Jamie finds out who Laoghaire is now with in Outlander Book 7, Chapter 78
Now that he’s back in Lallybroch, Jamie needs to see Laoghaire in Outlander Book 7, Chapter 78. He needs to see who she is with.
It’s weird how Jamie is so curious. It’s not that he wants to catch her out or manage to get out of paying his alimony at this point. He wants to see who she is with, and it sounds like he wants to compare himself to the man. He wants to see who Laoghaire has chosen to be with.
We do get to find out about Jamie’s wedding day to Laoghaire, and that it was all Jenny’s idea. However, it turns out that Jamie may not have made it down the aisle if it wasn’t for Jenny and Ian. We also get to see why Laoghaire wanted to be with Jamie—she did think Jamie loved her.
The chapter itself is likely to be used in the TV series. After all, we need to see Jamie get some sort of closure over who Laoghaire is with and the alimony he needs to pay.
I’m not seeing much in foreshadowing, though. This is more of a chapter that leads to one particular focus: the alimony payments.
Let’s dive into An Echo in the Bone Chapter 78.
Just the Outlander chapter
The chapter starts with Jamie and Jenny talking. Jamie needs to see Laoghaire to see who she shares a bed with. He thinks back to his wedding to her and notes that he didn’t really want to go through with it. He did this for Jenny and for Laoghaire. Meanwhile, Jenny was setting Jamie up with Laoghaire for Jamie’s sake. She wanted him to remarry and love again.
Claire walks in on the siblings talking. She isn’t angry that Jamie wants to see who Laoghaire is with now. Maybe she’s confident in how Jamie feels about her and Laoghaire, or maybe it’s just that she understands.
When Jamie gets to Laoghaire’s house, he meets the man but doesn’t realize it. He thinks the man is a servant.
When he talks to Laoghaire, she explains that she married Jamie because he needed her. She thought he had loved her once upon a time. When he took the beating for her, she believed that was his way of showing that. It was a huge sign that he cared, and it’s easy to see why a 16-year-old girl of the time would believe that.
She even thought that Jamie only married Claire because of Dougal. She thought that Jamie still loved her. Then they got married, and Laoghaire realized the truth. Jamie never did love her, and that hurt. I can empathize with that. Finding out the man you love doesn’t love you in return is awful.
The meeting doesn’t end up going all that well, though. Laoghaire sees what Jamie is wearing and views that he is rubbing in his wealth. She worries that he won’t continue paying her the alimony he should do. Jamie ends up giving her some gold, and that’s when the “servant” comes back.
Well, it turns out that the servant, who is described as crippled, isn’t her servant at all. This is the man Laoghaire is with, and she’s with him because he needs her. And I think we get to see what Laoghaire needs in a relationship. She needs to feel needed. That’s what she thinks love is.
Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter
This chapter doesn’t foreshadow all that much. I think it’s more about setting up the plot to bring up the alimony payments again. They have been a huge problem for Jamie up to this point, and this chapter allows Jamie to find a way to stop paying them. He just needs Laoghaire to marry the man.
Adapting An Echo in the Bone chapter
We know that Nell Hudson is back in Outlander Season 7. This would suggest that the chapter is going to be used, and I do think it needs to be. While the series hasn’t mentioned the alimony as much as the books up to this point, we know that it’s a problem. It also seems natural that it’s all going to come up once Claire and Jamie are in Lallybroch.
I want to see Laoghaire tell her side of the story. I want to see the man she is with. I definitely want to see Jamie have a little bit of jealousy about it. We know that jealousy isn’t always rational. We’ve even seen in the previous chapters of the book that Jamie is jealous that Laoghaire is with another man. Although, I think it’s more of that she’s happy and still getting money out of him more than the fact that she’s with someone else. Nobody really knows how to explain those emotions.
What did you spot while reading An Echo in the Bone Chapter 78? Let us know in the comments below.
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