Diana Gabaldon · @Writer_DG
30th Jul 2013 from TwitLonger
#DailyLines #MOBY #WRITTENInMYOwnHEARTSBlood #Book8 #OutMarch2014 #Character #Conflict
The sun stood just short of eight o’clock when a messenger appeared, crouched dramatically in his saddle as though dashing through a hail of bullets, though in fact there was not a British soldier in sight. He pulled his lathered horse to stop and gasped out his message.
“The marky says there’s redcoat cannon in the cider orchard, sir, and will you do summat about it, please.”
The sweating messenger gulped air, loosening his rein in obvious preparation for dashing off, again. Jamie leaned over and seized the horse’s bridle to prevent it.
“Where _is_ the cider orchard?” he asked calmly. The messenger was young, maybe sixteen, and wild-eyed as his rawboned horse.
“Dunno, sir,” he said, and began glancing to and fro, as though expecting the orchard to materialize suddenly out of the meadow they were standing in. A sudden distant boom reverberated in Jamie’s bones, and his horse’s ears pricked up.
“Never mind, lad,” he said. “I hear them. Breathe your horse, or he’s like to die under ye before the sun’s high.”
Letting go the bridle, he waved to Captain Adams, and rode toward the sound of cannon.