Written in My Own Heart's Blood

… the 3,247 (approximately) French-speakers and scholars who informed me that I had misspelled “n’est-ce pas” in an excerpt of this book posted on Facebook.

… James Fenimore Cooper, for lending me Natty Bumppo, whose reminiscences of the proper way to conduct a massacre considerably eased Lord John’s journey into captivity.

… Sandy Parker (aka the Archivist), for faithful tracking and analysis of the #DailyLines (these are tiny snippets of whatever I happen to be working on, posted daily on Facebook and Twitter for the purpose of entertaining people during the long time it takes me to finish a book, as well as a constant helpful flow of articles, photos, and useful nits).

… The Cadre of Genealogical Nitpickers—Sandy Parker, Vicki Pack, Mandy Tidwell, and Rita Meistrell, who are responsible for the high degree of accuracy in the beautiful family tree you see on the endpapers of this book.

… Karen I. Henry, for bumblebee-herding and for the “Friday Fun Facts” supplied weekly on her blog, Outlandish Observations. (The FFF are a collection of fascinating bits of trivia from the books, explored and expanded upon, with pictures.)

… Michelle Moore, for Twitter backgrounds, entertaining tea mugs, and a lot of assorted other things that can best be tactfully called “creative design.”

… Loretta Moore, faithful and timely mistress of my website.

… Nikki and Caitlin Rowe, for designing and maintaining my YouTube Cha

… Kristin Matherly, who is the fastest website constructor I’ve ever seen, for her Random Quote Generator, among many other beautiful and helpful Outlander-related sites.

… Susan Butler, my assistant, Without Whom Nothing Would Ever Be Mailed, a thousand necessary things would not be done, nor would I ever show up for scheduled events.

… Janice Millford, Sherpa of the Everest of email and rider of avalanches.

… to my friend A

… the title of Chapter 13 (“Morning Air Awash with Angels”) is taken from a line of the poem by Richard Purdy Wilbur, “Love Calls Us to the Things of This World.”

… and the title of Chapter 117, “Into the Briar Patch,” is taken from the American folktale “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby” (retold by various authors).

… whereas the title of Chapter 123, “Quod Scripsi, Scripsi,” is courtesy of Pontius Pilate.

… Joey McGarvey, Kristin Fassler, Ashley Woodfolk, Lisa Barnes, and a whole passel of other Highly Competent and Energetic People at Random House.

… Beatrice Lampe, Andrea Vetterle, Petra Zimmerman, and a similar passel of helpful publishing people at Blanvalet (the German publisher).

… As always, great thanks to those practitioners of Eyeball-Numbing Nitpickery whose time and devotion results in a much better book than this would be without them: Catherine MacGregor, Allene Edwards, Karen Henry, Janet McCo

… and my husband, Doug Watkins, who sustains me.

About the Author

Je

Bill Massey (editor, U.K.)

Kathleen Lord (aka “Hercules”—copy editor)

Barbara Schnell (translator and trench-buddy, Germany)

Catherine MacGregor, Catherine-A

and Adhamh Ò Broin (Gaelic experts)

Virginia Norey (aka “Book Goddess”—designer)

Kelly Chian, Maggie Hart, Benjamin Dreyer, Lisa Feuer,

and the rest of the Random House Production Team

and

Beatrice Lampe und Petra Zimmerma

BY DIANA GABALDON

Outlander

Dragonfly in Amber

Voyager

Drums of Autumn

The Fiery Cross

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

An Echo in the Bone

The Outlandish Companion (nonfiction)

The Exile (graphic novel)

Lord John and the Hellfire Club (novella)

Lord John and the Private Matter

Lord John and the Succubus (novella)

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

Lord John and the Haunted Soldier (novella)

Custom of the Army (novella)

Lord John and the Hand of Devils (collected novellas)

The Scottish Prisoner

Plague of Zombies (novella)

Other Outlander-related novellas

A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows

The Space Between

Virgins

Copyright

An Orion ebook

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Orion Books

Ebook first published in 2014 by Orion Books

© Diana Gabaldon 2014

The right of Diana Gabaldon to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-4091-4138-9

The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

Orion House

5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane

London, WC2H 9EA

An Hachette UK company

www.orionbooks.co.uk