Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 84 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The short chapter starts with Claire out in her garden. She realizes the gate is open, and she worries about deers that could have gotten in and eaten up her garden.

She ends up attacked by some bees, and there is a mention of a bear as she wonders how the beehive was knocked over. So, Claire runs to get out of dodge. She realizes that maybe there wasn’t a bear. Bears don’t need to try to be silent.

That’s when Claire comes across a body. It’s Malva’s body, and it’s clear right away that it’s too late to save her, but I love that we see Claire jump straight into her doctor self. Claire notes that Malva’s eyes are glassy and open but the body is warm.

At first, Claire thinks there’s nothing she can do. When she sees movement. Malva is pregnant, and the baby is still alive in there. Claire performs an emergency c-section to get the baby out. At first, the baby looks like it could live, but in the end, Claire realizes that there’s nothing she can do. Both mother and baby have been killed.

Claire hasn’t even thought about the murderer at this point. We know it means that there is a murderer out there somewhere. And that’s something the next chapters will cover.