Not a penny more.’ The butcher wrinkled his nose as he leaned out from the hatch. It was a timber platform, hanging on strained hinges, over which was draped a relatively clean cloth and various cuts of meat. He sucked at his wiry moustache as if mulling over the offer. ‘Five.’ The customer, a ch...
The land was thick with forests that stretched in all directions into the chalky South Downs, only occasionally broken up by patches of open farmland that sustained the smattering of timber-framed hovels clustered like toadstools about the hamlet's core. And that core was the Manor House, the hug...
Somewhere outside a baby was crying and, further off, a dog yapped madly until a woman’s shrill scold cut it off with a yelp. His throat was dry and his face throbbed, and for an awful second he feared he was back in the cell with Port and his confederates. A while later, however, he recalled see...
His head was canted to one side, tongue fat and protruding through lips that were as blue as the dawn sky. One eye was bulging open, bright scarlet where the vessels had burst. The other drooped closed to show that life had all but gone. The soldiers were grim faced and filthy. Their boots were w...
It had been a hard day’s march, made slow by the interminable terrain and the word, from a local drover, that a reasonable Roundhead force was stalking the area east of Tavistock. He had seen nothing during the day, and wondered whether the frightened man had cooked the tale somewhat, assuming th...
‘What is it?’ a man’s voice cut through the sound of her rapid breaths. She sat bolt upright and looked across to where the outline of Father Benjamin Laney lay a few feet away. He had turned to look at her, propping his head up on an elbow. ‘Nothing. A dream.’ She could see the priest’s eyes nar...