Drums of Autumn

Claire and Brianna hear gossip that a stranger going by the name of “Hodgepile” is looking for Jamie, but they don’t think it is Roger. Bree is worried about Roger, as it has been over a month since she’s seen him.

Claire has been taking care of Lizzie, and the girl is still frail but doing better. Claire is worried that Roger chose to go back to the present rather than go to Brianna. Jamie finds a button in the building where he has been distilling whisky, but no one knows where it came from when they start to ask around. Jamie meets with various other men to talk about selling the whisky in the area, and Bree asks Duncan, who is going into town, to ask around about Hodgepile, Roger Wakefield, and Lizzie’s father.

Jamie is chopping wood when Lizzie approaches him timidly, telling him that she saw a man at the mill and recognized him as Roger. However, Lizzie only heard Roger referred to as “MacKenzie” when they briefly met at the tavern, so this is what she calls him when speaking to Jamie. Lizzie is still terrified of MacKenzie, thinking he raped Brianna, and she thinks Bree is pregnant with his child. She tells this to Jamie and Ian, but regrets it when Jamie jokingly threatens the others if they tell Claire about this.

Claire takes Brianna foraging because she wants to talk to Brianna alone, as she has been acting distant. Claire correctly assumes that Bree is pregnant and tells her she needs to go back through the stones before the baby is born. They talk about the idea of finding a closer stone circle than Craigh na Dun, so she doesn’t have to cross the Atlantic again, and they speak of a cave in Jamaica Claire has come across. They both worry a bit about how Jamie will react, but worry more for Roger.

However, Bree confesses that Roger is not the father, pulling out Claire’s gold wedding ring. Bree admits that Bonnet raped her when she went to get Claire’s ring. This is the first time Gabaldon reveals this fact, as the narration had skipped over Bree and Bonnet’s meeting in Chapter 41. Since then, Bree has tried to forget it happened, but the pregnancy prevents her from doing so now.

Roger walks toward Fraser’s Ridge after Ian stole his horse, and he can only think of Brianna. He feels stupid for not being honest with her, and feels a bad omen coming when ravens surround him. He stole not one but two gemstones from none other than Stephen Bonnet, thinking they would help him and Brianna get back through the stones.

He is stopped by Ian and Jamie, both pointing guns at him, and he recognizes Jamie as Bree’s father immediately. Roger tells them he has come to see his wife, which is the wrong answer for Jamie, who maintains old-fashioned beliefs that a man who has sex with an unmarried woman—whether consensually or not—can claim her as his wife. Jamie punches Roger, and they begin to fight. Roger fears he will die before he is even born.

Claire and Bree worry about how Jamie will react to her pregnancy when he gets home, but something seems off about him when he arrives late. Claire sees that his hand is badly wounded and makes him a splint, and Bree wonders if they should tell him the truth another night, as he seems to have had a rough day. Claire suggests she tell him anyway, but Jamie admits that he already knows about the pregnancy. Jamie asks if Lizzie was right in assuming that she was raped, and Bree confirms this, but still mentions that she wants to marry Roger because she loves him. Claire, Jamie, and Bree are all scared, but determined to get through this together.

When Bree goes to bed, Claire doesn’t know how to talk to Jamie, having promised Bree she wouldn’t tell him about Bonnet. She tells Jamie this, and asks what happened with his hand, but Jamie doesn’t answer directly. Both Claire and Jamie have also been raped, so they talk about the damage it does to both the body and soul. They wonder if Roger Wakefield will stand by Bree once he knows she is pregnant with another person’s child, and Jamie says he would do so if it were Claire. Claire is reminded of her first husband, Frank, who stood by her after she got pregnant with Bree.

Brianna brings Jamie lunch as he works on building a stable. Bree thinks about her fear of childbirth as she sees the animals with their babies. Bree asks Jamie if he killed Jack Randall, the man who had raped him, and she feels bad right after asking. She mentions that she wants to kill her own rapist, and wants to know if it will help her to do so. He admits that he doesn’t know whether or not he killed Jack Randall, as he died in the fog of war at Culloden. She mentions that she fears dying in childbirth, just like Jamie’s mother, but Jamie says he will not let her die.

Bree blames herself for what happened, but thinks killing Bonnet will help her forget. Jamie tells her she won’t forget. He talks about needing to get her a husband, and eventually convinces Bree that the assault was not her fault. After Bree goes to bed, Jamie still thinks about his encounter with Randall and still feels rage toward him, but eventually forgives him. Jamie believes Bree must forgive MacKenzie, but doesn’t know if he can ever do so.

Claire works with her medical tools as she wonders how she can help Bree deliver her baby when the time comes, and she admits to Jamie that she is prepared to terminate the pregnancy if that is what Bree wants. Jamie and Claire fight about this, and she argues that Jamie doesn’t know what it means to bear a child.

When they are alone, Claire asks Bree if she wants her to terminate the pregnancy. Although Bree has considered it, she does not want to, as she hopes for the small chance that the baby is Roger’s. Claire understands her reasoning, as she still feels the bond between her and Bree, as well as with the first child she miscarried.

Everyone is still tense about Roger’s absence, especially as Bree hasn’t told anyone why they fought in the first place. One day, Ian comes to Claire looking much more put-together than normal, and he shyly admits that he has come to make a proposal of marriage to Brianna. Claire understands that he wants to do this to preserve Bree’s social “honor,” but she and Bree are both shocked to learn it was Jamie’s idea.

Bree storms outside. Claire and Ian follow as she goes to fight with Jamie. Bree is incredibly offended that Jamie would try to arrange a marriage, as she doesn’t want to get married to anybody. They insult one another. Ian urges Claire to let them fight it out, and the two leave so they can do so. Jamie and Bree return a few hours later and ignore one another, and Claire suggests Jamie should apologize, which both of them do.

Bree knows she can marry no one but Roger, but Jamie says he has asked everyone in the nearby towns and heard nothing of a Roger Wakefield. They have the idea to have Bree, an artist, draw a picture of Roger and print it as a broadside to be distributed. However, as Bree begins to draw Roger, Jamie and Ian recognize him as the man they knew as MacKenzie. They admit they fought him and gave him to a local Iroquois tribe. Jamie admits that he did this because Roger said that Bree willingly consented to sex with him, to which she admits. Jamie is disgusted with her, as he does not know what happened with Bonnet and thinks she lied to him about being raped.

Bree is furious, and Claire knows she needs to do something, so she pulls out the ring Bonnet had stolen. Bree says she brought it to Claire and admits the truth of what happened with Bonnet. Bree is still furious with Jamie for believing she would lie about being raped, and she tells him she is sorry she ever met him.

Roger wakes tied up, believing he is on board the Gloriana because he was caught after stealing from Bonnet. However, shortly after, he realizes he is on a horse and people around him are speaking a language he doesn’t know. An Indigenous man grabs him, and Roger believes he is going to be scalped, but the four men who surround him assure him that they won’t hurt him. Roger feels rage when he remembers what Jamie did. The Indigenous men largely ignore him as they continue to head north.

The trek lasts for days as Roger tries to remember everything he sees so he can get back to Fraser’s Ridge. Eight days later, he is able to undo the rope that ties him and escapes, hiding until nightfall. When he tries to leave a few hours later, he stumbles across a stone circle not unlike the one at Craigh na Dun, but he does not hear the same buzzing of the stones. Just as he is considering climbing a nearby cliff, he looks up and sees a face, and a rope descends around him.

Bree has escaped to River Run and hasn’t seen Jamie since their fight the previous month. She wishes her adoptive father, Frank, hadn’t died, as this is what brought Claire back to the past and, subsequently, Bree.

Jamie eventually comes to her and tells her that he will bring Roger home, or he won’t come home himself. By the next February, Bree has adjusted to life at River Run, but is still adjusting to her pregnant body and her new role as an expectant mother.

Jamie remains silent as he and his family ride to the Tuscarora village of Tennago, and blames Claire for not telling him about Bonnet. Bree convinced Claire to go with Jamie rather than stay with her, as she only trusted Claire to find Roger. They have brought all of the whisky they made that year to barter with, but fear that Roger was taken much farther than Tennago.

While Jamie speaks with Nacognaweto, Ian brings Pollyanne to Claire. The woman was welcomed into the tribe and started a family. Claire wants to give Nayawenne’s amulet back to someone in the tribe, but Pollyanne tells her that they will not want it, as the Tuscarora will think it carries Nayawenne’s ghost. Pollyanne also tells Claire to tell Jamie that she saw a white man the night Lissa Garver died at the sawmill, and Claire thinks the man was Murchison, who had murdered the woman.

Jamie discovers that Roger was sold to the Mohawk and has arranged for a guide to take them there. Ian asks Claire to forgive Jamie for helping Bonnet, and she is surprised that Jamie thinks he would take the blame for Bonnet’s actions. Claire later apologizes to Jamie, trying to convince him that nothing is his fault, but she also learns that Jamie has been thinking of Frank for the last several days. Brianna had called Frank her “real” father, and Jamie thought Claire felt the same, especially when he discovered Claire’s first wedding ring. The two reconcile as Claire tells him that neither he nor Bree meant what they said in anger.

By mid-February, they make it to the Mohawk settlement the Tuscarora call Snake-town, where Roger was taken.

Roger has been held captive for about three months, and realizes that the tribe that captured him after his escape attempt was not the same as the much crueler tribe that previously held him captive. Roger is not treated unkindly, but has to do the labor of the tribe. He begins to try to communicate with the young girls of the tribe and finds out he is among the Mohawk.

One day, he sees a group of Mohawk bringing a white priest to the village, and a few days later, he meets the priest, Père Alexandre Ferigault. They both talk about how they are not technically prisoners, but cannot escape either; they don’t know why the Mohawk have put them in the same hut together. Roger watches as the Mohawk takes the priest and brands him, before taking the man away and bringing him back a few hours later after cutting off his ear. Roger tends to him, thinking of Claire and her urge to heal others.

While Bree enjoys Jocasta’s company, she feels uneasy around her frequent parties full of young bachelors. Phaedre tells Bree that Jocasta wants to make Bree her heir, even though Bree doesn’t want that. Jocasta is trying to get Bree to marry a suitable man to help her take care of River Run.

Bree spends her time drawing and painting, often sketching Roger, Jamie, Claire, and others as she fears she may not see them again. Bree hates the way Jocasta treats Ulysses, and suddenly asks him if he wants to be free. He tells her that he was born free, but his mother was indentured, and he was forced into enslavement when she died. A schoolmaster gave him the name Ulysses, but when Bree asks for his real name, he says he doesn’t remember.

Roger waits in the hut with Alexandre, who believes he will be killed that day, and asks Roger to hear his confession. Alexandre tells Roger how a Mohawk chief had heard him preach and brought him to his tribe to convert others. Alexandre fell in love with one of his converts and got her pregnant, but refused to baptize the child because his father was not in a state of grace, which is what got him in trouble with the Mohawk. Alexandre feels he cannot reject his own sin of loving and having sex with the Mohawk woman, so he feels he cannot be forgiven.

After several days of bargaining, the Mohawk admit to Jamie that Roger is still alive, but they must wait for a council to determine whether they will trade the whisky for Roger. Ian has learned that some of the women are interested in Roger, so they want to keep him rather than have the whisky. Jamie shows a few people the opal that Claire found with the skull, but they react angrily and seem to be afraid of it, so he tells Claire to keep it on her in case of danger. Ian, who has gotten close to a Mohawk girl he calls Emily, suggests that they have a party to allow the Mohawk to sample the whisky.

At the party, Claire helps a boy with a dislocated shoulder and shows his mother Nayawenne’s amulet to convey that she is a medicine woman. The party is held at the house of a woman named Tewaktenyohn, who will have a say in whether Roger is released. Tewaktenyohn is interested in Claire’s healing abilities and the two amulets she carries, and Claire tells her how she found the opal and what she remembers about the man she saw in the storm.

Tewaktenyohn recognizes this man as Otter-Tooth, who had come to their village years earlier and urged the Mohawk to start a war with the white colonizers. Claire understands that this man must have been an Indigenous man from the future: He was warning the Mohawk about what the Indigenous people would face if they didn’t fight back against the colonizers. The Mohawk chased the man out of town, but he still told them about the future decimation of the Iroquois. Even after they had cut off Otter-Tooth’s head, they still heard his voice until they buried his skull under a tree far away. The opal was his, and Tewaktenyohn wonders how Claire got it, but Claire doesn’t know how to explain that she feels it is because of the time travel. Tewaktenyohn says that Otter-Tooth called the opal his “tika-ba,” which Claire understands as his “ticket back” to the future.