Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 34 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire in the kitchen. Mrs. Bug is eyeing up the broth, and Claire offers to go halves. Claire needs the broth and wants to let it go moldy.

Mrs. Bug can’t really understand the fascination with mold, but she doesn’t bring it up to much. Not at first, anyway. Instead, Mrs. Bug comments on the mice that Adso has caught. As Claire gives Adso some broth and comments it’ll come from her half, Mrs. Bug explains that the cat can have anything he wants.

That’s when Mrs. Bug brings up the mold. More importantly, she brings up the topic of medicine and charms. Mrs. Bug once knew a man who practiced medicine. He also practiced spells and charms. Claire thinks about Cranesmuir and the witch trials, remembering how people viewed her with suspicion because of her skills for healing.

This is when we get to learn a little more about Mrs. Bug. She and Arch were struggling to conceive, so she want to the man for a charm to help. He gave her a charm but made it clear that her husband would die if she had a child. She had to decide which one she would choose.

In the end, she chose her husband. Claire thinks about the sacrifice that Mrs. Bug made for the sake of her husband, and she wonders if this is something that many women choose to do.

At the very end, Mrs. Bug gives Claire the charm that she’s carried in her pocket throughout all these years. She thinks Claire might be able to help someone else.