Sample
Two friends, Anne and Charley have travelled down from Wakefield in West Yorkshire to Burnley Manor in Hertfordshire where they are about to embark on a week of festivities the medieval way.
But since their arrival, an eerie mist has smothered the house and its land showing no signs of lifting. Also since her first night, Anne has been plagued by violent nightmares of a time long gone, of clashing Knights in armour and flashbacks so vivid it is like she was there...
Together Anne and Charley must unravel the mysteries of the mist that binds Burnley and its connections to Anne and a tragic ancient love story set against the back drop of the Wars of the Roses.
Chapter 7 - Sunday (sample)
Having grabbed her car keys as quickly as she could taking great care to be very quiet, Anne made her way to her car. The laughter and the buzz of the guests on the last night of the medieval week could still be caught on the air from the great hall, but Anne was totally oblivious.
The week of the medieval festivities had certainly taught Anne one thing, if a woman wanted to get anything done she had to hitch up her dress for she kept tripping over the damn thing.
Anne hastened to her car fumbling with her keys as one hand struggled to keep hold of a huge gathering of her dress. It will be dark soon, she thought quite worryingly before, skidding of the gravel she sped away to be swallowed by the countryside.
It was as if the car knew exactly where to go for Anne surely didn't’t yet she drove and drove. She licked her dry lips to moisten them but her throat was incredibly parched and her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it working its way to break free from her chest. And yet when she pulled up in the middle of nowhere with no building, monument or effigy of any significance her heart ruled that she was right but her head told her that she had never before been here. How she could have? She thought to herself while gazing out upon an empty open field.
The April air was moist and bitter, Anne s medieval slippers fought losing battles against the ground, sinking with every step that she took. The light breeze that had whipped up all of a sudden played with her golden curls that fell down her back.
The nipping chill of the breeze created goose bumps all along her pale arms but she no longer could feel it.
Anne gazed out onto the horizon feeling particularly enraptured by the red, yellow and orange streaks that made up the evening sky above the half sunken sun.
Anxiety grew a little in the pit of her stomach as she realised she probably only had a few minutes of sunlight left. She took a deep breath, beginning to ponder why on earth she had let the madness of the last few days bring her this far. Like it could answer the questions stirred up in the last week that spurned from events that occurred over half a century ago. But something was preventing her from leaving.
The colour of her dress transformed from lily-white to a creamy grey along the bottom trim as the old material absorbed the moisture clinging to the inch long blades of grass.
She took one last sweeping look across the open void before she turned. There’s nothing here she thought to herself disappointedly feeling foolish that she d left the banquet, left Charley on her own for some gut feeling and she decided to make her way back to the car and back to real life.
Retracing the way she had entered the field Anne was suddenly and strikingly overcome by a warmth that filled her head and trickled down to the very tips of her fingers and down to her toes.
The wind blew more harshly, whistling and whispering in her ears and whipping the skirts of her dress into a flowing frenzy likes the waves on an ocean.
Anne was mesmerised by the scene unfolding in front of her. A thick, grey mist had consumed the entire field even taking with it half of her own body. Her breathing had come under control at last, was deep and slow but did nothing to stop the racing of her own heart.
But then, she could make out the shadow of a man emerging from the cloud. Anne was rooted firmly to the spot unable to move any of her limbs like blood had become ice and flesh had become stone.
The figure continued to make his way towards her in long confident strides and it was only when he had nearly reached her that she was in full armour though it was mortally damaged, battered and stained with dark red mortal blood. The man carried a similarly smeared sword that hung gallantly by his side.
There was one part of his armour that wasn t complete however, as he wore no helmet upon his head which allowed for a mane of sandy coloured hair to fly freely in the wind.
He was so close now she could almost touch him and at last she knew.
“John,” she whispered incredulously to the wind that carried his name away.
The man smiled true, a smile that reached the tips of his brown eyes and made them ignite with the lifetime of happiness that should have been his over five hundred years ago. But Anne was Anne no more.
“I waited for hours and hours but you never came,” Kate whispered tears stinging her eyes painfully.
“I know my love and for that I am truly sorry but I told you I would always come for you. No matter how long it took,” he told her truthfully.
Salt tears slid down Kate s cheeks leaving visible slug trails that disrupted their gentle pink colouring.
“Please sweetheart do not cry. It s all over now. Hush,” he said gently taking her face in his hands.
“But how can you forgive my for what I have done?” she sobbed into his chest oddly comforted by the sharp coldness of the metal armour against her skin.
“Kate, stop this,” he whispered gently but his fingers which had move down to her bare arms tightened slightly. “The fault was not yours to carry. “
Her head remained low in shame, “but your note, the note that you left me. I thought you’d chosen her.”
He smiled, wiping away the crystal tears with his thumb. “It was always you Kate, I thought you knew that.” The note I left with Tom was wrote in such haste and confusion. My heart, my head, my loyalties were torn between my King and my brother. God how they both trusted me. I remember seeing the pain on Dickon s face at Barnet after I’d betrayed Edward that night at Doncaster and knowing that it was pain that I had put upon my young cousin well...
“But John Dickon adored you, even after-”
“I know, I know and in some ways that is worse. Much worse. But then there was also my loyalties to Isabel and our children. I burned for you Kate and knew deep in my heart that I could not live without you but I could not hurt her either. Not after what I had already put her through. But it was always you Kate. Always.”
“I love you,” he added. “Always have from that moment at your father’s home.”
Kate could not help but to smile now and it lifted her spirits and finally after all these years she felt she could look at him.
“I love you, she said sincerely back to him though some of the words were choked in tears. Lost. But John knew what she meant and the sincerity that lay within them, he saw it shine from her eyes.
“Tis I that should seek forgiveness from you, sweet Kate. For I was in such a state trying to please and be loyal to everyone that I, in the end betrayed all I loved - including myself. I wasn’t strong enough when I needed to be and I failed in every way possible…”
