Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 59 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
We open with Brianna waking in the middle of the night. Like many pregnant women, her bladder can’t hold much and she needs to use the chamberpot. However, she makes a point of emptying it herself because she can’t bear to allow a slave to do this for her. That’s not surprising considering the time period she’s grown up in.
While outside, Brianna sees Lord John Grey return from the slaves’ quarters. She pieces it all together, realizing that John is gay. She believes her father doesn’t know considering everything that happened at Wentworth Prison, but she does later find out that Jamie knows everything.
The next day Brianna has a plan. She doesn’t want to marry anyone, but it’s clear that she’s not really going to get a choice in the matter. If she’s going to marry someone, it might as well be more of a business arrangement than anything else. John will want to hide his sexuality so she suggests they marry.
When John turns her down, Brianna decides to threaten him with blackmail. She’ll tell everyone that he’s gay.
It doesn’t work, mostly because there’s no way that Brianna would ever do such a thing. She couldn’t imagine turning someone over for being gay, even if it was illegal in the 1970s just like now.
This does allow the two to have a conversation. Brianna points out that she would give John a child of his own if he’d like one. She would live with him in Virginia, but their marriage would be strictly business. She would also help to raise his son, Willie, who we know is Brianna’s half-brother.
It’s not something John is interested in. He points out that Jamie would hate him for marrying Brianna. Also, he notes that Brianna looks a lot like her father and it would be wrong considering the feelings John harbors for Jamie. John also tells Brianna about the time he flogged Jamie at Ardsmuir for the tartan, which he knew did definitely not belong to Jamie.
They have a very grown-up conversation about things. In the end, John does decide to give Brianna a little grace possibly hoping that Jamie and Claire will bring Roger back to her. He pretends to propose to her.