Today I am delighted to turn the blog over to international best-selling author Helen Hollick, whose brilliant and very fertile imagination has produced a conversation between her 18th-century pirate, Jesamiah Acorne (star of the Sea Witch Voyages) and my 10th-century Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, the main character in To Be A Queen.
Take it away Helen...
A TURN OF TIME?
By Helen Hollick
A fanciful tale of a meeting between two people of the 10th and 18th centuries...
“Hello lass, you all right sitting there on y’tod?”
The young woman looks up from where she’s sitting on a damp rock beside the river . She squints into the glare of the low, autumn sunshine. She looks at the stranger, but can only see his outline, not his face, as the sun is behind him. The sun casts a glowing aura around him, making him seem quite ethereal.
“Yes I’m fine, thank you sir. Just sitting here thinking.”
The man moves, sits down on another rock. The illusion of other-worldliness has vanished now. He sniffs, tips his hat back. She thinks that he is dressed rather strangely, a long coat, long leather boots and close-fitting trousers that are of a material she has never seen before. His hat is strange too, it is leather, triangular. He has a froth of lace at his neck and wrists. Even the sword he is wearing is most odd, it is long and slightly curved. He has another thing tucked through his belt, it looks like some sort of club with a bent handle.
“What is that?” she asks, curious, pointing to it.
“My pistol. Very dangerous.”
She shrugs. She has never heard the word before. “Are you a foreigner?” she asks, suspiciously. “A Viking from Denmark or Norway? You are certainly not a Mercian.”
“Devonshire is part of my father’s Wessex. I have never heard of Virginia. Is it across the sea?”
“It is. And I suppose I’m a Viking of sorts. I used to be a pirate but I took the King’s amnesty.”
“Amnesty? My father, King Alfred, does not give our enemies amnesty.”
“Alfred? No this was King George.”
The girl frowns. She has never heard of this ‘George’. “My husband is the Lord of Mercia. His name is Æthelred.”
“Ah, The Unready? I’ve heard of him!”
The girl’s frown deepens. “Unready? My husband is never unready. He is a very capable lord.”
The man also frowns but lets the matter go. “Forgive me for saying, but you look far too young to be a married woman. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“I am Æthelflæd, Lady of Mercia and it is impertinent for someone who is not my close kindred to call me by such an endearment.”
“I know a ship called the Lady Of Mercia. A fine brig. Her captain’s a good man. Brought my wife to England from Spain. Ended up in a bit of trouble, but we sorted it out in the end.”
The young woman stares at her hands, gazing at the jewelled rings she wears, twiddling one that was a little loose, around and around. “I am in trouble too. We need to hold the Viking sea wolves back. They are at anchor in the estuary. If they sail up this river, they will overrun us, and we would not be able to hold them.” She points at the calm, lazy flow drifting beneath the overhanging trees, the low sun sparkles on the little waves and eddies being stirred by a come-and-gone flurry of wind.
The man also stares at the river. “Good sailors are they, these Vikings? Know how to handle a ship?”
She laughs, ironically. “Oh yes, they have ships with shallow draughts, and they handle them with great skill. They are, I am reluctant to say it, but they are brave, capable men who fight well. If they land here, we will stand no chance of survival against them.”
The man sniffs again, stands and walks to the water’s edge where he squats down and dabbles his right hand into the cool, clear water. He can see the bottom quite clearly. “I’d not get my ship up here. It’s too shallow.”
“You have a ship?”
“Aye. She’s called Sea Witch.”
“But she is not a Viking, dragon ship?”
He stands, turns, smiles at her. “No. She’s neither of those. Could you defeat these Vikings if you stopped them from coming up river?”
Her turn to smile. “Oh yes, we have warriors every bit as brave and formidable as the invaders. But we do not have ships, and we will not be able to stop them from sailing up river if they decide to do so.”
The man walks a pace or two towards her. “You only need to think a little differently. Use what you have on land. Those trees – slice the branches so that they form spikes then cut them down so that they form a barrier across the water. Set thick, strong ropes from bank to bank – ropes that are submerged so that they will not see them, and their steering boards, that are lower in the water, get snarled. Use flame arrows dipped in tar. No sailor will confront the prospect of fire. Sink something else beneath the water; a broken cart with its shafts or wheel spokes sharpened. These Viking ships will not get far if you sink them, neither will the men aboard live long if you are ready for them. They will either drown, or try to come ashore. Either way, they will be dead men.”
Æthelflæd rises, walks to the edge of the water and stares into the gentle current, much as he had done. He was right.
She swivels on her haunches, intending to ask his name and then thank him, but he is not there. The air shimmers where he had stood, and a faint, thin shadow hovers over the grass...
[Æthelflæd, known to her family in my novel as Teasel (the reason for which is misunderstood by her future husband!) was the daughter of Alfred the Great. Sent to Mercia to an arranged marriage, she quickly found herself trying to persuade those in her new homeland to accept her, then ruling a kingdom in all but name, trying to save Mercia from the 'Vikings' and, ultimately, her own brother.
"A vibrant telling of an extraordinary life." Praise for To Be A Queen from Terri Nixon, award-winning historical novelist]
THE VOYAGES
SEA WITCH Voyage one
PIRATE CODE Voyage two
BRING IT CLOSE Voyage three
RIPPLES IN THE SAND Voyage four
ON THE ACCOUNT Voyage five
WHEN THE MERMAID SINGS A prequel to the series
(short-read novella)
And just published...
GALLOWS WAKE
The Sixth Voyage of Captain Jesamiah Acorne
By Helen Hollick
Where the Past haunts the future...
Damage to her mast means Sea Witch has to be repaired, but the nearest shipyard is at Gibraltar. Unfortunately for Captain Jesamiah Acorne, several men he does not want to meet are also there, among them, Captain Edward Vernon of the Royal Navy, who would rather see Jesamiah hang.
Then there is the spy, Richie Tearle, and manipulative Ascham Doone who has dubious plans of his own. Plans that involve Jesamiah, who, beyond unravelling the puzzle of a dead person who may not be dead, has a priority concern regarding the wellbeing of his pregnant wife, the white witch, Tiola.
Forced to sail to England without Jesamiah, Tiola must keep herself and others close to her safe, but memories of the past, and the shadow of the gallows haunt her. Dreams disturb her, like a discordant lament at a wake.
But is this the past calling, or the future?
From the first review of Gallows Wake:
“Hollick’s writing is crisp and clear, and her ear for dialogue and ability to reveal character in a few brief sentences is enviable. While several of the characters in Gallows Wake have returned from previous books, I felt no need to have read those books to understand them. The paranormal side of the story—Tiola is a white witch, with powers of precognition and more, and one of the characters is not quite human—blends with the story beautifully, handled so matter-of-factly. This is simply Jesamiah’s reality, and he accepts it, as does the reader.”
Author Marian L. Thorpe.
BUY LINKS:
Amazon Author Page (Universal link) https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
Where you will find the entire series waiting at anchor in your nearest Amazon harbour – do come aboard and share Jesamiah’s derring-do nautical adventures!
(available Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and in paperback)
Or order a paperback copy from your local bookstore!
ABOUT HELEN HOLLICK
First accepted for traditional publication in 1993, Helen became a USA Today Bestseller with her historical novel, The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) with the sequel, Harold the King (US: I Am The Chosen King) being novels that explore the events that led to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy is a fifth-century version of the Arthurian legend, and she writes a nautical adventure/fantasy series, The Sea Witch Voyages. She is now also branching out into the quick read novella, 'Cosy Mystery' genre with her Jan Christopher Murder Mysteries, set in the 1970s, with the first in the series, A Mirror Murder incorporating her, often hilarious, memories of working as a library assistant.
Her non-fiction books are Pirates: Truth and Tales and Life of A Smuggler. She lives with her family in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in North Devon and occasionally gets time to write...
Website: www.helenhollick.net
Newsletter Subscription: http://tinyletter.com/HelenHollick
Blog: www.ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HelenHollick
Twitter: @HelenHollick https://twitter.com/HelenHollick
Thank you Annie. Thoroughly enjoyed writing this! Jesamiah's quite chuffed that he might have been the one behind beating the Vikings! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt was my absolute pleasure and do thank Jesamiah for passing on his words of wisdom. Though I can't imagine that sort of success appealing to his ego, at all... :-D
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