Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 37 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire going into the barn. It’s been unlocked, and Claire wonders if someone forgot to lock it. That isn’t the case at all. Fergus is sleeping in there.

Claire isn’t impressed that Fergus has been hiding from his family. She decides to tell him that Henri-Christian is healthy other than being a dwarf. And his form of dwarfism shouldn’t affect his ability to work.

That’s what worries Fergus. He’s seen dwarves before. He knows what can happen. When he lived in the brothel in Paris, he saw that dwarves would be brought in for select clientele for certain fantasies. That’s the last thing Fergus wants for his son now that he’s managed to escape the world of the brothels.

It also doesn’t help that Fergus is one-handed. This constantly plays on his mind because he can’t do the farm work that many others can do. He feels inferior, and he knows what his son will feel in the future.

It’s a heartbreaking chapter when you look at it from Fergus’s point of view. He does know what it’s like to be crippled in the 18th century. It wasn’t a kind time for those with disabilities. Henri-Christian is going to have a difficult life.