Outlander Book Club: An Echo in the Bone Chapter 30 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire and Jamie seeing a hammerhead shark. This leads to a conversation about the strangest animals Jamie has ever seen, and he thinks that the mandrill wins. However, it does bring up the orangutan that he was once fascinated by.

It’s the seeing of the shark that gets me. Jamie says that they are good-mannered, but are they? Sharks are predators, and I get this sense that the shark represents things that will happen to Bree and Roger in the later chapters of An Echo in the Bone. I’ll get to that shortly.

There is a small reference to France and King Louis. It turns out that he died three years ago, and Claire thinks about forgiveness. It seems that she’s forgiven Louis for what he did. Or maybe she realizes that she’s forgiven Jamie for going back on his word and being sent to the Bastille in the first place.

When they board the small British ship that appears and is supposed to take them to Scotland, Captain Stebbings presses Ian. This leads to Jamie making a snarky comment to the captain and he’s punished for that. Claire is worried that she’ll end up left alone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and so she ends up jumping to the cutter’s deck, stabs the tiller, and then loses consciousness just as Jamie appears.

When she wakes, she finds out that they are on the Pitt and sailing out to sea. Jamie is now in charge, and they’re not heading to Scotland anymore. The ship is heading north, and Claire realizes that it’s to Connecticut. She also realizes that Rollo has been left behind on the Teal, and she worries about the poor thing. How will he fare alone?

Claire also learns that she killed a man, the gunner. However, she later realizes that he died from shock. After that, she moves her thoughts to the moon. It’s full and shining that night, but wasn’t the night before. Does it foreshadow a peaceful voyage north?