Outlander Book Club: An Echo in the Bone Chapter 77 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with the two Ians spending time together. Ian wants to see if the red deer have had their calves, which takes father and son away from everyone else. This is an important setting as it means the two get a chance to reconnect.

Young Ian talks about Emily’s children. I do find the conversation about Swiftest of Lizards being mentioned. Emily had told Young Ian that Lizards is Ian’s child spiritually but not biologically. Of course, Emily may not be able to tell that as I think Lizards is old enough to be Young Ian’s son. Does Ian think that Lizards is his boy?

Ian Murray seems to think it. He wants Young Ian to tell Jenny about the children.

Young Ian also tells his father about killing Murdina and the circumstances around it. Ian doesn’t think that Young Ian did anything wrong. That leads to Young Ian sharing that he’ll need to kill Arch if he wants to keep people close to him safe. He starts to mention Rachel’s name, but stops himself. Ian realizes that his son has met someone else.

This gives Young Ian a chance to talk about Rachel’s differing religion and everything against them. Ian doesn’t seem to pay a lot of attention to that. He just thinks his son needs a good woman, a woman he can love. Ian shares that he will die a happy man if he knows that his son is settled in matters of love.