dEaDINBURGH: Origins (Din Eidyn Corpus Book 3) (19 page)

Chapter 2

Jenny

The grass was wildly overgrown, but that could be fixed. The soil beneath was rich, deep and nourishing. It looked good enough to eat, so that was a blessing. The fences around were strong iron and completely enclosed The Gardens. The Ringed who’d been trapped inside the locked gates had been few and easy to silence.

Jennifer Kinsella stood atop the northern slope of Princes’ Street Gardens, scanning the expanse, planning plots for peas, barley, onions and carrots. Who knew what else they may learn to cultivate?

Jenny smiled, satisfied that with the assistance of the new arrivals their fledgling community had a chance. Drawn up Castle Rock, her eyes misted for a moment as she replayed in her mind the previous day’s conversation with Padre Jock. Out of respect, gratitude, maybe guilt, she’d invited Jock to join her and Fiona in the safety of The Gardens after chancing upon him on a reconnaissance run along the fences of Grayson’s Brotherhood.

Thin, vacant and weak, he’d looked like a phantom. Part of Jennifer had sighed with relief when he’d refused her invitation. They needed strong people in The Gardens. People like Cameron Shephard and James Kelly, the two soldiers who’d arrived three days previously, agreeing quickly and gratefully to assist in founding their new farming community.
Strong people
, she thought, her eyes moving across The Gardens to the area that was being cleared to accommodate a training area. People had to know how to fight.

She had eked every skill, technique and useful strategy from dozens of fighters, ex-soldiers, fireman, police and prison officers in the decade she’d been in the city. It was time to pass her skills along to her new community.

Weakness would kill them.
 
That, Jennifer wouldn’t allow.

End of Book 3

dEaDINBURGH Will Continue

dEaDINBURGH: Vantage
(Din Eidyn Corpus 1)

dEaDINBURGH: Alliances
(Din Eidyn Corpus 2)

dEaDINBURGH: Collected Edition

These titles are available on kindle and paperback from Amazon,
US
and
UK
as well as other formats at
Paddy’s Daddy Publishing
.

Also by Mark Wilson:

Bobby’s Boy
(Lanarkshire Strays)

Naebody’s Hero
(Lanarkshire Strays)

Head Boy
(Lanarkshire Strays)

Paddy’s Daddy

The Man Who Sold His Son
(Lanarkshire Strays)

Lanarkshire Strays: Collected Edition

dEaDINBURGH: Vantage
(Din Eidyn Corpus 1)

dEaDINBURGH: Origins
(Din Eidyn Corpus 3)

dEaDINBURGH: Collected Edition

These titles are available on kindle and paperback from Amazon,
US
and
UK
as well as other formats at
Paddy’s Daddy Publishing
.

For Martin and Tricia Ferguson.

"There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother." - Terri Guillemets

I’d like to thank the following people for their support in writing this novel:

Tricia Ferguson for the trust she placed in me.

My editor/proof-reader,
Stephanie Dagg
. Steph is a wonder and I wouldn’t print a book without her input.

Thanks to my test-readers Derek Graham, Louise MacDonald, Tracy Stewart.

Very special thanks to Jayne Doherty and Gayle Karabelen for their continued support of my writing career and to Michelle Ruedin for her insights and enthusiasm for the project.

Special thanks also to fellow writers Keith Nixon and Ryan Bracha.

Thanks also to Paul McGuigan of
PMCG Photography
for lending me his talents shooting key locations from the book around Edinburgh on a very dreech afternoon.

A huge thank you, as always, to my wife Natalie Wilson for unwavering encouragement and support.
I wouldn’t have written a word without your belief in me.

Author’s Note

I had a lot of fun writing this instalment in the dEaDINBURGH series. At least I did until it came time to write Padre Jock’s journal. Up until that point I’d been merrily torturing my favourite ginger Royal, slowly twisting him into Bracha. It was all fun, games and Zombie mayhem, and then I needed Jock to suffer a great loss.

Having established in Book 1 that Jock had been a father, I began plotting a minor but crucial role for his two children. I planned to kill them both, and his wife, to get him to where and to whom I needed him to be for the later (or earlier) books. Aye, I’m a sadistic wee shite with my characters.

Problem was, I had asked my friend Tricia if I could use her name and that of her late brother for Jock’s kids. I always try to use names that matter to me, but in this case, Tricia and I share a weird link through her brother and my sister. I wanted to do something to acknowledge this and to give Tricia a little memorial for her brother.

I barely knew Martin, but Tricia is one of the funniest, most engaged, engaging and vital people I know. That she loved her brother so deeply spoke volumes of him for me. She said yes straight away and sent me a long email describing her relationship with Martin.

Her trust in me was touching. I promised to do her and her brother proud and got to work.

Tricia and Martin’s roles in this book changed almost as soon as I began writing them. As often happens with characters, they began doing their own thing and took the story in a much different path to the one I’d had in mind. Kind of appropriate that Tricia Ferguson and her brother stole my story.

Thanks for trusting me with your memories, T. xxx

This book was inspired by Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin series. A gorgeous set of books.

You can find Jon at Amazon
UK
and
US
.

Thank you for reading my book.

Please consider visiting
Amazon UK
,
Amazon.
US
or
Goodreads
and leaving a review.

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