daughter is pregnant. This is a huge problem. MacKenzie could claim Bree and the baby, forcing Brianna into marriage.

Jamie has to do something fast. He and Young Ian storm off as Lizzie thinks about what she’s done.

I don’t believe for a second that when Lizzie told Jamie what she saw that she meant for this to happen. Her words weren’t malicious, but those of an innocent young girl who saw something and made up a story in her head. We all do that sort of thing, but many of us are now old enough to know that we need the full story and not to assume anything.

At this point, Jamie even assumes that MacKenzie is a rapist and that Roger and Brianna never had sex. He assumes that Brianna has stopped talking about Roger because he’s not sure Roger would raise another man’s child, and Brianna doesn’t want to find that out.

There are a lot of assumptions made. Jamie goes on the warpath, and it’s not Lizzie’s fault. Jamie chose to take this action based on the words of a 14-year-old girl, a girl who was sure what she had seen and had happened. We do need to stop solely blaming a woman for a man’s actions because if it’s not Lizzie who gets the blame it’s Brianna or it’s Claire.

Maybe Roger should have told Brianna that he was using the name MacKenzie and not Wakefield. Maybe Brianna should have been listening better in the way Lizzie was. Knowing the name Roger was using could have cleared a lot up very quickly.