A Flight of Arrows
Page 42
* * *
‘Farewell, Sir Herald,’ said Nell Driver. She dipped a little curtsey. ‘I wanted to thank you for all your kindness. And the cheese.’
‘It is I who should thank you,’ the herald said. ‘Where will you go?’
‘Back to England. Master Coloyne says we have captured some ships at a village over on the coast. One of them is going to England with letters for the court. I am no longer needed here. It is time I returned home.’
‘Then I wish you fair winds and a safe journey,’ Merrivale said. ‘You said once that you wanted to see what the rest of the world looked like. What do you think now that you have seen it?’
‘I think it is beautiful and terrible all at the same time. I have seen things that filled me with horror and things that made my blood sing. But I’m not denying I’ll be glad to see Southwick again, and feel its grass under my feet.’
‘You have had your fill of adventure?’
‘I think so. At least for the moment.’ She smiled up at him. ‘But perhaps when I am fully grown, I shall learn to shoot a longbow.’
‘You will need to be very strong.’
‘Try milking a dozen cows every morning and evening. That makes you strong.’ She glanced up at the sun. ‘I must go.’
‘Farewell, Mistress Driver,’ the herald said.
He stood by the side of the road and watched her small figure walk away, her back straight with confidence. When she reached a bend in the road, she turned and waved, and he saw the gleam of her teeth as she smiled. Then she was gone.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to our excellent Editor, Kit Nevile for all his help and encouragement. It is such a joy to have a dedicated editor to work with. As ever our map-maker extraordinaire, Gary Beaumont, (and how wonderful to have him in the same very small Devon village) has come up with the goods and he coped with last minute changes with his usual good humour and grace. Thanks too to our careful and talented copy-editor Jane Selley, and to Michael Bhaskar at Canelo for showing such enthusiasm about archers and medieval spying when we first floated the idea past him at a drinks party. And finally thanks to Nick Venables for designing such a great cover.
We have, perhaps unusually, to thank two different agents for helping to bring this book to fruition. Its concept and early stages were helped on its way by our wonderful first agents, Heather Adams and Mike Bryan; a delicious lunch in Bruton not long before lockdown was crucial to the development of the book. Thanks are due to them for passing us on so smoothly to Jon Wood of RCW Literary Agency. It has been a delight to work with Jon on the book and we look forward to meeting him in person one day…
A Flight of Arrows has in some way been a long time in development as it draws on our work on the battle of Crécy which has been ongoing for over 40 years. It also, of course has drawn on our non-fiction book The Road to Crécy published in 2004. Some of the characters in the book (both real and fictional) have been floating around in our heads for decades and are old friends. So, perhaps thanks to all these “old friends” for being so persistent and hanging around while we found the right fictional vehicle for you.
About the Author
A.J. Mackenzie is the pseudonym of Marilyn Livingstone and Morgen Witzel, an Anglo-Canadian husband-and-wife team of writers and historians. They write non-fiction history and management books under their own names, but ‘become’ A.J. MacKenzie when writing fiction. Morgen has an MA in renaissance diplomacy from the University of Victoria, but since the late 1990s has concentrated on writing books on leadership and management. Several of his books have been international best-sellers. Marilyn has a PhD in medieval economic history from the Queen’s University, Belfast. She is a musician who writes music and also plays in a silver band and sings in an a capella trio. They have written two books of medieval history together, and also several novels, including the Hardcastle & Chaytor mysteries set on Romney Marsh during the French Revolution.
Also by A.J. MacKenzie
The War of 1812 Epics
The Ballad of John MacLea
The Hunt for the North Star
Invasion
The Hundred Years’ War
A Flight of Arrows
A Clash of Lions
The Fallen Sword
First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Canelo
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
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Oxford OX2 0DF
United Kingdom
Copyright © A.J. MacKenzie, 2021
The moral right of A.J. MacKenzie to be identified as the creator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Ebook ISBN 9781800322783
Print ISBN 9781800322790
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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