The Vanishing Witch
Read The Vanishing Witch Online
Authors: Karen Maitland
Copyright © 2014 Karen Maitland
The right of Karen Maitland to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This Ebook edition first published by Headline Publishing Group in 2014
All characters – apart from the obvious historical ones – in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
eISBN: 978 1 4722 1502 4
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Table of Contents
Timeline of the Events of the Peasants' Revolt
© John C. Gibson
Karen Maitland travelled and worked in many parts of the United Kingdom before settling for many years in the beautiful medieval city of Lincoln, an inspiration for her writing. She is the author of
The White Room
,
Company of Liars
,
The Owl Killers
,
The Gallows Curse
and
The Falcons of Fire and Ice
. She has recently relocated to a life of rural bliss in Devon. To find out
more, visit
www.karenmaitland.com
.
Karen Maitland
‘Karen Maitland neatly captures the spirit of primitive superstition’
Daily Express
‘Passion and peril. A compelling blend of historical grit and supernatural twists’
Daily Mail
on
The Falcons of Fire and Ice
‘A ripping tale . . . full of colour and detail’
Daily Telegraph
on
The Gallows Curse
‘Scarily good. Imagine
The Wicker Man
crossed with
The Birds
’
Marie Claire
on
The Owl Killers
‘Combines the storytelling traditions of
The Canterbury Tales
with the supernatural suspense of Kate Mosse’s
Sepulchre
in this atmospheric tale of treachery and magic’
Marie Claire
on
Company of Liars
The reign of Richard II is troubled, the poor are about to become poorer still and the landowners are lining their pockets. It’s a case of every man for himself, whatever his status or wealth. But in a world where nothing can be taken at face value, who can you trust?
The dour wool merchant?
His impulsive son?
His stepdaughter with the bewitching eyes?
Or the raven-haired widow
clutching her necklace of bloodstones?
And when people start dying unnatural deaths and the peasants decide it’s time to fight back, it becomes all too easy to spy witchcraft at every turn.
The White Room
Company of Liars
The Owl Killers
The Gallows Curse
The Falcons of Fire and Ice
Liars and Thieves (novella)
‘The children born of thee are sword and fire,
Red ruin, and the breaking up of laws.’
The Idylls of the King
, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809–92)
‘So hideous was the noise, a benedicite!
Certes he, Jack Straw and all his meinie,
Ne made never shouts so shrill
When that they would any Fleming kill.’
A reference to the Peasants’ Revolt in
The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340–1400)
The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement – but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims.
Under Western Eyes
, Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
Lincoln
Robert of Bassingham
– wool merchant and landowner in Lincoln
Jan
– Robert’s eldest son and steward
Adam
– Robert’s twelve-year-old son
Edith
– Robert’s wife
Maud
– Edith’s cousin
Beata
– Edith’s maid
Tenney
– Robert’s manservant
Catlin
– a wealthy widow
Leonia
– Catlin’s thirteen-year-old daughter
Edward
– Catlin’s adult son
Diot
– Catlin’s maid
Warrick
–
Widow Catlin’s late husband
Hugo Bayus
– elderly physician
Father Remigius
– Robert’s parish priest
Fulk
– overseer at Robert’s warehouse
Tom
– Robert’s rent-collector
Hugh de Garwell
– member of the Common Council of Lincoln and former Member of the Parliament
Thomas Thimbleby of Poolham
– Sheriff of Lincoln
Matthew Johan
– Florentine merchant in Lincoln
Master Warner
– Adam’s schoolmaster
Henry de Sutton
– a boy at Adam’s school
Sister Ursula
– nun at the Infirmary of St Mary Magdalene
Godwin
– a seafarer
Gunter
– a river boatman
Nonie
– Gunter’s wife
Royse
– Gunter and Nonie’s fourteen-year-old daughter
Hankin
– Gunter and Nonie’s twelve-year-old son
Col
– Gunter and Nonie’s four-year-old son
Martin
– rival boatman
Alys
– Martin’s wife
Simon
– Martin’s son
Thomas Farringdon
– leader of the Essex men
Giles
– rebel from Essex
Legend tells that seven hundred years before our story begins . . .
. . . in the days of the Saxons, in the kingdom of Lindsey, there was Ealdorman who had a beautiful daughter, Æthelind. She was famed throughout all her tribe not only for her knowledge of herbs and healing, but for her ability to tame animals. There was no bucking horse that would not grow calm when she fearlessly laid
her hand upon its flank, or a savage dog that would not roll over like a puppy when she approached.
One day when she was out in the forest gathering herbs, the men were hunting a wild boar that had killed several villagers and trampled their crops. As their hounds trailed after it, they saw to their horror that it had changed course and was charging straight towards Æthelind. When she grasped
its lethal tusks, it laid its great head meekly in her lap, and there remained until the huntsmen came to slay it. In gratitude for her bravery, her people gave her an amulet for her cloak in the form of a golden boar’s head studded with red garnets.
Æthelind’s reputation spread far and wide and many noble Saxons came to ask for her hand in marriage. Her father finally agreed to give his daughter
to the son of the king himself, a match that would bring great honour to his hall, peace and prosperity to the tribe.