Kings Man – Angus Donald

Rather than outside the walls like common thieves in the dark of night.’ However, Robertsbridge had not become a very high and mighty churchman by accident; he had bones of iron. ‘Then, my lord, as his trusted friends and counsellors, we shall stay with our King and see to his comfort and safety until this matter has been properly resolved – unless you have some objection … ?’ ‘Indeed not, my lord abbot. You and your men are most welcome at my court.

Most welcome. Now let us eat!’ There was nothing else to do but join the feast. We spent a sleepless night. After the feast was over, back at our guest house, the abbots sat up till dawn writing many letters to the great men – and women – of England and Normandy, while Hanno and I packed our possessions, cleaned our swords and armour and prepared to carry these precious missives on the long journey home. We were to leave the abbots and their monks with King Richard and retrace our steps to The Crow, which would carry us down the Main and the Rhine, all the way back to the North Sea and across it to England.

The letters we would carry were of vital importance; in effect we were being entrusted with King Richard’s lifeline, for these letters were his only link to his supporters in England. Undoubtedly Prince John’s assassins would stop at nothing in their efforts to prevent the letters from reaching their destination. Still, I was confident that, with Hanno at my side and a yard of steel in my hand, we would be more than a match for them. There would be no shameful running away this time, I told myself.

* Bidding a fond farewell to the abbots by the barbican gate at the north- western corner of Ochsenfurt, Hanno and I shouldered our back-sacks and were soon trudging down the road beside the Main towards the Tuckelhausen wharf where we had left The Crow two days earlier. I have to admit that I was exhausted after two sleepless nights and the dramatic events that had occurred since we moored at the rickety monastery wharf.

But I was buoyed by our success. What a tale I would have to tell Perkin! We had completed our mission; we had found the King and made his life a little safer and his person a little more comfortable – for the moment. Soon all Europe would know of his whereabouts; he had been brought out into the light, and the risk of murky, dishonourable, hole-and-corner dealings between his enemies was diminished.

Angus Donald was born in 1965 and educated at Marlborough College and Edinburgh University. He has worked as a fruit-picker in Greece, a waiter in New York and as an anthropologist studying magic and witchcraft in Indonesia. For the past fifteen years, he has been a journalist in Hong Kong, India, Afghanistan and London. He is married to Mary, with whom he has a baby daughter, and he now writes full time from home in Tonbridge, Kent. Also by Angus Donald Outlaw Holy Warrior COPYRIGHT Published by Hachette Digital ISBN: 9780748120512 All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2011 Angus Donald All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. Hachette Digital Little, Brown Book Group 100 Victoria Embankment London, EC4Y 0DY www.hachette.co.uk For my darling daughter Emma, with oceans of love Contents Also by Angus Donald Copyright Part One Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Part Two Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Part Three Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-one Epilogue Historical note Acknowledgements Nottingham Castle, March 1194 Part One Chapter One I can hear the sound of singing floating across the courtyard from the big barn, thin and faint yet warmly comforting, like the last wisps of a happy dream to a man waking from deep slumber.

I have left the remnants of the wedding party to their pleasures, leaving the bride Marie and her new husband Osric and dozens of their friends and neighbours to carouse long into the dark night. I have provided ale and wine, more than they could ever drink at half a dozen nuptials, and I slaughtered two of my sheep and a great sow, and all three carcasses spent the afternoon roasting over slow fires in the courtyard so that there might be plenty of meat for the newly joined couple and all their boozy well-wishers.

But I slipped away from the throng when the serious drinking began and the wine-flushed carollers began to loosen their belts; I did not wish to be asked to perform alongside them.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Title: –
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• ISBN: 9780748120512
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• Language: English (en)

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