Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 27 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Claire heading to out to see Marsali. She needs to talk to Marsali alone about Fergus, getting to the bottom of things that are happening. Claire knows that Fergus won’t do “women’s work,” but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing for him to do.
Marsali doesn’t want to admit that there’s anything wrong at first. However, she eventually shares that he is different. He gets very angry about things, but she does admit that sometimes his anger is understandable. While we say nowadays not to cry over spilled milk, in the past it would have taken hours to milk the goat, so it’s not surprising that Fergus was angry when one of the kids spilled the milk. It wasn’t as easy as heading to the store!
Marsali knows what being beaten is like, though. She thinks back to her mom’s husbands and how they would beat Laoghaire and the kids. Claire has some sympathy for them all.
Before they can discuss this more, men come upon them at the whisky hut. These men want to steal the whisky but there’s nothing ready for them. They end up beating Marsali and knocking her out and then they abduct Claire. Claire is scared that Marsali has been gravely hurt or that something has happened to the baby, but she can’t keep the focus on Marsali for long.
Claire realizes that one of the men who has kidnapped her was in the Army. Clearly, that’s not the case anymore. Hodgepile is now the leader of the men who are thieves, and she thinks they’ve been involved in the burning of the cabins around the backcountry. They’re stealing and then burning.
It’s clear that Claire is at risk of all sorts of harm. All she can do is hope that Jamie will find her, but the men split off into two groups to make sure Jamie finds it harder to track Claire. She doesn’t have anything to drop to leave breadcrumbs.
Things all start to come together in this chapter. Claire finds out that they’re heading to the Brown homestead. Lionel Brown shows up, and it turns out that the Browns are offering a safe haven for the thieves. This is a major issue and Claire realizes that her chances of survival are becoming slim.
One of the abductors stands out. His name is Tebbe and he doesn’t want them to touch Claire. He thinks of her as a dangerous witch and fears any curse that she might put on them. Claire uses that to her advantage and warns them that they will all die.