Drums of Autumn

When Roger gets to Inverness, he hears that Bree was there recently and believes she went through the stones on the day of an ancient festival, when the connection to the past was strongest.

Roger talks with his friend Fiona about Craigh na Dun and discovers that she knows something about the stones and Geillis that she hasn’t told him. Fiona admits that her grandmother, a woman named Mrs. Graham, used to lead the dances at the festivals at the stones, and Fiona has her place as the “Caller,” who initiates the rituals. Fiona found Geillis’s notes about time travel after she disappeared, and knows about the time travel. She pulls out her grimoire and shows it to Roger.

The notes of Gillian Edgars, also known as Geillis, detail what she knows about pagan festivals and time travel. Geillis studied the bodies found near stone circles and determined how best to travel through their examples. Geillis had incorrectly determined that human sacrifice was needed for time travel and killed to get through the stones.

Roger can feel the buzz of the stones at Craigh na Dun when he approaches it on the day of the summer solstice. Fiona goes with him to initiate a ritual and help him through the stones, but she cannot hear the sound of the stones, so he assumes she cannot go through. Roger also wonders if he can go through the stones as a man, as all the other time-travelers he knew were female, but he is a descendant of Geillis.

When Roger attempts to walk through the stones, he fails and briefly loses consciousness before Fiona wakes him, telling him he disappeared for a moment only. He says he feels like he met his father, whom he was thinking of as he attempted to time travel, and Fiona believes that the gemstones in a locket he wears helped him briefly go through time. Roger wants to try again, though Fiona thinks it will kill him, but she gives him her diamond engagement ring as a gemstone to help him get through. Fiona watches as Roger walks through the stones.

Brianna makes her way from Inverness to Jamie’s home, Lallybroch, after she travels through the stones at Craigh na Dun. She wonders about meeting her family, trying to think if Jamie and Claire will be there, and if anyone will recognize her. She is approached by her cousin, Young Jamie, and takes her to their home. Brianna meets more of her family members, including Jamie’s sister, Jenny. She also meets Laoghaire, the woman Jamie married years after Claire returned to the future. When she discovers this, she worries about how Claire would react to this.

When tensions calm, her uncle Ian tells her that Claire has made it to the past and she is safe with Jamie. Brianna and Laoghaire fight about Jamie and Claire’s relationship, and the woman curses him before she leaves. Nevertheless, the family welcomes Bree warmly, and she sees how happy the family is for Jamie.

Brianna sees a portrait of Ellen MacKenzie, her grandmother, and understands why everyone immediately saw her family resemblance. Jenny shows Brianna Jamie’s last letter, mentioning that they are settling in North Carolina, and telling of their successes and challenges on the land, stopping at the arrival of John and William. Jenny knows that Brianna is determined to go, regardless of the dangers Jamie described, but she also asks her to spend a day or two at Lallybroch, to which Bree agrees.

Afterward, Bree continues to read Jamie’s letters, learning about the measles outbreak. Brianna stays a week at Lallybroch, and Ian shows her around the land, telling her about all the suggestions Claire made. Bree wonders if Jamie even knows about her, and Ian knows that Jenny is worried that Bree will blame her for getting Jamie to marry Laoghaire.

Bree goes up to see the cave where Jamie hid for seven years and tries to picture what her father felt. Ian tells Bree more about the years between Claire’s time in the past and what Jamie went through after Culloden.

Bree goes with Ian and Young Jamie to Inverness, where they determine that she needs a servant to travel with her to the colonies, in spite of her protestations. A man approaches Brianna with tears in his eyes, who begs her to take his daughter as a servant, as a man wants to purchase her as a concubine. She agrees, and the man introduces her to his 14-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. Brianna stubbornly convinces Ian and Jamie that Lizzie will be accompanying her as her servant.

Brianna is especially moved as they sail away from Scotland, associating the place with home immediately. As she is leaving, she thinks of the people she has lost, including Roger.

Roger is familiar with Inverness, even 200 years ago. He goes into a pub where he hears people bargaining for goods, as well as others seeking passage to the colonies through means of indentured servitude. He fears for Brianna’s safety as he tries to book his own passage to the colonies. At the booking office, he looks through registers to try to find Brianna’s name, and finds her under the name Fraser, having travelled to South Carolina on July 4. A clerk at the office tells him that a Captain Bonnet will soon be sailing to the Carolinas, and Roger should go find the captain in the pub. He books passage with Bonnet as a deckhand, but feels wary of the man. He goes by Roger MacKenzie rather than Roger Wakefield, using his birth father’s name.

Roger departs Scotland on a ship called the Gloriana, and his work as a deckhand is painful and tiring. He feels pity for the people emigrating to the colonies due to desperation, but is also keenly interested in them as a historian. More than anything, he thinks of Brianna and wonders why she left her time period and why she didn’t tell him.

A few of the ship’s passengers get ill, and the common treatment is getting the captain to touch them with his small gold ring. Roger tries to figure out how he will get off early when he learns that the captain intends to extend the voyage to sell their goods.

A few days later, Roger is awoken one night by a clamor, as other crew members try to contain a group of passengers who have been quarantined with smallpox. Roger is stricken by the state of these passengers, all cramped together in a small room to suffer and die from their illness, and knows their bodies will be thrown overboard. One of the men Roger sees is the husband of a woman he befriended named Morag, whom he later finds hiding with her baby, who is sick, but she argues does not have smallpox. Roger helps Morag hide the baby, Jemmy, for a few days to make sure he doesn’t have smallpox.

Roger continues to help Jemmy and Morag, who seem to be getting sicker, but one day Bonnet sees him coming out of the ship’s hold where Roger is hiding them. Bonnet shows Roger pity and tells him the story of his life, and how he was meant to be used as a human sacrifice. Bonnet won his life over a coin toss, as Bonnet does with Roger to spare his life for risking the safety of his ship. Roger calls tails, and the coin is flipped, but when Roger opens his eyes, Bonnet is gone.

Lizzie continually gets sick as she and Brianna make their way North through the colonies, and Bree wants to get the girl to her mother soon to get her medical help. She knows she must go to Jocasta, as she would know where Jamie and Claire are, so she sells their horses and books passage toward River Run.

However, when she returns home from selling the horses, Lizzie tells Bree that she heard that Jamie is in nearby Cross Creek, and she could see him in a little more than a week. Roger also arrives in Wilmington around this time, and wonders if Bree will be there by then. He hears talk of a tall woman with red hair he knows must be Brianna, especially because she attracts notice for wearing men’s clothing. Roger finds Bree in a tavern, but scolds her before doing anything else and drags her outside. Another crew member of the Gloriana recognizes him and calls him “MacKenzie.”

Bree is horrified that Roger is there and tells him she didn’t mention coming because she knew he would stop her. They fight, but they also kiss. Brianna worries about how either of them will ever be able to get back to the present, as travelling through the stones requires going toward someone you love, which is also why she didn’t tell him. Bree finally admits that she loves Roger, and she tells him that she planned this trip for months after dreaming about seeing Jamie: Bree found historical records of her parents in Jamaica, and eventually came across the death notice that Roger had found.

They agree to get married. They go to a private shed to have a handfasting and make their vows to one another before they have sex. Afterward, Bree tells him she has never been happier and would be happy with him even if they don’t make it back to the present. Roger thinks they will get back, remembering some information from Geillis’s grimoire about gemstones, which he believes helped him across.

Roger knows where he can find a stone, but he has to leave without Bree and will be gone for about a week. In the meantime, Bree knows she must get to Jamie and find Claire for Lizzie’s sake, so they know they must part for a few days. Roger thinks about how he and Brianna are very distantly related, and she asks him if he went to Lallybroch, but he didn’t.

Brianna realizes that Roger must have seen the death notice to know that she was in the colonies. They fight about how he kept this secret from her, and how she can’t change the past. Bree leaves, telling Roger he can’t stop her from finding and saving her parents, but Roger still promises he will come for her. When Brianna returns to the room at the tavern, Lizzie fears for Bree’s well-being and thinks that Roger attacked her when she washes her clothes and finds blood.

Lizzie is sick again and feels terrible that she is holding Brianna back from going upstream to see her father. When she goes downstairs to the main room of the tavern, Bree sees men gambling with coins and other valuables and recognizes Claire’s old gold wedding ring from her first marriage. She isn’t sure how Claire lost her precious ring. Its owner flirts with her and tries to get Bree on the ship he captains, the Gloriana.

A few days later, Bree and Lizzie make it to Cross Creek, the biggest town near River Run, and Bree goes to the courthouse to learn more about a trial Jamie is there to attend. Not only does she learn it is Fergus’s trial, but a man also tells her that Jamie went out of the courthouse just as she came in. She runs outside and right into Jamie, who doesn’t recognize her until she introduces herself, as he has only seen pictures of her as a child that Claire brought him. Both are ecstatic, and Jamie can’t wait to tell Claire. Jamie says Bree can call him “Da.” Everything that comes after is a blur for Bree, as Jamie takes her and Lizzie to River Run, where they are both taken care of after their long journey.

Fergus is on trial for stealing and attacking a man who stole Marsali’s horse, and the trial hangs on Jamie’s word, so Fergus is acquitted. Jamie and Bree plan to leave as soon as they can after the trial, both anxious to see Claire. Claire is trying to create penicillin from moldy bread when she hears Jamie coming home early. When she goes outside, she sees Jamie and Brianna sitting together and can’t believe her eyes.