Outlander Book Club: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 30 breakdown

As we get closer to the end of the book, it’s time for some storylines to wrap up. That starts in Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 30.

Lord John Grey returns to England, where he can recover from his injuries sustained in the previous chapter. This allows Harry Quarry time to catch Grey up on everything that has happened. It turns out many other people have tried to avoid giving John some bad news.

We get caught up with what’s going on with Percy. We also learn the identity of the man John helped earlier on in the book.

Breaking down Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 30

John is home. He initially spent time recovering in the hospital in Germany and then with von Namtzen. Now he is home, where his family can look after him. His family has kept a lot of bad news from him, but Harry Quarry catches him up.

We learn that Arthur Longstreet is back in England. The surgeon is no longer working with the Army after being shot. However, he is still alive, and is recovering from his own injuries. I love that this is thrown in considering the last we know, Hal cocked his pistol.

It turns out that Percy is back in England as well. He will face trial in October, which John worries about.

There isn’t much time to focus on this, though. The chapter moves onto the christening of Olivia’s baby, Cromwell Percival John Malcolm Stubbs. He is named for the men who brought him into the world, and John decides against telling Olivia that Percy is short for Perseverance. The chance to tell her disappears anyway, as Horace Walpole comes to see John. A Dr. Humperdinck would like to meet John.

Walpole does discuss the Percy matter with John, sharing that he could try to see if the judge will be lenient on him. It turns out that Walpole was previously romantically linked to the poet Thomas Gray, so this is a risk. It’s one that John is grateful for.

When Dr. Humperdinck arrives, we learn that this is the man John and Hal helped earlier in the book—the one bets were made about whether he was dead or not. He doesn’t remember who he was going to meet yet, as the attack left him with some damage to his memory. He shares that it’s all about patience, and that’s what John also needs right now.

John is sure that his physical health will recover, but he worries about his own mental health. That’s where we leave John in this chapter, as we prepare for all other mysteries to be resolved.

Could this chapter be used in a TV adaptation?

We would certainly need this chapter if Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade was ever adapted into a series. This is the start of the wrap-up of the story.

It catches us up on a few things, especially about Percy. We need to know what will happen to him. If you’ve read the Outlander books, you know that he shows up again. So, that means Walpole potentially helps to get him out of prison. What does Percy agree to do?

We also need to see Dr. Humperdinck arrive. This connects it all back to the start of the chapter, when he was thought dead. After all, that opened up the story of Hal being a betting man and the bets surrounding Gerald Grey. It’s all connected, right?

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