Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (Lord John Grey #2) by Diana Gabaldon
This book is for Barbara Schnell,
my dear friend and German voice
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank all the kind people who have given me information and help in the course of this novel, particularly—
…Mr. Richard Jacobs, Krefeld local historian, and his wife Monika, who walked the battlefield at Krefeld (“Crefeld” is the older, eighteenth-century spelling) and the Landwehr with me, explaining the local geography.
…the staff of the small museum at Hückelsmay—where cannonballs from the battle of Crefeld are still embedded in the walls of the house—for their kind reception and useful information.
…Barbara Schnell and her family, without whom I would probably never have heard of Crefeld.
…Mr. Howarth Penney for his kind interest, and his most useful gift of Titles and Forms of Address (published by A&C Black, London), which was of great help in negotiating the perilous straits of British aristocratic nomenclature. Any error in such matters is either the author’s mistake—or the author’s exercise of fictional license. While we do strive for the greatest degree of historical accuracy possible, we are not above making things up now and then. (That is not, by the way, a Royal “we” I just mean me and the people who live inside my head.) A Duke, however, is addressed as “Your Grace,” and a Duke’s younger son(s) addressed as “Lord____.”
…Mr. Horace Walpole, that inveterate correspondent whose witty and detailed letters provided me with a vivid window into eighteenth-century society.
…Project Gutenberg, for providing me with excellent access to the complete correspondence of Mr. Walpole.
…Gus the dachshund, and Otis Stout the pug (aka “Hercules”), who generously allowed the use of their personae. (Yes, I do know that dachshunds were not an official breed in the eighteenth century, but I’m sure that some inventive German dog-fancier had the idea prior to their establishment with the AKC. Badgers have been around for a long time.)
…Christine Reynolds, Assistant Keeper of the Muniments of the Parish Church of St. Margaret’s, for extremely useful information regarding the history and structures of the church, including a very useful organ loft under which to give birth, and Catherine MacGregor for suggesting St. Margaret’s and for finding Ms. Reynolds.
…Patricia Fuller, Paulette Langguth, Pamela Patchet, pamelalass, and doubtless several other people not beginning with “P,” for information regarding eighteenth-century public exhibitions of art, and the history of specific artists and paintings.
…Philip Larkin, whose remarkably revealing portrait of the first Duke of Buckingham (presently displayed in the Royal Portrait Gallery in London) provided one of the first seeds of inspiration for this book. (And neither I nor Mr. Larkin are maligning the first Duke of Buckingham, either.)
…Laura Watkins, late of the Stanford Polo Club, for expert opinion as to the mechanics of a horse jumping ditches.
…“oorjanie” of the Ladies of Lallybroch for graciously allowing the star employee of an up-and-coming brothel to share her name.
…Karen Watson, our London correspondent, of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise, for her generous sleuthing through the history and byways of her beloved city, to lend a reasonable verisimilitude to Lord John’s geographical excursions.
…Laura Bailey, for insight and advice regarding eighteenth-century clothing and custom.
…David Niven, for his very entertaining and honest autobiographies, The Moon’s a Balloon, and Bring on the Empty Horses, which included a useful look at the social workings of a British regiment (as well as helpful information regarding how to survive a long formal dinner). Also, George MacDonald Fraser, for his MacAuslan in the Rough, a collection of stories about life in a WWII Highland Regiment.
…Isaac Trion, whose hand-drawn watercolor map of the battle of Crefeld, drawn in 1758, adorns my wall, and whose painstaking details adorn the story.
…The assorted gentlemen (and ladies) who were kind enough to read and comment on sex scenes. (As a matter of public interest, a poll regarding one such scene came back with the following results: “Positive: I want to know more—82%; Negative: This makes me uncomfortable—4%; Slightly shocked, but not put off—10%; Neutral—4%.)
Chapter 1
All in the Family
London, January 1758
The Society for Appreciation of
the English Beefsteak, A Gentlemen’s Club
To the best of Lord John Grey’s knowledge, stepmothers as depicted in fiction tended to be venal, evil, cunning, homicidal, and occasionally cannibalistic. Stepfathers, by contrast, seemed negligible, if not completely innocuous.
“Squire Allworthy, do you think?” he said to his brother. “Or Claudius?”
Hal stood restlessly twirling the club’s terrestrial globe, looking elegant, urbane, and thoroughly indigestible. He left off performing this activity, and gave Grey a look of incomprehension.
“What?”
“Stepfathers,” Grey explained. “There seem remarkably few of them among the pages of novels, by contrast to the maternal variety. I merely wondered where Mother’s new acquisition might fall, along the spectrum of character.”