“It was not my doing this time,” she snapped. “They left me no choice. Am I not to defend myself now?”
“Oh, Alice. It never is your doing, is it?” He sighed deeply. “No matter. Another life lies ahead of us now. And I am sure there is more than enough here in France to keep us amused for the time being.”
He paused to study her face awhile. “You should be happy, Alice, to finally be free of those men and all their lies and zealous bigotry, and yet I sense that you are not. Are you worried … perhaps about your niece?”
“I am.”
“You fear some blame will attach to her for what has transpired?”
Alice shook her head. “No, it is not that. The Dominican has suffered a terrible humiliation and no doubt will now slink back from whence he came with his tail tucked firmly between his legs. I do worry that Cecily has inherited my outspokenness and with it my knack for getting into trouble. But it is more than that also … I think it entirely possible that she is in love.”
“But that is wonderful news, Alice! From what you told me, Thomas Lester is a good man, and love is one of the greatest gifts, is it not?”
“Perhaps. But theirs will not be an easy path. There will be many difficulties for them to overcome, many challenges to their affection for each other, and I see them both being hurt.”
The man stroked his finely groomed beard and looked to the horizon, considering her words carefully before responding. He knew by now that when Alice Kyteler foresaw trouble, it was well to take note.
“You may be right, Alice. But when has love ever been easy? You must allow your niece to live her life as she sees fit, and I sense that all will be well in the end. Now, set aside your worries. Let us rather enjoy this moment while we may. We are in France. You are free. And we are together. Is that not enough for now?”
She nodded distractedly, then touched his hand lightly with the tips of her fingers, and they both smiled as they looked out over the beckoning lights of Calais.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Growing up in the small market town of Grantham, I was always fascinated by the historic Vale of Belvoir, situated only a few miles down the road from where I lived. The vale is a beautiful part of England, comprising low-lying pastures, farmlands, and quaint villages, all dominated by Belvoir Castle, sitting up high on its hill, erected on the site of an old Norman stronghold built in the eleventh century by one of William the Conqueror’s knights as part of ongoing efforts to pacify the newly conquered kingdom. There is a Bottesford village in the vale, although I have imbued it with a life and characters it most certainly did not have, and at the time it would have been part of the Belvoir estate, ruled over by Baron William de Ross.
Thomas’s story is set against the backdrop of the fascinating dynastic struggle that was going on in England during the early fourteenth century. Edward II was not a particularly good king, and for much of his reign was beset by unrest fueled in part by the failure of his Scottish wars and the excesses of his court favorites. Edward survived one rebellion led by his cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, only to then be deposed by his wife, Queen Isabella, and her reputed lover, Sir Roger Mortimer, following which he suffered a brutal death, supposedly involving the use of a red-hot poker.
Queen Isabella’s regency did not last long. As it turns out, the two usurpers weren’t much better than what had come before, and they were in turn overthrown by Edward’s son, King Edward III, who went on to become one of England’s most powerful monarchs, fighting a successful war in France and shattering the flower of French nobility at the historic battle of Crecy.
Although this is very much a work of fiction, several of the characters Thomas mentions are based on historical figures: Henry Burghersh was indeed the Bishop of Lincoln; the likely mad John Deydras really did claim to be the true King of England and was promptly hanged for sedition (as was his supposedly diabolical cat); and John of Nottingham was accused of conspiring with twenty-seven of Coventry’s leading citizens to assassinate various members of the king’s inner circle by magical means.
The king’s favorite, Hugh Despenser the younger, appears to have been a particularly despicable individual, rightly earning Cecily’s opprobrium. The degree to which he was reviled at the time is probably best understood by the nature of his execution, in which he was publicly flogged, hanged, and then released before full asphyxiation only so that he might be castrated and burned alive. For whatever reason, Queen Isabella particularly hated Despenser and is said to have presided over the entire spectacle, gorging herself on food and wine as she did, fully living up to her nickname as the She-Wolf of France.
As for Alice Kyteler, she was real enough, and so notorious did she become that her story warranted a fairly sizeable entry in Holinshed’s authoritative sixteenth-century Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. For purposes of this story, I have chosen to make Alice somewhat younger than she would have been in real life, but that seemed only fair. After all, any witch worth her salt would surely have been more than capable of casting a good old-fashioned glamor to hide her age, and let us not forget, wicked witch or no, Alice was captivating enough to lead four of Ireland’s most prominent men to the altar.
Whatever happened to Alice? To this day nobody knows for sure. Was she truly a witch? Did she really poison her husbands? Or was she just a successful and powerful woman who made enemies? We shall leave that to the historians.
REFERENCES
The quotation at the beginning of this novel is from St. Thomas, Aquinas, The Summa Theologica, Supplement to the Third Part, Question 58, Art. 2, as literally translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province, first published in 1911 and 1920 by Burns, Oates and Washbourne Ltd. in London, and then republished by Benziger Bros. in 1947 in the United States.
Portions of the papal bull, Super Illius Specula, quoted in chapters 3 and 14 are from: James J. Walsh, The Supposed Warfare Between Medical Science and Theology, published in the Medical Library and Historical Journal, Vol IV (1906), p.263 at p.281.
The quotations in chapters 20 and 28 are entries from the sixteenth century Holinshed’s Chronicle of Ireland as quoted in: Thomas Wright (ed.), A Contemporary Narrative of the Proceedings Against Dame Alice Kyteler, Prosecuted for Sorcery in 1324, printed for the Camden Society, London, 1842-43, p. 45-46.
Quotations from the Bible are taken from the American Standard Version which has passed into public domain and can be found at several places online.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Andrew Gaddes grew up in Grantham, England, in the heart of the historic East Midlands. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in jurisprudence, following which he was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. After meeting the love of his life when working in Brussels, Belgium, she brought him back to her home state of Pennsylvania where he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has since practiced law in and around Philadelphia. He lives in Wayne, Pennsylvania with his wife, Kathy, and their two children, Graham and Sophie.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Andrew Gaddes
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-68331-840-8
ISBN (ePub): 978-1-68331-841-5
ISBN (ePDF): 978-1-68331-842-2
Cover design by Andy Ruggirello
Book design by Jennifer Canzone
Printed in the United States.
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First Edition: November 2018
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