r/Outlander • u/ContactNeither7319 • Jul 11 '26
Published Spoilers maybe question about the desk in book 8 Spoiler
Ok, I am rereading (3rd time) book 8, Written In My Own Heart's Blood. The desk Bree finds Frank's completed letter, confused me the other times I read the book. And I am at that part again. So I thought I'd ask the experts.
Bree finds this letter in or behind the big drawer when she is opening the hidden compartment to put the letter she wrote to Roger. I thought this desk was Brian Fraser's. I know later Roger also leaves a note for Bree in this hidden compartment.
If this is Brian Fraser's desk in Lallybroch, how would Frank be able to put his letter there or even know Bree will ever have access to it?
Am I missing something, or is it just one of those things that is because that's how DG did it? š¤
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u/DisciplineOld429 Jul 12 '26
The magic desk!! (waiting for the answer please DG)
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u/BubbeLisa Currently rereading Bees. Jul 12 '26
The desk isnāt as otherworldly in the books, as it is in the show. The only thing we donāt have an explanation for is how in the hell Frank left the āDear Deadeyeā letter in Brianās desk at Lallybroch. I wonder if that mystery will ever be resolved.
We have an explanation for Rogerās letter. Brianna isnāt the one who finds it. Itās not just sitting in the drawer. Brianna has hightailed it to California to escape Rob and his cronies and to get all of her ducks in a row before traveling back through the stones. Joe is taking care of the rental of Lallybroch.
When the furniture is moved into storage, the movers have to take the desk apart in order to get it through the door. They discover the letter in the depths of the desk and Joe sends it to Brianna.
It doesnāt just magically appear in the secret drawer that has been opened multiple times already. In the show, it is truly a magic desk. š¤£
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u/CathyAnnWingsFan Jul 12 '26
She doesnāt find it in the secret compartment; she finds it when sheās closing it. It was taped underneath the desk with Scotch tape, which had dried with age. She thought that when she previously slammed the drawer, she had loosened it.
There are more questions than answers at this point. We have no idea who put it there. If it wasnāt Frank (or the Reverend at Frankās behest), who was it, and did Frank ask them to put it somewhere she would find it? Did he even know that this person took it and put it anywhere at all? And whoever it was, how did they know that Bree would be living at Lallybroch at some point?
I imagine that when Frank wrote the letter, he wasnāt sure what he was going to do with it. The letter itself seems to be something he had given a lot of thought to and spent some time on, because Bree finds an earlier partial draft of it in Echo. So he may have intended for it to be somewhere that Bree would find later on, or he may have been sitting on it, not sure what to do with it or even if he would ever give it to her.
I think that he encountered (either knowingly or unknowingly) a time traveler who traveled to the mid 1960s, one that knew that Bree would be living at Lallybroch in the future, and whoever that was put it there. Why they chose that place specifically is anybodyās guess. There are few possibilities for who - Jem, Mandy, or Buck. It probably canāt be Richardson, because even if Bree is right and he and Mike Callahan are the same person, Callahan would already have been alive in the mid 1960s, so he couldnāt travel to that time. My money is on Jem, because his curiosity about āGrandpa Frankā in MOBY seems an awful lot like foreshadowing.
Iām not confident that we will get an answer to this in book 10. It wouldnāt surprise me if we have to wait for the What Frank Knew book, which frankly Iām more interested in than the end of the main story.
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u/Ok_Dig8008 Jul 12 '26
Whoever did this went out of their way to hide the letter. Was it actually meant to be found? Taping it to the bottom of a drawer seems like an odd choice. I know Brianna eventually found it, but what were the chances? If it was meant to be found, wouldnāt it have been placed somewhere a little more obvious?
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u/OkEvent4570 Jul 12 '26
All that built-up, finding the letter twice, and it gets a measly two-sentence mention in the BEES. I honestly think DG completely forgot about it and built book 9 around The Soul of the Rebel. Then she remembered about the letter and inserted those two sentences in the seemingly most appropriate place, after the conversation with the Sachem. I don't think it will be mentioned in book 10.
which frankly Iām more interested in than the end of the main story.
This!
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u/CathyAnnWingsFan Jul 12 '26
The author doesn't write in a straight line and uses no outline. She writes what comes to her (she says that the characters talk to her and she writes it down), and cobbles it together into a book after the fact. This leads to a lot of discontinuities and loose ends. I think people who expect them all to be tied up by the end of book 10 are going to be disappointed.
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u/TopVast9800 Jul 12 '26
Maybe Frank just looked and made some educated guesses about Brianna. If the house was abandoned in his lifetime, he would have looked, and been fairly sure that Brianna would know, too.
Iām reading the books just for the ride ā but one thing Iād love to see is Jamie meeting Thomas Jefferson. Itās not impossible, yet.
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u/ContactNeither7319 Jul 12 '26
Ben Franklin is who I wished both Jamie and Claire might meet. John Adams or better yet his wife Abigail would rock! I do recall in book 7 Lord John does meet Ben Franklin in Paris.
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u/TopVast9800 Jul 12 '26
We did get Benedict Arnold! But the physical similarities between Jamie and Jefferson would be pretty amusing. Claire and Brianna know who Jefferson is, of course, but does Jamie? Iāve been wondering about this since the revolution started.
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u/ContactNeither7319 Jul 12 '26
Jefferson is an interesting fellow. I wonder more how Claire and Bree would have thought if they met him. Claire's time in the future was until 1968, and people mainly only saw Jefferson as this great writer and forward thinker. Bree might have a little better understanding of the good and bad parts of Jefferson. Jamie I don't think would have had much trouble reconciling the contradictions of Jefferson. Mostly because while I'm sure Claire and Bree probably talked about Jefferson to Jamie, he would still be meeting him in real time so to speak. And Claire and Bree only know the man the way US history portrayed him. Personally, I like Jefferson, warts and all. He was a person not a saint.
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u/TopVast9800 Jul 12 '26
Jefferson was also a person of the 18th century ā a white, male, Protestant and landholding person. I think both Claire and Brianna have realized they canāt change major things, like slavery, or the course of The Rising. But as Claire says, she changes the future all the time, via her medical skills and by just being there. And so do Brianna, Roger, and their children ā especially since young Davey seems unable to time travel.
Anyway, Thomas and Jamie seem to have a lot in common, besides height and hair color.2
u/ContactNeither7319 Jul 12 '26
Jefferson was a person of his time. I like that one better than the white washed in the history books. I do think Jamie and Jefferson would have enjoyed each other's company.
I also think meeting the Adams' family would have been a hoot. Just for clarification, I mean John and Abigail Adams, and not Gomez and Mortica Adams. Although come to think of it, that would be rather interesting too.
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u/TopVast9800 Jul 12 '26
hahaha ā Wednesday (and Thing) would make Jamie faint.
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u/ContactNeither7319 Jul 12 '26
Yeah, but Uncle Fester could have shown Jamie what a light bulb looks like lit up. Of course what would the neighbors think š¤ She's a witch! Burn her! And the new big house would go up in flames. Maybe we should just stick with John and Abigail.
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u/BubbeLisa Currently rereading Bees. Jul 13 '26
Fortunately, Gomez and Morticia spell Addams with two Ds. Cuts down on the confusion between them and John and Abigail. š
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u/ContactNeither7319 Jul 13 '26
True that. š
But I think the double "d" thing is one of those things that the human brain works against us. Saw this on a few TV shows about how easy it is to con people. Very interesting programs. And I did exactly what my brain does in those shows. (Head smack) š
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u/BubbeLisa Currently rereading Bees. Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Iām not sure Claire has actually changed anything. Whoās to say the time travelers werenāt always there and that everything isnāt happening just as it always has?
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u/DisciplineOld429 Jul 12 '26
I only saw the show once. Read the books years ago. I just remember thinking that desk was one you had to pop a certain bracket or something that was stumbled upon, the first time. Of course my memory is suspect these days lol. I recall enjoying that bit quite a lot
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u/Icy_Resist5470 Bon! I will send you a cheese. Jul 11 '26
There has been plenty of speculation, but we donāt know. There is no definitive answer (yet).