Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Claire at Grannie Abernathy’s home. I do wonder each time I read this whether Grannie Abernathy is linked to Geillis Duncan in any way. We know Geillis married an Abernathy, and Grannie shares that she married into the family. She was a Fraser first. This doesn’t come up in Claire’s thoughts, though.
Instead, Claire thinks about how Grannie Abernathy, who is somewhere between 92 and 102 years old, and her family are struggling. We get that reminder that multiple generations of a family would live together in one home, something we don’t see in the west all that much now. Claire notes that the crops are struggling with Roger and Brianna not there to help, and it leads to her missing the two of them and her grandchildren.
I do want to note that I love the trade of goods and services. Grannie Abernathy gives Claire turnips as her payment for Claire’s services. We know a lot of trade and bartering happened back then. Maybe we should go back to doing that as inflation continues to cause problems for people.
When Claire gets back home, Donner is there. He wants to go back to his own time, but he knows he needs gem for that. He thinks Claire has gems, and he isn’t leaving until he gets them. Jamie turns up just in time and a fight starts. It’s stopped suddenly when a gold ingot falls out of Mrs. Bug’s knitting bag.
The gold shocks everyone. It gives Donner time to fight back, but it all goes terribly. Some ether is knocked over and Young Ian lights a match not realizing just how flammable ether is. The Big House goes up in flames, but fortunately, all but Donner and his men survive.
Claire notes that the fire is 11 months after the date given in the newspapers. Do they not get anything right? Why is the fire so much later? There are certainly a lot of questions, but the biggest are all about the French gold. Why did Mrs. Bug have some of it?