Outlander Book Club: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 31 breakdown

Lord John Grey meets with Arthur Longstreet in Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 31. This is the point we’re supposed to be getting answers to questions, but I feel like I have more questions.

One thing I have found with the Lord John Grey books is that there are a few unexpected twists at the end. That is a great thing when you want to be surprised, but sometimes the twists don’t always make sense. I find myself reading some of these end chapters a couple of times, and I still don’t always have all the pieces.

That’s the case here. I have a lot more questions than answers about Arthur Longstreet.

Breaking down Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade Chapter 31

Lord John is getting restless. While he’s relieved that all he needs is to be patient, he is growing tired of just sitting around. Depression threatens to take hold, and he’s annoyed when he gets a letter from Dr. Humperdinck about meeting Longstreet. Humperdinck and Longstreet discussed John a little, and John presumes that it is as two doctors who have treated him.

John decides he needs to see Longstreet. That’s where he learns that Humperdinck is a psychologist, so Ludinda Joffrey and Walpole tricked him into getting some mental help. We also learn that it was Arthur’s cousin, George, who was the suitor for Benedicta and a Jacobite supporter. George is now dead, but he was Lord Creemore at the time.

The topic of family honor and the sanctity of life come up. Longstreet now shares that John’s father was implicated in the plot against the English king instead of Lord Creemore. There was a co-conspirator referred to as “A.”

Longstreet explains that he felt like he need to protect his cousin. However, he now knows that it meant his cousin got to life scot-free instead of facing the justice that he should have.

Now we finally get a few answers to some of the questions we have. Longstreet was the one with Gerald’s journal, which had been in his cousin’s things. While he had read it, he hadn’t realized Gerlad hadn’t killed himself until this conversation with John. He also shares that Gerald knew all about the plot and had code-named four of the conspirators in the journal, including Creemore and likely Victor Arbuthnot.

Realizing that Benedicta and her sons were in danger, he decided not to reveal the knowledge of the journal at first. Since his cousin was dying, George wouldn’t be held accountable, so after 17 years, Longstreet could take some of the journal pages and send them out. He wanted to make sure the fault lied with the other co-conspirators. It turns out that the O’Higginses were supposed to deliver a third page. All three pages together would help to implicate Arbuhnot. Longstreet brings up Percy in this, but John refuses to talk about that.

Longstreet doesn’t know who killed Gerald. However, he knows Gerald and Twelvetrees duelled for the honor of Esme, Gerald’s first wife. This is the first time we’re hearing of this, and I’m a little confused at why it came up now. Shouldn’t that have come up before?

That’s it for Longstreet’s confession. And I feel like we still have zero answers and Longstreet went through far too much for no reason.

Could this chapter be adapted into a TV series?

If there is a Lord John Grey series, this chapter would certainly need to be adapted. There is so much more unfolding in this, especially with the reveal of who sent the pages from the journal. Now we know where the journal was and why those pages were sent.

We also get answers to the duelling. Did Twelvetrees actually kill Gerald and run away? This is something that we’re left wondering, and we’d need to be left wondering the same thing in the TV series.

So, yes, there’s no way around using this chapter.

Let us know what you spotted in this chapter via Facebook or Twitter.