Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 106 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire making notes about her patient, Rosamund Lindsay. She was brought in with a severe laceration to the hand, which had become seriously infected. Claire said that the best thing would be to amputate at the elbow, but Kenny refused to let that happen. Claire, instead, amputated just the thumb and gave Rosamund penicillin.

Eventually, Rosamund succumbed to her injuries. However, Claire doesn’t think that it was the infection. She’s sure that Rosamund died from an allergic reaction to the penicillin. Now she wonders what to write in her notes.

By saying it was the penicillin, she could be tried for manslaughter or even murder. She remembers the witch trials, and she knows that not everyone in town trusts her. But will anyone read her notes? Maybe not before she dies.

Claire decides to write “anaphylaxis” in the notes, hoping that people won’t understand the word just yet. She’s not seen it written down anywhere else from the journals she has seen.

Brianna is there to help comfort Claire, making it clear that there was nothing else Claire could have done. Claire doesn’t blame herself, but it doesn’t stop her feeling sad. Bree notes that she once heard Uncle Joe explain how he felt after losing a patient, so she understood how Claire felt. That’s when Claire realizes that she needed someone to talk to who would understand. She and Joe would always talk about things like this.

It was easy talking to another doctor or even going through the process of the investigation to find out why the death happened. Claire would talk to people who understood the entire situation, and she doesn’t really have anyone in her time period like this.