Outlander Book Club: Written in My Own Heart’s Blood Chapter 56 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with William struggling to find someone who can look after his horse’s hooves. He looks for another officer’s groom to help, which is when he bumps into Captain Richardson.

William has been warned about Richardson by Randall. Even without that warning, William feels like something is up with the man. After all, he’s a threat to “Mother Claire,” and William likes Claire.

This leads to him thinking about Claire. He liked her as a stepmother, and I love that he liked her that way. This was a relationship that could have been tense. Claire knew that Jamie was William’s son and she never really liked that, but she also knew that it wasn’t the boy’s fault. Claire is no Catlyn Stark from Game of Thrones.

Back to the chapter. As William thinks about Claire, he realizes that she is still his stepmother. She is married to Jamie, who is his biological father.

William’s thoughts then go onto Mac, the groom he knew as a child. The groom who was Jamie. William’s memories of Mac are still a little hazy, but there is one feeling that comes out of these thoughts: abandonment. Mac left and never returned. He felt abandoned as a child, and this could have a knock-on effect now that he’s found out who Jamie is.