Below is an excerpt from Book Nine of the OUTLANDER novels. Note that there are SPOILERS…
I was having the delightful sort of dream where you realize that you’re asleep and are enjoying it extremely. I was warm, bonelessly relaxed, and my mind was an exquisite blank. I was just beginning to sink down through this cloudy layer of bliss to the deeper realms of unconsciousness when a violent movement of the mattress under me jerked me into instant alertness.
By reflex, I rolled onto my side and reached for Jamie. I hadn’t reached the stage of conscious thought yet, but my synapses had already drawn their own conclusions. He was still in bed, so we weren’t under attack and the house wasn’t afire. I heard nothing but his rapid breathing; the children were all right and no one had broken in. Ergo…it was his own dream that had wakened him.
This thought penetrated into the conscious part of my mind just as my hand touched his shoulder. He drew back, but not with the violent recoil he usually showed if I touched him too suddenly after a bad dream. He was awake, then; he knew it was me. Thank God for that, I thought, and drew a deep breath of my own.
"Jamie?" I said softly. My eyes were dark-adapted already; I could see him, half-curled beside me, tense, facing me.
"Dinna touch me, Sassenach," he said, just as softly. "Not yet. Let it pass." He’d gone to bed in a night-shirt; the room was still chilly. But he was naked now. When had he taken it off? And why?
Back to the Book Nine webpage.
This excerpt from Book Nine was posted by Diana Gabaldon as on of her "Daily Lines" on her Facebook page on December 10, 2014.
This page was last updated on Sunday, October 25, 2015 at 9:52 p.m. (PT) by Diana’s Webmistress.