Outlander Book Club: Written in My Own Heart’s Blood Chapter 52 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with Claire and Jamie reaching an ordinary to stay the night. They are not alone, but Claire is so exhausted that she just doesn’t care about that. She just wants to get her stays off so that she can get some coolness to her body.

When the knots get stuck, Jamie helps. He then massages her sides where they hurt, and Claire thinks about how much she missed his touch for the last four months. She thought then that she would never feel it again, and there is a sense of relief in that he’s back.

After they fall asleep, Claire starts dreaming of World War II. She’s trying to help a patient by getting morphine, but she can’t prepare the syringe. She wakes up with a fright, and Jamie asks her what she was dreaming about.

Claire doesn’t think that she is entitled to nightmares when Jamie has been through so much. This is where there is a flaw in her thinking. Just because someone else has been through a more nightmarish situation doesn’t mean another isn’t entitled to bad dreams and fears. It’s something that a lot of people think, and I did for a long time. That didn’t help with the healing process and working through trauma, and Claire runs the risk of nightmares getting worse if she doesn’t work through them.

Jamie understands Claire’s silence, though. He doesn’t push her for answers, and instead, just holds her while she falls back asleep.