Outlander Book Club: An Echo in the Bone Chapter 56 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Claire, Jamie, and the other rebels who escaped the fort coming across a group of killed men. It’s clear that the Indians killed one man. Actually, they scalped the man while alive and then he died. This is something that a lot of the men struggle to deal with, but Claire has a stronger stomach for it. This is the doctor in her.
One person who is thrown over the edge is Mrs. Raven. She kills herself after seeing the events of the Indians, and Claire covers her body with kindness.
There is a concern that the Indians are still around. There are sounds that make it sound like the Indians are there, and Jamie makes it clear to Claire that he will not let the Indians take her. However, Claire is taken. The group find out that it’s the British, and the British take Claire as prisoner. Claire has no idea what has happened to Jamie.
When Claire is with the British she sees someone who looks just like Jamie. It’s William, and William recognizes her as the woman from Fraser’s Ridge. There is some awkwardness between them. William isn’t sure how to act with this woman who he knows from his past—the woman who saved Lord John Grey’s life when he caught the measles. Claire isn’t sure how to act around Jamie’s son.
She can’t stop thinking about Jamie throughout the chapter. She keeps thinking of Jamie and then hears the English accent and it confuses her.
While a prisoner of the British, Claire does see a Black man with an amputated leg. This man is Walter Woodcock. We’ve already met his wife Mercy, but Claire hasn’t. Walter has heard about Jamie and Claire, though. Claire is described as “Big Red’s lady.”
Ian ends up coming to save her. Claire can’t think too much with William still in front of her. Ian wants William to spare Claire, sharing that William owes Ian a debt for the Dismal Swamp. William is shocked that Ian thinks they would kill women, but Ian remembers Jane, the woman who was scalped in the previous chapter.
Ian also shares that General Howe hanged three women. William has no reason not to trust Ian after the way Ian has already saved him. Indian cries from elsewhere in the camp disrupt everything, giving Claire and Ian a chance to escape. Claire takes a canteen of brandy, and it’s clear that is going to come up at some point.
Claire and Ian are reunited with Jamie. Jamie wants to know where Claire got the brandy from, and she tells him that she ran into William and that he looks just like Jamie.