Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 54 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
We start with the barbecue. Claire and Flora meet, and it turns out that both women have heard a lot about each other. Of course, we know that Claire knows Flora from history. She looked into the history of Scotland and France before coming back to the past. She didn’t bother with the Colonies, but she does know that Flora will spend some time in North Carolina before heading back to Scotland.
Flora knows a little about Claire’s skills. She wants to talk to Claire more but has to entertain the crowd. She has managed to bring Jacobites together in a way Charles Stuart never would have been able to.
Gerald Forbes steps in to talk to Claire. He’s heard rumors that Jamie is going to arm the Cherokee with muskets, and there are rumors that this is for Jamie to switch sides and make sure the Cherokee switch with him. Of course, Claire knows that Jamie will eventually switch, but it’s curious that there is talk of this.
Forbes isn’t happy with the way he was turned down by Brianna. Is there actually this rumor going around or is Forbes just trying to cause trouble?
The focus moves to Jocasta, though. She’s struggling with pressure in her eye, and Claire has now been able to fully diagnose Jocasta’s blindness. She knows the exact type of glaucoma it is, and Claire needs to do an operation to help relieve the pressure in Jocasta’s eye right now. It’s while Jocasta is awake, but it doesn’t look as painful as it sounds. Claire literally sticks a pin in Jocasta’s eye to release pressure.
After this, Jocasta shares that she has heard a voice that she recognizes. The third man involved in the French gold situation is here. He was at the Gathering last, but that and that day at the harbor are the only times that she’s heard the voice. It narrows things down a tiny bit but not enough to figure out who this man could be.
Jocasta worries that the man will kill her. In fact, someone came at her and she managed to catch him with her knife that she had in her basket. Ulysses later notes that some gold is missing from the house.
Later, Phaedre mentions that something doesn’t feel right. There’s a mention of her Grannie from Africa about talking to the bones, and that makes Claire think of Bonnet. It’s not that she thinks Bonnet is the same man from Jocasta’s past, but he is a dangerous man and knows about the gold. Phaedre hasn’t seen him since the first time. That settles a little, but there is more to come from this.