Diana Gabaldon · @Writer_DG
14th Jun 2013 from TwitLonger
#DailyLines #MOBY #WRITTENInMYOwnHEARTSBlood #Book8 #outMarch25 #changelobstersanddance
“Would ye be so amiable as to pour out a dram of whatever’s in that decanter, your grace?”
Pardloe did, and approached warily, holding out the glass—it was brandy; Jamie could smell the hot fumes.
“Don’t let him out,” Jenny said, getting hold of herself. She glared at Pardloe and took the brandy, then glared at Jamie. “And where in the name of St. Mary Magdalene have _you_ been these three days past?”
Before he could answer, heavy footsteps came hastily down the hallway and the black housekeeper appeared in the doorway, breathing audibly and holding a silver-inlaid fowling piece in a manner suggesting that she knew what to do with it.
“The two of you can just sit yourselves down this minute,” she said, moving the barrel of the gun back and forth between Pardloe and Jamie in a businesslike fashion. “If you think you’re going to take that man out of here, you—“
“I told ye—I beg your pardon, madam, but would ye honor me with your name?”
“You—what?” The housekeeper blinked, disconcerted. “I—Mrs. Mortimer Figg, if it’s any of your business, and I doubt _that_.”
“So do I,” Jamie assured her, not sitting down. The Duke, he saw, had. “Mrs. Figg, as I said to ye downstairs, I’ve come for my wife, and nothing more. If ye’ll tell me where she is, I’ll leave ye to your business. Whatever that may be,” he added, with a glance at Pardloe.
“_Your_ wife,” Mrs. Figg repeated, and the barrel swiveled toward him. “Well, now. I’m thinking that perhaps you ought just to sit down and wait until his lordship comes and we see what he has to say about all this.”
“Dinna be daft, Jerusha,” said Jenny, rather impatiently. “Ye ken Claire’s my brother’s wife; she told ye that herself.”
“Claire?” exclaimed Pardloe, standing up again. He had been drinking from the decanter, and still held it carelessly in one hand. “_My_ brother’s wife?”
“She’s no such thing,” Jamie said crossly. “She’s mine, and I’ll thank someone to tell me where the devil she is.”