BooksBarbecue
Back Winter Pilgrims Save as PDF
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Book
  3. About the Author
  4. Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims
  5. Dedication
  6. Though the Lancastrian Claim comes from Edward III’s THIRD son, it relies on a) possession and b) that the crown can not pass through a woman – Philippa Mormer – so must fall to the next male in line. The Yorkist Claim relies on their descent from Edward III’s SECOND son, and says it can pass through Philippa. The Tudor Claim ignores the fact of passing through a woman – Lady Margaret Beaufort – or that John, Earl of Somerset, was born illegimate.
  7. Factions in the Wars of the Roses
  8. Prologue
  9. PART ONE
  10. 1
  11. 2
  12. 3
  13. 4
  14. PART TWO
  15. 5
  16. 6
  17. 7
  18. 8
  19. 9
  20. 10
  21. 11
  22. 12
  23. 13
  24. PART THREE
  25. 14
  26. 15
  27. 16
  28. 17
  29. 18
  30. 19
  31. PART FOUR
  32. 20
  33. 21
  34. 22
  35. 23
  36. PART FIVE
  37. 24
  38. 25
  39. 26
  40. 27
  41. 28
  42. 29
  43. 30
  44. 31
  45. PART SIX
  46. 32
  47. 33
  48. PART SEVEN
  49. 34
  50. 35
  51. 36
  52. 37
  53. 38
  54. 39
  55. Acknowledgements

They tramp around the earthworks. Men are gathered in groups at the entrances to their tents, quietly sharing ale and stories around their fires when they should be sleeping.

‘Funny to think some of them’ll be dead tomorrow, isn’t it?’ Dafydd starts.

‘I hope to bloody God one of them’s you, Dafydd,’ Walter snaps.

Since they heard the news the scurriers brought back with them that afternoon, Walter has been in a savage temper. The scouts had met the enemy in the fields just this side of Northampton. Two of them had been killed outright, another wounded and expected to die in the morning, but able to bring back the news that the King’s men are encamped before the town with a river protecting their flanks; that there must be nearly ten thousand of them; that they are hard at work throwing up a defensive rampart, and that they have more cannons and bombards than either of the two survivors have seen in their lives.

It is this last piece of news that has made Walter so foul-tempered.

They walk on towards the road where Geoffrey and the other men are waiting by a hissing fire, their eyes sore with the smoke.

‘Anything?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Waste of bloody time, this,’ Walter says. ‘We should be getting our heads down, not on guard duty. I bet they’re all fast asleep behind their walls right now.’

‘Nothing’s going to happen tonight, that’s for sure,’ Geoffrey agrees. He holds his hand out to cup some of the rain. It has picked up again, drumming on their helmets and running into their eyes. A moment later the rushlight dies on them.

‘Bloody thing.’ Walter throws it away against the roots of a tree.

‘We may not have to attack them, Walter,’ Geoffrey says.

Walter is furious.

‘They’ve just spent the best part of two days digging in behind that bloody wall and you think they’re going to leave their guns behind and come out and have a pop at us, are they? Up a hill?’

‘Warwick is still sending heralds.’

‘And they keep getting sent back, don’t they? And so long as the Duke of Buckingham’s in the King’s camp, they always will be.’

‘There’s still the Archbishop. If he gets involved, the King will have to listen.’