Outlander Book Club: An Echo in the Bone Chapter 18 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire pulling teeth. That’s when she meets Percy, who shares what he is doing there. It’s the same story we’d already heard via Lord John Grey’s chapters. Percy is also offering passage to Scotland on his ship.

Claire goes to see Jamie. She wants to figure out if this Beauchamp is connected to her in some sort of way. Jamie can understand why Claire wants to figure this out. Claire has spent so long without family. This is a chance to find more familial connections. They may not trust her, but that doesn’t really matter. It’s just about finding connections at this point.

However, Jamie doesn’t trust Percy. He doesn’t want to put Fergus in any danger, and he doesn’t really want to get information about Beauchamp at the risk of Fergus’s safety.

That’s where we leave that as the Bells arrive. They haven’t heard the best of things about Jamie—and I love Percy’s previous comments about all the things he’s heard about Jamie. It doesn’t help that the Bells heard some of the information from Forbes, who we know doesn’t like the Frasers at all.

The Bells want Jamie’s help. Their father was taken by the rebels and they want Jamie to find him. I am intrigued at why Jamie, and why now?

The rest of the chapter is focused on the way Fergus’s family works in the print shop. We see that each of them have a place, although Germain is being instructed in another part of the family business—pickpocketing. Jamie is shocked that Fergus would teach the boy this, but I got a sense on the first read that it’s going to come up in the future.

Finally, we move on to Fergus. All orphans would love the fairy tale of being connected to some sort of great man, and Fergus has realized he is the son of a great man after all. He’s the son of Jamie. I adore this part of the chapter. Fergus has never once forgotten everything Jamie has done for him, and Jamie will never knowingly let something bad happen to Fergus.