Outlander Book Club: An Echo in the Bone Chapter 57 breakdown
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Claire treating one of the prostitutes near where they are staying. There’s a moment where Claire thinks about potentially giving the woman her socks. Claire doesn’t get a chance to offer, even if she wanted to, when a man comes in looking for her. He wants everything she has.
She was generous with the penicillin when treating the woman, and she does now have Lt. Stactoe’s supplies since he’s died of a fever. So, she does have a lot on hand for this man.
Claire refuses to give it all up. Interestingly, if it was in Boston in the 1960s, she would have handed it over. This is likely due to the way she’d be able to easily get more supplies. In the 1770s, she can’t get those supplies all that easily, and she isn’t going to give something up that she needs.
The man doesn’t really want to use up his gunpowder, but he considers it. Claire doesn’t have to worry, though. Jamie shoots the man. By the time that is all over, Claire can’t give her spare socks to the woman. The woman has already gone.
After that, the Frasers are reunited with the Hunters. The siblings were taken prisoner but the British didn’t count the number of captives they had, so the Hunters were able to escape.
Jamie wants to get information from the British. The best way to do that is to send people in to pretend to be deserters. Denny is one of the men who offer to do this, and later he returns with a bad stomach. He throws up and admits that he was caught as a deserter. It looks like he was poisoned, but he’s going to be okay.
Claire isn’t happy that Jamie allowed Denny to pretend to be a deserter. What would that have meant for Rachel if he was killed? This leads to a conversation between the two about why women don’t bother with war.
Jamie says that women will leave too much behind. They bring life, and they’re needed in the world. War isn’t for women but for men.
During this conversation, Jamie admits that while he fears it, he doesn’t mind too much if he dies right now. However, he doesn’t want to take a young man’s life. That’s taking away a world of potential. I love that we get to see this side of Jamie. For a long time, he’s admitted that he’s a violent man. As he gets older, he realizes what he is taking away from people, and we see this growth of his character.
Claire finishes the chapter by telling Jamie that he’s a gambler. He’s gambling with the biggest thing: life.