Outlander Book Club: Written in My Own Heart’s Blood Chapter 117 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

Claire and Jamie are woken in the middle of the night by Benedict Arnold. He wants Claire to help treat a man who has been tarred and feathered by the Sons of Liberty. Jamie says that he will accompany Claire to the Shippens where the man is staying.

Well, it turns out that the tarring and feathering is just part of this man’s injuries. He was beating with a lit torch and his leg is broken severely. Claire notices that there are signs of sepsis, and she knows that she needs to work as quickly as possible if she wants to save his life.

The whole situation is dire. Even Jamie ends up retching during Claire’s procedure and he has a good stomach for this sort of thing. It really helps to set the tone of just how bad everything looks for this man.

Jamie sees that Benedict Arnold and Mary Shippen have eyes for each other. He interrupts them by sharing everything that Claire will need to amputate the man’s leg. That is the only hope to save his life at this point. Arnold wants them to go to the print shop that the man owned as all the tools are there, but Jamie refuses to do that. He doesn’t want his family pulled into all of this.

So, he has to agree to use Lord John Grey’s house. Of course, that’s not something that he wants, but it turns out he may not need to. The man can’t be moved. Claire has to do the amputation there. After she does it, she ends up fainting. It was bad.