Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 85 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire thinking about who could have murdered Malva. There are a few suspects, and it’s clear that everyone has their own thoughts and theories. Amy McCallum and Lizzie have picked Claire and Jamie’s side, just like the rest of the family. However, there are plenty of people on the Ridge who believe Claire or Jamie had something to do with it.

The chapter moves on, though. Joseph wants to be happy, and he was happy with the opportunity to marry Monika. That was messed up when Manfred McGillvary ended the engagement with Lizzie, but Joseph wants to see if she’ll be interested in marriage again.

It turns out Monika is. She didn’t want to break off the engagement, but it was her sister who ended that. Now, her sister has thrown her out because the family no longer has money. Monika walked from Halifax to Fraser’s Ridge to see if she could make things right with Joseph. She’s happy to hear that Joseph still wants to marry her.

When Monika sees baby Rodney, she takes him and cuddles him. This is clearly a woman who is looking forward to being part of a loving family again. It offers us a little bit of happiness when there’s a lot of darkness still to come.