For those of you who haven't read the books I highly suggest you do at some point in your life. Diana is an artist of these times, and the last! (No reference to her age, this series has just been around since my seedling days!)
For those of you who watch the show, but don't read the books: You're missing out. They change so much, and leave a lot out! You know how it is, can't cram that much into one season. But I don't blame you for tuning in to see this:
*wipes away drool*
Anywhoooo.
Without further adieu I leave you with not one but TWO teasers from Book 9! Still untitled. Enjoy!
Sibling moments <3
Teaser#1:
"Oh, ye’ve got your beads after all,” Jenny said, surprised. “Ye didna have your rosary in Scotland, so I thought ye’d lost it. Meant to make ye a new one, but there wasna time, what with Ian…” She lifted one shoulder, the gesture encompassing the whole of the terrible months of Ian’s long dying.
He touched the beads, self-conscious. “Aye, well…I had, in a way of speaking. I…gave it to William. When he was a wee lad, and I had to leave him at Helwater. I gave him the beads for something to keep—to…remember me by.”
“Mmphm.” She looked at him with sympathy. “Aye. And I expect he gave them back to ye in Philadelphia, did he?”
“He did,” Jamie said, a bit terse, and a wry amusement touched Jenny’s face.
“Tell ye one thing, _a brathair_—he’s no going to forget you.”
“Aye, maybe not,” he said, feeling an unexpected comfort in the thought. “Well, then…” He let the beads run through his fingers, taking hold of the crucifix. “I believe in one God…”
They said the Creed together, and the three Hail Marys and the Glory Be.
“Joyful or Glorious?” he asked, fingers on the first bead of the decades. He didn’t want to do the Sorrowful Mysteries, the ones about suffering and crucifixion, and he didn’t think she did, either. A yaffle called from the maples, and he wondered briefly if it was one they’d already seen, or a third. _Three for a wedding, four for a death…_
“Joyful,” she said at once. “The Annunciation.” Then she paused, and nodded at him to take the first turn. He didn’t have to think.
“For Murtagh,” he said quietly, and his fingers tightened on the bead. “And Mam and Da. Hail Mary, full o’ grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blest is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen.” Jenny finished the prayer and they said the rest of the decade in their usual way, back and forth, the rhythm of their voices soft as the rustle of grass.
They reached the second decade, the Visitation, and he nodded at Jenny—her turn.
“For Ian Òg,” she said softly, eyes on her beads. “And Ian Mòr. Hail Mary….”
The third decade was William’s. Jenny glanced at him when he said so, but only nodded and bent her head.
He didn’t try to avoid thinking of William, but he didn’t deliberately call the lad to mind, either; there was nothing he could do to help, until or unless William asked for it, and it would do neither of them good to worry about what the lad was doing, or what might be happening to him.
But…he’d said “William,” and for the space of an Our Father, ten Hail Marys and a Glory Be, William must perforce be in his mind.
“_Guide him_,” he thought, between the words of the prayer. “_Give him good judgment. Help him to be a good man. Show him his way…and Holy Mother…keep him safe, for your own Son’s sake_… world without end, Amen,” he said, reaching the final bead.
-------------------------------
Roger
Teaser #2:
It was a sapphire, a raw one. A misty, cloudy blue little thing, half the size of his little finger’s nail. He shook it free of its wrappings and it landed silently but solidly in the hollow of his hand.
“Ye said it maybe doesna matter whether it’s cut or not,” Buck said, nodding at it.
“I think not. I hope not. I wish I could say I can’t take it.” Roger closed his fingers gently on the little rock, as though it might burn him. “Thank you, a charaidh. Where did ye find it?”
“Ach…” Buck said vaguely, with a slight wave of his hand. “Just saw it and picked it up, ken?”
“Holy Lord,” Roger said, squeezing the little pebble involuntarily. Too late, he remembered the castle in Strathpeffer, him talking with the factor about Jemmy and Rob Cameron—the earl being away from home—and Buck gone, disappeared with a handsome young housemaid. And the factor offering to show him Cromartie’s collection of agates and rare stones…he’d declined, thank God. But—
“You didn’t,” he said to Buck. “Tell me ye didn’t.”
“Ye keep saying that,” Buck said, frowning at him. “I will, if ye want me to, but I shouldna think a minister ought to be encouraging folk to tell lies. A poor example for the bairns, aye?”
He nodded toward the stable-yard, where Jem was playing with a boy who had a hoop, the two of them trying to drive it with sticks over the bumpy ground, with a marked lack of success. Mandy was throwing pebbles at something in the dry grass—probably some hapless toad trying its best to hibernate against the odds.
“Me, a poor example? And you their own great-great-great-great-grandfather!”
“And should I not be lookin’ out for their welfare, then? Is that what ye’re sayin’ to me?”
“I—“ His throat closed suddenly and he cleared it, hard. The boys had left their hoop and were poking at whatever Mandy had found in the grass. “No. I’m not. But I didn’t ask ye to steal for them. To risk your bloody neck for us!” _That’s my job_, he wanted to say, but didn’t.
“May as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.” Buck gave him a direct stare. “Ye need it, aye? Take it, then.” Something that wasn’t quite a smile touched the edge of his mouth. “With my blessing.”
On the far side of the yard, Mandy had picked up the hoop and put it about her solid little waist. She waggled her bottom, in a vain attempt at getting it to spin.
“Look, Daddy!” she called. “Hula hoop!”
Jem froze for a moment, then looked at Roger, his eyes big with concern. Roger shook his head slightly—_don’t say anything_—and Jem swallowed visibly and turned his back to his sister, shoulders stiff.
“What’s a hula hoop, then?” Buck asked quietly, behind him.
Now if your like me, you love Buck! So I was so excited to see him take a prominent role . So excited for this book. Diana is releasing the Teasers publicly. I take no credit for acquiring these, but my Time-travel genre love urges me to share with you!
Peace, Love & Happy Reading
Brittaini
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