Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 3 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Brianna coming to Claire for some advice. She actually wants to talk to Claire about contraception, but the topic begins with syphilis. There was a woman with a disabled boy.

Bree does use the R-word, but I won’t write it here. The use of the word was right for the time period. It’s only been in the last couple of decades or so that the word isn’t used as much, but in the 1960s and 1970s, Bree and Claire would have certainly used it.

Claire explains that the disability is due to syphilis, but the mother won’t realize she has it yet. The symptoms don’t appear in women early on. However, Claire wanted to make sure that the woman had no more children.

Bree wasn’t worried about syphilis. She wanted some advice on contraception methods in the time period. It turns out Marsali was using tansy oil when she and Fergus conceived Joan. Claire is surprised thinking that they just hadn’t bothered using contraception. It only takes the once without it!

It’s only after the mention of syphilis that Bree worries about it. What if Bonnet passed it to her? She wouldn’t even know.

Claire manages to settle those worries. Roger would have started showing signs, and Jemmy would have possibly had some signs of the disease. Bree is in the clear.

After that, Claire and Brianna get to work on treating some of the patients at the Gathering. The bloodletting doctor is there, sure that a man’s liver disease is just humours that need to be let out. Claire starts by arguing with the doctor, but Brianna points out that there’s nothing Claire can do in this time.

So, Brianna takes the knife that the doctor is going to use and sterilizes it, pretending to do a charm that will help. It’s the least they can both do to make sure patients aren’t infected from a bad knife!

And that’s where we leave them. Claire is in her element and Brianna is helping the best she can.