Diana Gabaldon - Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank all thekind people who have given me information and help in the course ofthis novel, particularly

Mr. Richard Jacobs, Krefeldlocal historian, and his wife Monika, who walked the battlefield atKrefeld (Crefeld is the older, eighteenth-centuryspelling) and the Landwehr with me, explaining thelocal geography.

the staff of the small museumat Hckelsmaywhere cannonballs from the battle ofCrefeld are still embedded in the walls of the housefortheir kind reception and useful information.

Barbara Schnell and her family,without whom I would probably never have heard of Crefeld.

Mr. Howarth Penney for his kindinterest, and his most useful gift of Titles and Forms ofAddress (published by A&C Black, London), which wasof great help in negotiating the perilous straits of Britisharistocratic nomenclature. Any error in such matters is either theauthors mistakeor the authors exerciseof fictional license. While we do strive for the greatest degree ofhistorical accuracy possible, we are not above making things up now andthen. (That is not, by the way, a Royal we I justmean me and the people who live inside my head.) A Duke, however, isaddressed as Your Grace, and a Dukesyounger son(s) addressed as Lord____.

Mr. Horace Walpole, thatinveterate correspondent whose witty and detailed letters provided mewith a vivid window into eighteenth-century society.

Project Gutenberg, forproviding me with excellent access to the complete correspondence ofMr. Walpole.

Gus the dachshund, and OtisStout the pug (aka Hercules), who generouslyallowed the use of their personae. (Yes, I do know that dachshunds werenot an official breed in the eighteenth century, but Im surethat some inventive German dog-fancier had the idea prior to theirestablishment with the AKC. Badgers have been around for a long time.)

Christine Reynolds, AssistantKeeper of the Muniments of the Parish Church of St.Margarets, for extremely useful information regarding thehistory and structures of the church, including a very useful organloft under which to give birth, and Catherine MacGregor for suggestingSt. Margarets and for finding Ms. Reynolds.

Patricia Fuller, PauletteLangguth, Pamela Patchet, pamelalass, and doubtless several otherpeople not beginning with P,for information regarding eighteenth-century public exhibitions of art,and the history of specific artists and paintings.

Philip Larkin, whose remarkablyrevealing portrait of the first Duke of Buckingham (presently displayedin the Royal Portrait Gallery in London) provided one of the firstseeds of inspiration for this book. (And neither I nor Mr. Larkin aremaligning the first Duke of Buckingham, either.)

Laura Watkins, late of theStanford Polo Club, for expert opinion as to the mechanics of a horsejumping ditches.

oorjanieof the Ladies of Lallybroch for graciously allowing the star employeeof an up-and-coming brothel to share her name.

Karen Watson, our Londoncorrespondent, of Her Majestys Customs and Excise, for hergenerous sleuthing through the history and byways of her beloved city,to lend a reasonable verisimilitude to Lord Johnsgeographical excursions.

Laura Bailey, for insight andadvice regarding eighteenth-century clothing and custom.

David Niven, for his veryentertaining and honest autobiographies, The Moonsa Balloon, and Bring on the Empty Horses,which included a useful look at the social workings of a Britishregiment (as well as helpful information regarding how to survive along formal dinner). Also, George MacDonald Fraser, for his MacAuslanin the Rough, a collection of stories about life in a WWIIHighland Regiment.

Isaac Trion, whose hand-drawnwatercolor map of the battle of Crefeld, drawn in 1758, adorns my wall,and whose painstaking details adorn the story.

The assorted gentlemen (andladies) who were kind enough to read and comment on sex scenes. (As amatter of public interest, a poll regarding one such scene came backwith the following results: Positive: I want to knowmore82%; Negative: This makes me uncomfortable4%;Slightly shocked, but not put off10%; Neutral4%.)

Chapter 1

All in the Family

London, January 1758
The Society for Appreciation of
the English Beefsteak, A Gentlemens Club

T o the best of Lord John Greys knowledge,stepmothers as depicted in fiction tended to be venal, evil, cunning,homicidal, and occasionally cannibalistic. Stepfathers, by contrast,seemed negligible, if not completely innocuous.

Squire Allworthy, do youthink? he said to his brother. OrClaudius?

Hal stood restlessly twirling theclubs terrestrial globe, looking elegant, urbane, andthoroughly indigestible. He left off performing this activity, and gaveGrey a look of incomprehension.

What?

Stepfathers, Greyexplained. There seem remarkably few of them among the pagesof novels, by contrast to the maternal variety. I merely wondered whereMothers new acquisition might fall, along the spectrum ofcharacter.

Hals nostrils flared. His ownreading tended to be confined to Tacitus and the more detailed Greekand Roman histories of military endeavor. The practice of readingnovels he regarded as a form of moral weakness; forgivable, and infact, quite understandable in their mother, who was, after all, awoman. That his younger brother should share in this vice was somewhatless acceptable.

However, he merely said,Claudius? From Hamlet? Surely not, John,unless you happen to know something about Mother that I donot.

Grey was reasonably sure that he knew anumber of things about their mother that Hal did not, but this wasneither the time nor place to mention them.

Can you think of any otherexamples? Notable stepfathers of history, perhaps?

Hal pursed his lips, frowning a bit inthought. Absently, he touched the watch pocket at his waist.

Grey touched his own watch pocket, where thegold and crystal of his chiming timepiecethe twin ofHalsmade a reassuring weight.

Hes not lateyet.

Hal gave him a sideways look, not asmileHal was not in a mood that would permit such anexpressionbut tinged with humor, nonetheless.

He is at least asoldier.

In Greys experience, membershipin the brotherhood of the blade did not necessarily imputepunctualitytheir friend Harry Quarry was a colonel andhabitually latebut he nodded equably. Hal was sufficientlyon edge already. Grey didnt want to start a foolish argumentthat might color the imminent meeting with their mothersintended third husband.

It could be worse, Isuppose, Hal said, returning to his moody examination of theglobe. At least hes not a bloody merchant. Or atradesman. His voice dripped loathing at the thought.

In fact, General Sir George Stanley was aknight, granted that distinction by reason of service of arms, ratherthan birth. His family had dealt in trade, though in the reasonablyrespectable venues of banking and shipping. Benedicta Grey, however,was a duchess. Or had been.