Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 51 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Roger waking up to finding himself in pain and tied up. He realizes that he’s on a horse and he’s surrounded by Native Americans. That’s when he starts to remember everything that happened.

He doesn’t know which of the two saved his life, but he knows that either Jamie or Ian was willing to kill him. Understandably, he has a nasty taste in his mouth when he thinks about Brianna’s father. This is no longer about what Bree told Jamie, but about Jamie’s actions against Roger.

The tribe isn’t worried about Roger running away. They don’t keep too much of a close eye on him, allowing him to grab some water and to even wash a little. It’s only at night when the tribe decides to keep a rope around his neck tied to the arm of one of his captors.

Roger realizes that he doesn’t really know where he is, anyway. The days start rolling into each other, but he needs to take in landmarks. His focus right now is to get back to Fraser’s Ridge; to get back to Brianna. He still has the gemstones to make it possible for them to travel.

When he does get a chance, Roger runs away. He ends up under a load of bushes, which does prevent his captors from finding him, but it also leads to him being plunged into darkness. He thinks about what the training is for hillwalking in Scotland. That’s to stay stationary until help arrives, and it’s not a good idea now.

So, Roger has to move in the direction he thinks is the right one. He finally comes to a large stone and finds daylight.

As he looks at the stone, he realizes that he is in the middle of a stone circle. He doesn’t hear anything from the stones, so wonders if they’re closed because of the time of year. He doesn’t know the exact time of year, though. We only know at the start of the chapter that it’s October.

So, why can’t he hear the stones? And what is he going to do now that he has found the stones? Will he go through?