Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 49 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
Claire is thinking about herbs and is looking at her scalpel. She’s preparing in case Brianna asks Claire to help her abort the baby. There isn’t a safe way to do things in the 18th century, and it’s not like it was even safe in the 1970s when abortion was still illegal.
Jamie walks in on Claire looking at her options and thinking things through. The two have an honest conversation about what Brianna could request, and Jamie is completely against it. He views it as murder.
Eventually, it all comes down to the fact that while the child may be Brianna’s rapist’s baby, it will also be his grandson. And Claire points out that if Bree has the baby here, she won’t leave for her own time. Jamie doesn’t care about that if it means his daughter and grandchild stay in the past.
Naturally, he wants them to be with him. However, he isn’t thinking of Brianna in this moment. Having her rapist’s baby could destroy her, and that’s something Claire points out. However, even she’s not 100% sure she’d be able to abort the child.
Not only are there risks to Brianna, but then she lives with the knowledge that she’s taken a life. She’s taken lives before but through merciful acts. Is this really a merciful act? That is something she has to think about, knowing that it would be her hands.
Plus, she is worried about losing Brianna. When Jamie walked in on Claire while she was in her thoughts, she sliced her thumb on the scalpel. Claire realizes that she’s nicked a vein, which is something she could do to Brianna, killing her. There would be nothing Claire could do to stop it.
Jamie isn’t happy, but it is Brianna’s choice. Claire is going to allow Bree to have that choice. Brianna does eventually come to her mother about it, but the topic is more about whether Claire thought about getting rid of Brianna when pregnant since Claire resented her. That wasn’t something Claire considered, but Claire points out that Bree was never a product of rape.
Claire thinks about Faith and about Brianna. No matter how much time has passed, nothing has stopped Claire loving both of her daughters.
Brianna doesn’t have an answer by the end of the chapter, but she knows that her mother will talk to her about it. Bree also has to consider that this baby may be Roger’s child.