Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 90 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with a group of men going out hunting. They come across buffalo, and the men separate while they hunt down the animals. Jamie and Roger are together and are trying to come upon the buffalo, but Jamie suddenly stops and starts beating at something by his leg with his musket.
Roger realizes that Jamie has been bitten by a venomous snake. Roger has to take action quickly, sucking out as much of the venom as possible. We know now that this isn’t something that’s practiced, but it was at the time, and Roger did the best he could.
However, Jamie comments on how his hands have gone numb. He doesn’t think he’s going to make it out of this alive, and he points out that history can be changed after all. If he dies by the snake, he can’t die by the fire in three years.
Roger refuses to believe that history can be changed. He comments that they didn’t manage to change Culloden, although Jamie points out that there was more involved than just Jamie and Claire trying to stop Bonnie Prince Charlie back then.
As Roger refuses to believe that history can be changed, Jamie points out that it means everything must be fate. If that’s the case, what’s the point in sin? There isn’t sin? People can’t change what they’re doing. Jamie also points out that while Roger may not be able to change things that have happened in his past, Jamie might be able to change things that are still to happen in his future.
I try not to think about time travel rules all that much. They certainly give me a headache, and it always depends on which type of time travel an author is going with.
It doesn’t really matter what the rules are anyway. Jamie and Roger are simply debating the ability to change time. They don’t have the answers. Not really. Roger can just hope that time can’t be changed because he needs Jamie to survive.
Jamie is still sure that he’s not going to make it, so he tells Roger about a plan to get Stephen Bonnet. Jamie is using Wylie’s Landing, but he says that Roger should use the best place for him. Roger will also need to take people with him. As good as Roger is getting with sword fighting, it’s not enough to take down Bonnet just yet.
In the end, Roger concedes that maybe Jamie won’t make it. If he doesn’t, does he have anything to say to Claire? “Tell her, I meant it.”
Meant what? We know that Jamie has said to Claire before that if his last words aren’t “I love you” it’s only because he didn’t have time to say them. He means it.