Drums of Autumn

That night, Bree meets John outside while on a walk, when she sees him coming half-dressed from the servants’ quarters, and realizes he is interested in men.

Bree fears that she is getting close to her delivery, and Claire won’t be back in time to help her, let alone get her back to the future before she gives birth. She tries to think of Roger at night, but memories of Bonnet invade her thoughts. Bree forms a plan to propose marriage to John to secure her safety in the past, and threatens to expose his attraction to men if he doesn’t agree. Bree tells him that Roger will feel he is obligated to marry her when he finds out what happened, but she wants him to choose to marry her.

John listens to more of her rationale, but Bree also listens to him and what he has to say about his relationship with Jamie. They talk about John’s feelings for Jamie and how they met again at Ardsmuir. Though John sympathizes with Bree’s reasons for wanting to marry him, he refuses to do so, knowing Jamie would kill him if he did. To keep other suitors at bay and Jocasta happy, he says they can announce their engagement.

Convinced he is about to be killed, Alexandre asks Roger to pray for him to die well, not believing he could save his life or his soul. Alexandre is taken outside their hut to be executed, but a few moments later, Roger hears the sounds of a fight and screaming in Gaelic. Roger escapes, but briefly loses consciousness shortly after when he is hit on the head.

When he opens his eyes, he sees Jamie, covered in blood, and he quickly understands that Brianna must have made him come. When Jamie wakes up, he tells Roger he owes him an apology, surprising Roger. Roger asks what happened outside, and Jamie confirms that they burned Alexandre at the stake, and says that the fighting started likely because of the people drinking whisky. Jamie worries about Ian and Claire, who went after the woman Alexandre loved after she walked into the fire. Jamie hasn’t seen either since the fighting began.

Jamie and Roger sit in silence as the former sizes up the other. Roger tells Jamie that he and Bree are handfast, surprising Jamie.

Claire is escorted to the hut where Jamie and Roger are being kept, and Jamie tells her that they should not tell Roger about Bree’s pregnancy, or especially about Bonnet. However, when she goes to tend to Roger’s injured foot, she immediately admits that Bree is pregnant and that she wanted to come with them. Roger tells them what the fight he and Bree had was about, and how he thought that they couldn’t change the past, so he wanted to keep Bree safe. Claire is angry, but Jamie likes Roger more for trying to keep her safe.

Claire tells Roger that Bree could’ve gone back to the future, but she stayed to make sure Roger was okay. She realizes that part of the reason Jamie didn’t want to retrieve Roger was because he was afraid he would return to the future without Bree and the baby. Several Mohawk come into the hut then, asking for a priest, as they think Roger is one. These people are the converted Christian Mohawks, and they have been exiled from the rest of the tribe, but want Roger to baptize Alexandre’s baby before they go. He baptizes the baby as “Alexandra” before the group leaves.

Claire reveals that the Mohawk think that Roger killed a man in the fight, and though they agree they can’t keep him as they have already accepted the whisky as the price for his life, it is their custom to take an enemy into the tribe to replace the man that was killed. Jamie volunteers, thinking he can escape later, but Claire tells him to wait to find out what they decide.

The next morning, Ian comes to the hut, revealing that he has been adopted into the Mohawk tribe and won’t be going back home with them. They have a naming ceremony for Ian, calling him Wolf’s Brother, and Jamie gives him his tartan before leaving. As they leave, Roger tells Claire about the stone circle he found on his way from Fraser’s Ridge, and they wonder if they can get Bree there in time, but they know they could never make it in time for her to deliver.

Claire and Jamie tell Roger what happened with Stephen Bonnet, and Roger tells them how he stole the gems from Bonnet. Jamie asks if Roger is going to stand by Bree even if the child isn’t his, and when he says he doesn’t know, Jamie tells him to go back through the stones. Jamie and Claire leave, and Roger tells Claire he will come back if he can.

John tells Brianna that Bonnet has been captured in Cross Creek for smuggling, and he will hang in Wilmington next week. Bree admits that she wants to see him, but John knows she shouldn’t be travelling so close to delivery. Bree doesn’t want to see him die, but she wants to talk to him before he is transported to Wilmington, and threatens to confess the parentage of her baby if John stops her from doing so. Brianna gives John a letter Jamie left when he went to find Roger, in which he tells her that she should forgive Bonnet and not kill him, for her own sake. She believes she has to try to forgive him, so John agrees to help her talk to Bonnet.

When they get to the place where Bonnet is kept, John says he bribed Private Arvin Hodgepile to let her in. Brianna is led to the cellar where Bonnet is, and she panics, but goes inside bravely. Bonnet is surprised to see Brianna and recognizes her; she tells him her name and that of her parents. Bonnet says there is no use asking for her parents’ jewels back, as someone else (Roger) stole the two he hadn’t sold. She shows Bonnet her belly, telling him that there will be something left of him after he dies if that gives him comfort.

As Bree is leaving, Murchison comes into the cellar and sees John and Hodgepile lying on the floor above. Bonnet grabs Bree as Murchison tries to point a gun at her, but she grabs the gun and swings it at Murchison until he is bloodied. Bonnet tells Bree that the warehouse they are in, which is full of gunpowder, is about to explode, per Murchison and Bonnet’s plan to hide their contraband. Bonnet kills the unconscious Murchison so they don’t have to take him with them. As Bree and Bonnet are leaving, she checks on John, whose heart is still beating, and she tries to consider what would actually happen to them if they did not escape in time.

Using her engineering knowledge, Bree deciphers that they are not in danger of exploding. She tries to perform first aid on John before convincing Bonnet to carry him out. Brianna feels her stomach convulsing and tries to convince herself she is not going into labor. The three of them make it to a wharf, where Bonnet has a ship waiting, and they can see the warehouse on fire behind them. Bonnet leaves after giving Bree a gemstone, and though she thinks of shooting him, she doesn’t, hoping that he won’t escape the fire that has spread to the river.

Brianna tells John about how Jocasta has written her into her will, though she has told the stubborn woman that she will not enslave human beings. John tells her that she could sell the enslaved people to him in Virginia, where he would free them. They talk about their engagement, and how Bree is convinced Roger couldn’t love a child that isn’t his. Brianna notices she fears more about how her relationship with Roger would be, especially after having seen Claire’s relationship complicated by having two husbands.

Later, Bree teases John about actually getting married after all, as someone at River Run had seen two riders in town, with one of them described as Jamie. John asks her to forgive Jamie, but Bree admits she already has, just as he arrives at River Run with Claire. Claire tells John that Roger will be coming later as she takes care of his injuries, but he knows enough to doubt this. Brianna and Jamie make up, and Claire returns the engagement ring he had given to Brianna.

Brianna goes into labor and wants both of her parents there. They try to convince their daughter that she won’t die, and Jamie tells her stories to distract Bree from her contractions. Brianna gives birth to a healthy boy, and Claire believes Brianna is healthy as well. Afterward, Claire and Jamie discuss whether they think the baby is Roger’s or Bonnet’s, and whether it even matters.

Bree, Claire, Jamie, and the baby go back to Fraser’s Ridge, while John goes back to William in Virginia. Brianna hasn’t given the baby a name yet, and her parents assume it is because she wants to wait for Roger’s return to do so. As Claire writes a birth certificate, she also questions whether she should write “Randall” or “Fraser” as Brianna’s last name. Roger makes it to Fraser’s Ridge and wonders what his reception will be like.

Claire comes across Roger outside, who looks even worse than he did before. She tells him that he has a son, and Roger smiles. When he comes inside, all are silent until Roger says he wants to swear an oath on his and Jamie’s shared blood. He does so, using his blood to mark a cross on his new son and claim him as his own blood. Roger asks Bree if she is still his wife, but she wants to know if he came back because he wanted to or because he thought he should. Roger admits that he doesn’t know, and Bree says she doesn’t want to live with him if he has come back for duty: She has seen a marriage for duty and one for love, and knows the difference.

Handfasting is technically only legitimate for a year and a day if the marriage is not officiated by a priest, so Jamie tells Roger and Bree that they have until then—about two months’ time—to decide what they are going to do. If they decide not to stay married, Roger will go back through the stones.

Roger and Jamie fight, but come to an understanding. Claire finds the new living situation awkward. Claire tends to Roger’s wounded foot with Bree’s help, while Jamie works on building her a surgery, where he wants Roger to stay for the time being.

Roger somewhat resents the baby for how he takes up Bree’s time. He questions why he told Bree that he didn’t know whether he had returned for love or obligation, as he knows there can’t be obligation without love. He doesn’t know how to tell her this and have her believe it, as things have been awkward between them.

Roger asks Claire for advice, and Claire tells him that Bree is afraid of having sex with him and suggests he should be careful. Jamie comes to tell him that he and Claire are going to stay with Fergus and Marsali for a few days, so Roger will be alone with Bree and the baby. Jamie tells him that, though he is not inclined to like Roger since he cost him Ian, he will call him family if Roger wants that, which he does.

When the others are gone, Roger tells Bree that he is not either of her fathers, and he will love Bree regardless, even if he feels he has an obligation to her. He thought about this in the stone circles for three days and came to this conclusion in every scenario. Brianna still seems uncertain, but invites him upstairs to her bedroom.

Roger holds the baby for the first time as he and Bree readjust to one another, and he can’t help thinking that it is truly his son. He does envy Bree for knowing that the baby is certainly hers, though. Roger asks Bree why she didn’t go back to the future, and she admits that it was both love and obligation, but she knew more than anything that she couldn’t leave without him.

Claire and Jamie finally feel at peace in their home. Duncan Innes comes with an invitation from Jocasta, but also embarrassingly asks Jamie for his consent to marry Jocasta, which Jamie doesn’t think he can give, but agrees nonetheless.

Bree talks to Marsali about what to name the still-unnamed baby, and they settle on Jeremiah, one of Roger’s family names, with the nickname “Jemmy.” Roger thinks of the baby named Jemmy he met on the Gloriana, and thinks of his family tree. He asks Claire about the family tree, who knows it better than him, and she tells him that Morag Gunn was the mother of Jemmy, and was his six-times great-grandmother. When he talks to Claire about why Geillis thought they could go to the past, Claire says she believed it was to change history.

It has been decades since there was a gathering of clans in the Highlands, though the Scots who have moved to the colonies have reclaimed the tradition and gather together every year. Claire runs into Myers, who says that he has seen Ian and gives her a gift from him. It includes a letter telling Jamie and Claire that he has married Emily and they are expecting a baby. Lizzie is excited to see that her father is there, and he is no longer indentured.

Many of Jamie’s fellow inmates from Ardsmuir find him, and are still loyal. Claire holds an impromptu clinic to help the people of the nearby towns. The gathering stills as an unknown Highland regiment of 40 men enters, and they don’t know whether they are there as Scots or soldiers. Claire tells Bree that if anything happens, they need to go to the stones. One of the men comes toward Jamie, telling him his name is Archie Hayes, and he believes Jamie knows his father, Gavin.

Roger pulls Jamie aside to speak to him, telling him he had memorized a letter he found in his father’s study. The letter was from Frank Randall to his father, and though he intended to relay it to Claire, he feels he needs to tell Jamie. In the letter, Frank confessed that he looked into Jamie’s history and tried to go through the stones himself, but he hadn’t told Claire. He felt that he could always see Jamie, and he feels both love and obligation to Bree and Claire. He also admits that he was the one who had Jamie’s gravestone placed, so that Bree could look back and see her history.

This makes Roger wonder whether or not the past can be changed, as he knows it was this stone that led Claire to go back to Jamie. Roger wonders if he should tell this to Claire, as he intends to tell Brianna, and Jamie says he should.

At the gathering, there is a calling of the clans, as there was at the Celtic festival Roger and Bree attended. As they watch Bree and Roger talk, Jamie gives Claire her gold wedding ring from Frank back. They see Roger give Bree a ruby ring of Jamie’s, and Bree tells Roger to let the clans know that the MacKenzies are there.