Outlander Book Club: An Echo in the Bone Chapter 28 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Bree returning home after the day in the tunnels. She learns all about what happened to Jem and Mandy, and is understandably angry about both situations. Bree wants to find out why Jem was physically reprimanded, although Roger makes it clear that he should be the one to discuss the matter.

As for Mandy, Bree is angry that Roger would give her the champagne bottle. However, she also wonders why Mandy would throw it at the window. What prompted her to take such action? Roger didn’t consider this at first, but now he needs to.

However, their thoughts are interrupted with their own intimate moment. We get a chance to see them connect on a physical level, which is when we find out that Bree only wears underwear for Roger’s liking.

After this, Roger heads out. It’s when he feels a presence in the broch and thinks of spirits. He decides he’ll get a new hinge and padlock for the door at the broch.

We then get some time with Roger at the Dunbonnet cave, which he finds strangely inviting. There is an emptiness to the cave, but something is calling him in to offer protection. Could this be Jamie’s ghost? Roger certainly starts to think about his in-laws, and I love that he thinks of them as alive. One of the great things about time travel is that Roger knows somewhere in time they are alive. He imagines them then.

He then gets to the top of a hillside and thinks about the Iron Age fort Bree had told him about. It does lead to him seeing a sightless statue. There’s what looks like something that used to be a niche in the statue, and it certainly offers a sense of foreboding.