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Date Posted: Tue, June 14 2022, 21:00:36
Author: CindyG
Subject: QOTD for Wednesday, June 15, 2022

The following quote is from A Breath of Snow And Ashes by Diana Gabaldon, chapter28, “Curses.” Copyright © 2005 by Diana Gabaldon, all rights reserved.

“I could feel the violence in him, pulsing like an exposed heart, thin-walled and ready to burst. I knew I couldn’t escape or prevent him—knew he would hurt me, given the slightest excuse. The only thing to do was be still and endure him.
I couldn’t. I heaved under him and rolled to the side, bringing up my knee as he pushed my shift aside. It hit him a glancing blow in the thigh, and he drew back his fist by reflex and punched me in the face, sharp and quick.
Red-black pain bloomed sudden from the center of my face, filled my head, and I went blind, shocked into momentary immobility. You utter fool, I thought, with total clarity. Now he’ll kill you. The second blow struck my cheek and snapped my head to the side. Perhaps I moved again in blind resistance, perhaps I didn’t.
Suddenly he was kneeling astride me, punching and slapping, blows dull and heavy as the thump of ocean waves on sand, too remote as yet for pain. I twisted, curling, bringing up my shoulder and trying to shield my face against the ground, and then his weight was gone.
He was standing. He was kicking me and cursing, panting and half-sobbing as his boot thudded into sides and back and thighs and buttocks. I panted in short gasps, trying to breathe. My body jerked and quivered with each blow, skidding on the leaf-strewn ground, and I clung to the sense of the ground below me, trying so hard to sink down, be swallowed by the earth.
Then it stopped. I could hear him panting, trying to speak. ‘Goddamn … goddamn … oh, goddamn … frig … friggin’ … bitch…’”

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Replies:

[> Oh Cindy, you sure are picking the gut wrenching ones. I couldn’t see how she survived. More than any author I’ve read, I felt those kicks. Those effing Browns, I don’t know if I would be as brave, but I cheered when Marsali killed one of them. -- Kathy in PA, Wed, June 15 2022, 3:34:50


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[> [> In the Book it was Mrs. Bugg - she killed him because he knew about the gold she'd hidden in her work basket. -- kgp, Wed, June 15 2022, 6:38:46


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[> [> [> I totally blanked that and remembered the show! That was when we still loved the Bugs. -- Kathy in PA, Wed, June 15 2022, 12:47:51


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[> Completely horrible! My heart goes out to all women who have endured and survived. -- kgp, Wed, June 15 2022, 6:37:47


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[> The scenes like this make me want to scream, and cry, and jump into the pages to beat the crap out of the attacker. Anger, fear, pain all course through me. -- DianaH, Wed, June 15 2022, 8:29:34


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[> The part that got me was shortly after this, when she was gagged and her face swelled up, her nose closing, and she was in danger of suffocating. To have endured and lived through the violence, then be in danger of dying because of a gag and broken nose.... -- Kel, Wed, June 15 2022, 9:50:05


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[> [> It was hard to pick the passage to post. This whole chapter is a very difficult read. -- CindyG, Wed, June 15 2022, 10:56:01


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[> [> Yes. And Catriona’s portrayal killed me. The not being able to breathe really got me too. As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten kind of claustrophobic. And any lack of air is panicking. Jamie says Claire “rips his guts out,”. this passage did mine. -- Kathy in PA, Wed, June 15 2022, 12:46:29


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