The Scottish Prisoner
Read The Scottish Prisoner Online
Authors: Diana Gabaldon
The Scottish Prisoner
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Diana Gabaldon
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
D
ELACORTE
P
RESS
is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gabaldon, Diana.
The Scottish prisoner: a novel/Diana Gabaldon.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-53349-4
1. Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763–Fiction. I. Title.
PS3557.A22S36 2011
813′.54—dc23 2011034429
Jacket design and photograph: © Henry Steadman
v3.1
Chronology of the Novels: When to Read What?
The Lord John novellas and novels
*
are sequential, but are built to stand alone; you don’t need to read them in order.
In terms of their relationship to the larger Outlander novels: These books are part of the overall series, but are focused for the most part on those times in Lord John’s life
when he’s not “onstage” in the main novels. This particular book focuses also on a part of Jamie Fraser’s life not covered in the main novels.
All of the Lord John novels take place between 1756 and 1766—this one is set in 1760—and in terms of the overall Outlander novels/timeline, they thus occur more or less in the middle of
Voyager
. So you can read any of them, in any order, once you’ve read
Voyager
, without getting lost.
*
There are also a couple of short stories—and will eventually be more—dealing with minor events, minor characters, and/or lacunae in the main books. These are presently published in various anthologies, but will eventually be collected in book form.
“A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows” appears in the anthology
Songs of Love and Death
(edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois). This is a short story set in WWII that tells the story of what
really
happened to Roger MacKenzie’s parents, Jerry and Dolly.
“The Space Between” is a novella that will appear in an anthology titled
The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination
(edited by John Joseph Adams), which will likely appear sometime in 2012. This story is set mostly in Paris and involves Joan McKimmie (Marsali’s younger sister), Michael Murray (Young Ian’s older brother), the Comte St. Germain (no, of course he’s not dead, don’t be silly), and Mother Hildegarde.
If you deal in death routinely, there are two paths. Either it becomes routine, in which case ye risk killing for nothing and thus lose your soul—for if the lives ye take are worth nothing, neither is yours.
Or you become that much more aware of the value of a life and that much more reluctant to take one without the direst necessity. That way you risk losing your own life—there are the quick and there are the dead, and I do not mean what St. Paul meant about that—but not your soul
.
Soldiers manage by dividing themselves. They’re one man in the killing, another at home, and the man that dandles his bairn on his knee has nothing to do wi’ the man who crushed his enemy’s throat with his boot. So he tells himself, sometimes successfully.
But it marks you, killing. No matter why it’s done
.
It’s a brand upon your heart, and while it may heal, the mark canna be removed, save by a blade. All ye can hope for is a cleaner scar.
The Fate of FusesApril FoolHelwater, the Lake District
April 1, 1760
IT WAS SO COLD OUT, HE THOUGHT HIS COCK MIGHT BREAK
off in his hand—if he could find it. The thought passed through his sleep-mazed mind like one of the small, icy drafts that darted through the loft, making him open his eyes.
He could find it now; had waked with his fist wrapped round it and desire shuddering and twitching over his skin like a cloud of midges. The dream was wrapped just as tightly round his mind, but he knew it would fray in seconds, shredded by the snores and farts of the other grooms. He needed her, needed to spill himself with the feel of her touch still on him.