It’s the moment we have all been waiting for in Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. We finally see John and Percy alone.
Diana Gabaldon does not shy away from male/male intimacy in this chapter, and I love it. We need to see what it’s like for the two of them, just like we would with Claire and Jamie or with Brianna and Roger. I always question those who are uncomfortable with same sex intimacy when they enjoy heterosexual smut, especially when they know it’s possible—it’s a little different if it comes out of the blue and can be a little shocking at first.
This chapter doesn’t just focus on the intimate moments, though. There is also talk of everything that really happened to Gerald. His death wasn’t a suicide after all.
Breaking down Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 18
We immediately start with John and Percy alone together. They have forgotten to lock the door, and it’s clear that this foreshadows something. Anyone else just really worried that the wrong people would walk in on them?
We get this beautiful moment between the two men. This is when we learn that John prefers to be dominant in the bedroom. This is linked back to his time after Culloden when he was raped, and it makes a lot of sense. However, he wants to give Percy a “gift” by allowing Percy to be the dominant one.
To be honest, this threw me off a little. John doesn’t know Percy all that well right now. They’ve known each other for maybe a couple of months, and John already trusts him to change his preferences in the bedroom? I think this really shows just how easily swayed John can be when it comes to sexual needs and desires.
After all this, John shares a secret with Percy that he has told nobody before. He was actually the first person to find his father dead. He was sneaking back from a night away with someone when his foot hit something hard. It was his father’s body under a peach tree, and there was a gun by Gerald’s body.
Gerald hadn’t killed himself. He had been murdered, but Benedicta decided that she had to make the murder look like a suicide, despite what that would mean for the family’s name. John hid in a hayrick while Benedicta made it look like her husband killed himself and had feared that her son had also been killed by the same man who had killed her husband.
It brings up the question of why Benedicta would do this. What really happened, and why did she think suicide was better than opening a murder investigation? Benedicta knew far more than she has ever let on.
Could this chapter be used in a TV adaptation?
This chapter would need to be used in the book was turned into a Lord John Grey series. There is no way to get around it, especially at the end. We need to see John tell his version of the events to Percy.
Why would John open up to Percy? Well, that would mean the intimate moment would have to happen. We need to see John and Percy get together, and we need to see that connection between them grow because of it. This is so important for later moments in this book, and it explains so much more in Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone.
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