Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 72 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire and Jamie getting to River Run. They need to get to the bottom of Phaedre’s note, but it turns out that Phaedre isn’t at River Run anymore. She hasn’t been there for some time, and Duncan and Ulysses have been out looking for her. Jocasta notes that she woke one morning and Phaedre wasn’t around.

Jocasta doesn’t understand why Phaedre would run. Claire and Jamie initially wonder if there was some sort of connection to Manfred and syphilis. Is it possible that someone passed it onto Phaedre and she ran away not to bring shame?

Well, it turns out that it’s potentially something else. When Duncan gets back, he admits that he was attracted to Phaedre to the point where his parts started working again. He was shocked by this, but Phaedre just helped him with it. The two started up an affair behind Jocasta’s back.

Is it possible that Jocasta found out? This could have led to Jocasta getting rid of her body slave, and they should worry about what Jocasta could do to Duncan.

However, Claire gets to learn a little more about Jocasta’s past. It turns out that Phaedre is no ordinary slave. Phaedre was a love child of Hector Cameron and Betty the slave. This leads to Claire realizing that while Jocasta can be a jealous woman, she is also an honorable one. She kept Phaedre close to her when she could have sold Phaedre to someone else.

It’s clear that Jocasta is upset about everything that’s happened. Jamie makes it clear that he doesn’t want any harm to come to Duncan. Jocasta tries to play innocent, but we all know what she’s thinking. Jamie makes it clear that if she wants to keep Duncan and Phaedre’s liaison quiet, she won’t allow any harm to come to Duncan.

I do love how we get to see multiple sides of Jocasta in this chapter. When she’s angry at someone, she can be vicious, but she has also got a level of empathy that I don’t believe either of her brothers really had.