Read Online A Plague of Zombies: An Outlander Novella by Diana Gabaldon - Free Book Online Page B

of the servants, it was more than likely that news of the governor’s death would reach the inhabitants of Spanish Town within hours—if it hadn’t already. But if there was the slightest chance that the populace might remain in ignorance of the fact that Governor Warren had been killed and partially devoured in his own residence, while under the guard of His Majesty’s army, Grey was taking it.
    ‘What about the secretary?’ he asked abruptly, suddenly remembering. ‘Dawes. Is he gone, too? Or dead?’
    Fettes and Cherry exchanged a guilty look.
    ‘Don’t know, sir,’ Cherry said gruffly. ‘I’ll go and look.’
    ‘Do that, if you please.’
    He nodded in return to their salutes and went outside, shuddering in relief at the touch of the sun on his face, the warmth of it through the thin linen of his shirt. He walked slowly around the terrace towards his room, where Tom had doubtless already managed to assemble and clean his uniform.
    Now what? Dawes, if the man was still alive—and he hoped to God he was … A surge of saliva choked him, and he spat several times on the terrace, unable to swallow for the memory of that throat-clenching smell.
    ‘Tom,’ he said urgently, coming into the room. ‘Did you have an opportunity to speak to the other servants? To Rodrigo?’
    ‘Yes, me lord.’ Tom waved him onto the stool and knelt to put his stockings on. ‘They all knew about zombies—said they were dead people, just like Rodrigo said. A
houngan
—that’s a … well, I don’t quite know, but folk are right scared of ’em. Anyway, one of those who takes against somebody—or what’s paid to do so, I reckon—will take the somebody and kill them, then raise ’em up again to be his servant, and that’s a zombie. They were all dead scared of the notion, me lord,’ he said earnestly, looking up.
    ‘I don’t blame them in the slightest. Did any of them know about my visitor?’
    Tom shook his head.
    ‘They said not, but I think they did, me lord. They weren’t a-going to say. I got Rodrigo off by himself and he admitted he knew about it, but he said he didn’t think it was a zombie what came after you, because I told him how you fought it and what a mess it made of your room.’ Henarrowed his eyes at the dressing table, with its cracked mirror.
    ‘Really? What did he think it was?’
    ‘He wouldn’t quite say, but I pestered him a bit, and he finally let on as it might have been a
houngan
, just pretending to be a zombie.’
    Grey digested that possibility for a moment. Had the creature who attacked him meant to kill him? If so, why? But if not, the attack might only have been meant to pave the way for what had now happened, by making it seem that there were zombies lurking about King’s House in some profusion. That made a certain amount of sense, save for the fact …
    ‘But I’m told that zombies are slow and stiff in their movements. Could one of them have done what … was done to the governor?’ He swallowed.
    ‘I dunno, me lord. Never met one.’ Tom grinned briefly at him, rising from fastening his knee buckles. It was a nervous grin, but Grey smiled back, heartened by it.
    ‘I suppose I will have to go and look at the body again,’ he said, rising. ‘Will you come with me, Tom?’ His valet was very observant, especially in matters pertaining to the body, and had been of help to him before in interpreting postmortem phenomena.
    Tom paled noticeably but gulped and nodded and, squaring his shoulders, followed Lord John out onto the terrace.
    On their way to the governor’s room, they met Major Fettes, gloomily eating a slice of pineapple scavenged from the kitchen.
    ‘Come with me, Major,’ Grey ordered. ‘You can tell me what discoveries you and Cherry have made in my absence.’
    ‘I can tell you one such, sir,’ Fettes said, putting down the pineapple and wiping his hands on his waistcoat. ‘Judge Peters has gone to Eleuthera.’
    ‘What the devil for?’ That was a