Last night we actually hit 3650 words. This morning booted up and did some chores with regards to Rat catching…
Also got in 1000 words before lunch and while doing my other errands. For the week we are at 11,492 at lunchtime. So double our goal of 5000 words for a week. Not quite as many as last month at the same point but that is because I did not write on the weekend.
The end is closer. The next book forming.
During the regency, second sons, the sacrificial lambs of the family, were sent off to the service of the country or god. Why not have a hero of this stature amongst the men that Wellington relied upon? Why not see the Peninsula through there eyes, rather than that of just the heroic Sharpe?
I have some psychological torture going on between the hero and a nemesis and I just finished the scene. I thought it was good so I thought to share it:
“You know Mark, you could save us all a lot of trouble and get yourself killed. You really don’t think after all is done here that you could be a king, do you?” Mark couldn’t respond as he had been gagged. One arm tied to his saddle horn, the other free, but his lower torso tied into the saddle, he wasn’t going anywhere except where his horse led him. That horse was on a lead to two armsmen, loyal to de Jeffrey.
“Hmm, I believe you would like to say something, but I have heard it all before. Do you know what I did when I lived in the Ghetto? I didn’t think so. I was an enforcer for the Packs. Now the Peacers, they think that I was a good citizen. A heart of gold and all that. But that was because I kept from them my true nature.” Jims was laying it on thick. He had learned, in his talks with Brant and Peter that the Bloods didn’t really understand the lower classes. They certainly had some romanticized view of the Ghetto. A view that made it sound much worse than it was. Things were harder in the Ghetto, that is, they were more honest. If a man threatened you, the threat was real. Jims had broken a great many arms, legs, fingers. He didn’t break hands, kneecaps, shoulders, elbows as some did, because then the mark took a lot longer to heal. A long healing mark didn’t pay you back as fast as a mark that remembered the pain vividly.
Bloods used threats and thought that the power they could command was enough to back them up. They used assassins obviously. They thought that there lives were sacred. His prisoner squirmed. Jims nodded, Mark was indeed his prisoner. If Jims had been smarter, he would have dealt with this before the king had arrived at the river. Now things were going to be a bit messy, and his family would certainly take some political pain. But as they were already enemies of the Norans from the actions that had happened already, there was no closing that cookie jar as Rat would say. Jims looked over his shoulder and saw that the boy was in the midst of the riders. Duchess Keren had found the boy within minutes after Duchess Marree had left the fort. She had said that he could stay but he had to attend to studies every day. And she and the other Duchesses made it their special project to give the boy lessons.
“You there are many Packs in the Ghetto and Cheapton and the other parts of Norbonne that Bloods never go? Of course you do. We have wars, just like the houses fight, except we actually use our steel and shed blood. I understand it has been nearly 200 years since the last house war. There was a Pack war two five days before we marched from Norbonne. We try to discourage them. You know. We do this by example. I sure you can appreciate that. Like the example of my dying by a lone attacker that you hired would make the other bloods think twice about challenging you for the kingship…”
“Oh don’t shake your head. Even if this last attack wasn’t your doing, there were two others. Ah I don’t see any denial there. Too late to shake your head now. I told you, I have experience at this.” Jims was growing bored and it was getting time to move quietly so he had to wrap things up. “We make examples of our enemies by taking one leader from the Pack we are fighting with and torturing them. We don’t kill them, you understand. Remove an eye, take their parts. You know their parts… A hand, a few toes. You don’t take the whole foot you see, because of the balance. When you miss a few toes, your whole life is wobbly…” Jims laughed and then “Quiet now, we are getting close to the first hide.”
Word count in late afternoon has reached 2220 for the day, 12,664 for the week, 23,230 for the month, and 92252 for the book.
Gratitude Log:
- Barbarian Kings (A wargame from my college days)
- Empires of the Middle Ages (another one)
- My chop saw (used to cut the wood to length to plug one of the rat holes.)
- Bernard Cornwell and Sharpe (It’s a guide for how I don’t want to tell about the Peninsula campaign though the acting of Pete Postlethwaite in the TV series was excellent)
- Bernadette, are german shepard
Read Full Post »
