Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 107 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire waking from her hot flash. She goes to a box room so that she doesn’t disturb Jamie in bed. After all, she knows exactly what’s going on, and she knows that she just needs air.

She’s aging. She’s not quite ready for full menopause to hit, but she does accept that it’s starting to happen.

While she sits by the window, she can hear a crying baby. Later she hears a voice settling the baby. She knows that it’s Roger trying to quieten Jemmy down, and she can hear him attempt to sing. There is a sadness in her heart hearing it. Roger doesn’t have the tune, but he’s trying. He still hasn’t got his voice back, and she knows what that meant to him.

Jamie wakes up without Claire beside him and is initially worried by the sweat. She makes it clear that there’s nothing to worry about. The two share an intimate moment, which involves Jamie telling Claire of everything she smells of.

I’ll admit that I’ve never connected to this. I have a good sense of smell, but I’ve never been able to distinguish between all the smells on my ex-husband’s body. It’s all just meshed into one. But this is the romance part of the novel. It’s the love story part that stands out.

We then have a small jump in time. Jamie has heard from Lawrence Stern, who they both met in Voyager. He shares that he had placed blotting paper in cages with birds and he finds that they all try to migrate to the southeast on a night. These are young birds who have never migrated south. If you’ve ever wondered about nature vs. nurture, this part suggests nature.