Diana Gabaldon - Outlander 03 - Voyager

High Praise for

DIANA GABALDON and her novels

VOYAGER IS, FRANKLY, AN AMAZING READ. An unusual mix of romance, suspense and history.If you can put this huge tome down before dawn, youre made of sterner stuff than I am.

Arizona Tribune

ROUSINGAUDACIOUSEXCITINGGabaldon masterfully weavesflashbackscrossing time periods with abandon but never losing track of the story.

Locus

INTRICATELY DETAILEDRICH IMAGINATIONTHIS COULD BE THE START OF A SERIES TO RIVAL JAMES CLAVELLS ORIENTAL SAGAS.

The Oak Ridger (Tennessee)

SUPERIOR QUALITYA TALENT THAT GOES BEYOND SUPERB, BEYOND INTELLIGENT STORYTELLING.

The Grand Prairie News (Texas)

UNCONVENTIONALMEMORABLE STORYTELLING

The Seattle Times

ELABORATE AND COMPELLINGGABALDON [IS] A NATURAL STORYTELLER. VOYAGER ISA LAVISH AND ENTERTAINING MIX OF HISTORY AND FANTASY.

Blade-Citizen (San Diego, California)

They are middle-aged lovers now, but their passion is just as strong (and Gabaldon had Voyager in her sights long before there was Robert James Waller). The language is right, the feeling is right, and if [Gabaldon] wants to write about Jamie and Claire when theyre 50-something, Id be happy to spend another 870 pages with them.

Detroit Free Press

GABALDON MAKESHER STORY SING FOR ANYONE! [VOYAGER] is an involved tale that smoothly blends several popular genres. After reading the final chapter, youll wish there were more.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Books by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander

Dragonfly in Amber

Voyager

Drums of Autumn

The Outlandish Companion

Copyright 1994 by Diana Gabaldon

Anchor Canada paperback edition 2002

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisheror, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agencyis an infringement of the copyright law.

Anchor Canada and colophon are trademarks.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Gabaldon, Diana

Voyager

eISBN: 978-0-385-67468-3

I. Title.

PS3557.A22V69 2002 813.54 C2002-900139-0

Published in Canada by

Anchor Canada, a division of

Random House of Canada Limited

Visit Random House of Canada Limiteds website: www.randomhouse.ca

v3.1

Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Praise for Voyager

Ackowledgments

Prologue

Part One

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Part Two

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Part Three

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Part Four

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Part Five

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Part Six

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Part Seven

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Part Eight

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Part Nine

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Books by Diana Gabaldon

Excerpt from Drums of Autumn

To my children,

Laura Juliet,

Samuel Gordon,

and Jennifer Rose,

Who gave me the heart, the blood, and the bones of this book.

Acknowledgments

The authors deepest thanks to:

Jackie Cantor, as always, for being the rare and marvelous sort of editor who thinks its all right if a book is long as long as its good; my husband, Doug Watkins, for his literary eye, his marginal notes (e.g., nipples again?), and the jokes he insists I steal from him to give to Jamie Fraser; my elder daughter, Laura, who says, If you come talk to my class about writing again, just talk about books and dont tell them about whale penises, okay?; my son, Samuel, who walks up to total strangers in the park and says, Have you read my mothers book?; my younger daughter, Jenny, who says, Why dont you wear makeup like on your book covers all the time, Mommy?; Margaret J. Campbell, scholar; Barry Fodgen, english poet; and Pindens Cinola Oleroso Loventon Greenpeace Ludovic, dog; for generously allowing me to use their personae as the basis for the excesses of imagination (Mr. Fodgen wishes to note for the record that his dog Ludo has never actually tried to copulate with anyones leg, wooden or not, but does understand the concept of artistic license); Perry Knowlton, who as well as being an excellent literary agent is also a fount of knowledge about bowlines, mainsails, and matters nautical, as well as the niceties of French grammar and the proper way to gut a deer; Robert Riffle, noted authority on what plants grow where, and what they look like while doing so; Kathryn (whose last name was either Boyle or Frye; all I remember is that it had to do with cooking), for the useful information on tropical diseases, particularly the picturesque habits of loa loa worms; Michael Lee West, for detailed descriptions of Jamaica, including regional dialect and folklore anecdotes; Dr. Mahlon West, for advice on typhoid fever; William Cross, Paul Block (and Pauls father), and Chrystine Wu (and Chrystines parents), for invaluable assistance with Chinese vocabulary, history, and cultural attitudes; my father-in-law, Max Watkins, who, as always, provided useful comments on the appearance and habits of horses, including which way they face when the wind is blowing; Peggy Lynch, for wanting to know what Jamie would say if he saw a picture of his daughter in a bikini; Lizy Buchan, for telling me the story about her husbands ancestor who escaped Culloden; Dr. Gary Hoff, for medical detail; Fay Zachary, for lunch and critical comment; Sue Smiley, for critical reading and suggesting the blood vow; David Pijawka, for the materials on Jamaica and his most poetic description of what the air feels like after a Caribbean rainstorm; Iain MacKinnon Taylor, and his brother Hamish Taylor, for their most helpful suggestions and corrections of Gaelic spelling and usages; and as always, the various members of the CompuServe Literary Forum, including Janet McConnaughey, Marte Brengle, Akua Lezli Hope, John L. Myers, John E. Simpson, Jr., Sheryl Smith, Alit, Norman Shimmel, Walter Hawn, Karen Pershing, Margaret Ball, Paul Solyn, Diane Engel, David Chaifetz, and many others, for being interested, providing useful discussion, and laughing in the right places.

PROLOGUE

When I was small, I never wanted to step in puddles. Not because of any fear of drowned worms or wet stockings; I was by and large a grubby child, with a blissful disregard for filth of any kind.

It was because I couldnt bring myself to believe that that perfect smooth expanse was no more than a thin film of water over solid earth. I believed it was an opening into some fathomless space. Sometimes, seeing the tiny ripples caused by my approach, I thought the puddle impossibly deep, a bottomless sea in which the lazy coil of tentacle and gleam of scale lay hidden, with the threat of huge bodies and sharp teeth adrift and silent in the far-down depths