A Breath of Snow and Ashes

On October 9, 1773, Roger arrives home. He collapses in tears in Brianna’s arms, unable to tell her about the O’Brians (the couple who were hanged and their daughter, whom he suffocated). Brianna calms him and then tells him about the ditch she’s digging to make a kiln to heat water and to create pipes out of clay. She proposes they eventually run the pipes under the house to heat it in the winter. With her pregnant cousin Marsali (Germain’s mother and Fergus’s wife), she’d gone to Salem to trade for clay. She tells Roger she thinks Fergus is beating Marsali. Roger offers to talk to him. Brianna offers to talk to Claire about her suspicions, too.

Claire finds Marsali working alone in the distillery. Germain walks with her, giving his mother a nest of robin’s eggs. They have a sweet moment together: Marsali tells him he used to be in her belly too, as did his sisters. Once he leaves, Claire presses Marsali, asking if Fergus is beating her. She admits the finger bruises on her arm are from him but says it only happened because she threw a log at him when he yelled at one of the children out of frustration.