Knowing Miller the boatman would be his eyes and ears for the present, he went out by the Strand door into the bustling street. He had put aside his old scholar’s gown, and was clad in his customary black doublet. After walking a hundred yards, past the entrances of the Savoy, Somerset House, Aru...
And in bright autumn sunshine, Betsy Brand walked through Datchet in her new hat and gown, eyes peeled for the first sign of anything amiss. Though very soon after she had taken the ferry across the Thames, her task began to look impossible. Datchet Mead lay just below Win...
The first was the hardest, for Marbeck could not be certain he was not being pursued. Though hungry and weary from lack of sleep, he forced himself to keep riding, pausing only at streams to wash the blood from his face and to water his mount. By afternoon the horse was tiring, and he was forced ...
He had expected Celia to be unwilling, wanting merely to talk. Instead, when they went to her bed she quickly became passionate, as if, now that she had confessed herself in need of his help, she could be as free with him as they had once been. It brought joy and relief, but it left him uneasy. W...
‘In the jungles beyond the Spanish Main there’s a vine. They extract a substance from it which they boil up, making a deadly ichor to dip their arrows in. Once the flesh of the victim is pierced, animal or human, it cannot live.’ Betsy stood still, her eyes flicking from Hill to Peg and back. She...