An echo in the bone - Gabaldon Diana (читать книги TXT) 📗
Scots/Scotch/Scottish
As noted elsewhere (Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, see Author’s Notes), in the eighteenth century (and indeed, well into the mid-twentieth century), the word “Scotch” and its variants (e.g., “Scotchman”) were commonly used (by both English people and Scots) to describe an inhabitant of Scotland. The terms “Scottish” and “Scots” were also occasionally used, though less common.
Typos and Terminology
There may be an impulse to regard the term “mess-kid” (as used in Part Three of this book) as a typographical error. It’s not. A mess-kid was a shallow, circular bucket in which sailors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were served their food. A mess-kit, on the other hand, referred to the utensils carried and used by a soldier.
By the same token, while “crotch” is the usual American English term, the older form, “crutch,” would have been used in eighteenth-century English-English usage. Which is not to say there aren’t any typographical errors in this book (despite the heroic efforts of Ms. Kathy Lord, the copy editor; the alerts of various friends and translators who read the manuscript in chunks; and a fair amount of diligence by myself, these things happen) but these particular terms aren’t.
Saratoga
A tremendous amount of historical research goes into a book like this (I am often bemused by letters from people telling me they’d visited a museum, seen some eighteenth-century artifacts, and been struck all a-heap by discovering that I hadn’t just made it all up!), and while there isn’t room to acknowledge or list even a fraction of the sources I’ve used, I did want to mention one specific book.
The two battles of Saratoga were historically important, remarkably dramatic, and very complex, both in the logistics of the battles and in the troop movements and politics that led up to them. I was fortunate to find, early on in my researches, Richard M. Ketchum’s Saratoga, which is an amazingly well-done portrait of the battles, the background, and the plethora of colorful individuals who took part. I just wanted to recommend this book to those of you with a deeper interest in the historical aspects, as these could only be touched on lightly in the context of a novel.
Loch Errochty and Tunnel Tigers
During the 1950s and ’60s, a great hydroelectric scheme was implemented in the Scottish Highlands. The work of a great many “tunnel tigers” (also known as “the Hydro boys”)—laborers, many of them from Ireland and Poland—went into digging tunnels through the mountains and building dams for the creation of man-made lochs. Loch Errochty is in fact one of these man-made lochs. The tunnel I’ve drawn as being associated with it (complete with miniature train) is like those common to the hydroelectric scheme as a whole, but I don’t know that there actually is one at Loch Errochty. On the other hand, the dam, turbine service chamber, and fish-viewing chamber at Pitlochry are indeed all there. So are the anglers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DIANA GABALDON is the New York Times bestselling author of the wildly popular Outlander novels—Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes (for which she won a Quill Award and the Corine International Book Prize)—and one work of nonfiction, The Outlandish Companion, as well as the bestselling series featuring Lord John Grey, a character she introduced in Voyager. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
www.dianagabaldon.com
An Echo in the Bone 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 © 2009 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.
DELACORTE PRESS is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-440-33887-1
www.bantamdell.com
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Table of Contents
Prologue
A Troubling of the Waters
SOMETIMES THEY’RE REALLY DEAD
AND SOMETIMES THEY AREN’T
LIFE FOR LIFE
NOT YET AWHILE
MORALITY FOR TIME-TRAVELERS
Blood, Sweat, and Pickles
LONG ISLAND
AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
SPRING THAW
A KNIFE THAT KNOWS MY HAND
FIRESHIP
TRANSVERSE LIE
ENOUGH
UNREST
DELICATE MATTERS
THE BLACK CHAMBER
UNARMED CONFLICT
WEE DEMONS
PULLING TEETH
AE FOND KISS
I REGRET …
THE MINISTER’S CAT
FLUTTERBY
Privateer
CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE FRONT
JOYEUX NOEL
THE BOSOM OF THE DEEP
STAG AT BAY
TUNNEL TIGERS
HILLTOPS
CONVERSATION WITH A HEADMASTER
SHIPS THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT
A GUIDED TOUR THROUGH THE CHAMBERS OF THE HEART
Conjunction
A FLURRY OF SUSPICION
THE PLOT THICKENS
PSALMS, 30
TICONDEROGA
THE GREAT DISMAL
PURGATORY
PLAIN SPEECH
A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE
THE BLESSING OF BRIDE AND OF MICHAEL
SHELTER FROM THE STORM
To the Precipice
CROSSROAD
COUNTDOWN
FRIENDS
THREE ARROWS
LEY LINES
HIGH PLACES
HENRY
RESERVATIONS
EXODUS
THE BRITISH ARE COMING
CONFLAGRATION
MOUNT INDEPENDENCE
RETURN OF THE NATIVE
RETREAT
WHILE STILL ALIVE
THE DESERTER GAME
INDEPENDENCE DAY
BATTLE OF BENNINGTON
DESERTER GAME, ROUND II
NO BETTER COMPANION THAN THE RIFLE
ONE JUST MAN
SEPARATED FOREVER FROM MY FRIENDS AND KIN
A GENTLEMAN CALLER
HAT TRICK
DEATHBED
GREASIER THAN GREASE
DESPOILER
TERMS OF SURRENDER
SANCTUARY
Coming Home
A STATE OF CONFLICT
THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS
ONE EWE LAMB RETURNS TO THE FOLD
TWENTY-TWENTY
SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI
BY THE WIND GRIEVED
MEMORARAE
OLD DEBTS
THE CAVE
OENOMANCY
PURGATORY II
DISPOSITIONS
COUNTING SHEEP
THE RIGHT OF IT
Reap the Whirlwind
SON OF A WITCH
VALLEY FORGE
SEVERANCE AND REUNION
RATHER MESSY
INK-STAINED WRETCH
ARMED WITH DIAMONDS AND WITH STEEL
FOOTSTEPS
INDEPENDENCE DAY, II
A SERIES OF SHORT, SHARP SHOCKS
THE PATHS OF DEATH
NUMBNESS
FIREFLY
NEXUS
MISCHIANZA
A BUTTERFLY IN A BUTCHER’S YARD
LADY IN WAITING
REDIVIVUS
BRED IN THE BONE
THE HOUR OF THE WOLF
Author’s Notes
