Outlander Book Club: Written in My Own Heart’s Blood Chapter 4 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter picks up where An Echo in the Bone left us. Jamie has just learned that John had carnal knowledge of Claire. How? Well, John goes into it all.

Jamie learns that everyone believed him to be dead, and then learns that John and Claire married. It’s the ending that really sets him over the edge, though. John and Claire slept with each other willingly, and both of them were thinking about Jamie.

If it was just Claire, I think Jamie could have accepted that. The fact that John was thinking about Jamie the whole time is what hurts. We know the trauma Jamie has faced. To know that a man he views as a friend was picturing him—was making love to him—hurts. He knows how John feels about him, but this is a step too far.

Jamie does what we expect him to. He starts beating John up, and it’s only when a bunch of rebels turn up that Jamie is encouraged to stop. The rebels want to find out who John and Jamie are.

There is a debate over whether John is a soldier or not. Jamie and John both say no, but one of the rebel soldiers believes that John is. So, Jamie hands John over to the rebels and leaves, putting John is a very dangerous situation. This is the situation Mrs. Figg worried about in a previous chapter.

I do admit that I’m always surprised that John shared everything, especially that the two were thinking of Jamie the whole time. John knows of Jamie’s experiences. At least, some of them. Why would John think telling Jamie everything would be a good idea? Even Claire would have held back on this.