Outlander Book Club: Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone Chapter 33 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter starts with William taking a walk by the river on his own. He is trying to avoid people, but he runs into Hal. While William wanted to avoid people he knew, he does use this as an opportunity to get some sage advice.

He asks how to renounce his title. Hal explains that he stopped using the Duke of Pardloe as his title and dueled anyone who tried to fight against him on that, but it didn’t really do anything. He still held that title officially, there were other titles he could use, and he still had the same friends and career.

Hal also notes that the only way to really lose the title is to stand up in rebellion against the Crown. Hal knows that John didn’t raise William to do that. William makes it clear that he doesn’t feel right having his birthright now that he knows the full truth of who he is.

This is where Hal offers some excellent advice. He asks what William would like rather than what he wouldn’t like. That’s not something William has ever thought about. His whole life, he has grown up believing he has a duty to his tenants and the Crown. He hasn’t had a chance to think about his own wishes, and he doesn’t think that he should have thought about them.

Hal leaves William to think some more. As William walks around, he finds himself in an Army camp, and he feels safer and at peace surrounded by the tents. It’s clear that his heart is still there.

After all this, he heads back to the house. John Cinnamon tells William everything that happened and shares that he would like some help composing a letter to his biological father. Cinnamon’s excitement and happiness rub off on William, but is that also because William learns that Cinnamon isn’t John’s biological son after all?