Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 13 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire and Jamie running through their day. Claire tells Jamie all about Lizzie’s malaria and the attempt to help her and mentions Bobby Higgins’s hookworms. Sometimes I do have to question her telling Jamie so many details. I guess she doesn’t believe in doctor-patient confidentiality in this time. She should even keep some of these details from Jamie!

She does go through some of the treatments that she did come up with. Lizzie’s treatment could be delivered topically instead of orally, while she’s figured something that she can use to get rid of the hookworms.

After getting caught up on that, we move on to Jamie asking about all the times he’s nearly died. He runs through the four times that he and Claire can immediately remember. We have the abbey after Wentworth Prison, Culloden, Laoghaire shooting him, and the snake bite.

He refuses to accept the night he met Claire as one of those times he nearly died even though he almost bled to death. Claire does bring up the time Dougal hit Jamie over the head with an ax. He has to include that, so he’s used five of his lives up.

He doesn’t tell Claire about the fortune-teller. She’s not really sure why he’s thinking about this, but she points out one thing. He is a difficult man to kill, and she’s grateful for that.