In Ashes Lie

 
 
 

 
In Ashes Lie

 

 
MARIE BRENNAN

 
 
Hachette Digital

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

In Ashes Lie

The notion that they would deliberately undermine the King was disturbing.

“That,” Lune said, “is just shy of treason.”

“Or past it.” Antony dropped without looking into the chair a hobthrush hurried to place behind him, and glared away the fae who were unabashedly eavesdropping.

Lune recognized the bleak hardness in his eyes. It had grown over the years she’d known him, from his first arrival in this court as a young man with scarcely enough whiskers to call a beard. She made him her consort because she needed his stubborn loyalty to the mortal world; he accepted because he dreamed of changing that world for the better, with faerie aid. But he was a single man, whatever aid he had, and all too often his efforts ended in failure.

It saddened her to see him thus, growing older and grimmer, year by year. How old was he now? How much longer would he last?

I will lose him some day. As I lost the man before him.

BY MARIE BRENNAN

Warrior
Witch

 

 

Midnight Never Come
In Ashes Lie

 
 
 

 
In Ashes Lie

 

 
MARIE BRENNAN

 
 
Hachette Digital

 
Published by Hachette Digital 2009

 
Copyright © 2009 by Bryn Neuenschwander

 
The moral right of the author has been asserted.

 
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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permission in writing of the publisher, nor be
otherwise circulated in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published and
without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

 

 
All characters and events in this publication, other than
those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious
and any resemblance to real persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.

 
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

eISBN : 978 0 7481 1184 8

 
This ebook produced by JOUVE, FRANCE

 

 
Hachette Digital
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Acknowledgments

I habitually put my research bibliography on my website, both to help any reader who wants to know more, and to acknowledge the scholars without whom I could never write these books. Where the latter is concerned, I must single out the late C. V. Wedgwood, who did more than any other historian I read to bring this period to life. Any historian will mention, for example, the attempted arrest of the Five Members, perhaps quoting one or two of the famous lines from the incident; Wedgwood goes on to say that Charles was accompanied by his nephew, and the Earl of Roxburgh was propping the door open, and some of the courtiers in the lobby mimed firing at the men in the Commons. Such details are more valuable than gold to a writer of historical fiction. All of the “real event” scenes in the first half of this book owe their truthfulness to Wedgwood; for the second half of the book and the Great Fire, I refer you to my Web site, and all the other scholars listed there.

I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to those who aided me directly. Aside from all the wonderful LiveJournal folk who recommended references to me, I must thank Meriel Jeter and John Schofield at the Museum of London; Susanne Groom of Historic Royal Palaces; and Gwen Thomas, Robin Pyke, and Kate Robinson of the National Trust at Ham House. Ellen Rawson and Ian Walden rescued me from being at the mercy of the Sunday bus schedule in rural Oxfordshire; John Pritchard supplied me with valuable information about the history of the Vale; and Lothair Biedermann lent me a spot of help in placing labels on the map at the front of this book.

I don’t have names for all the individuals at the Guildhall Library and London Metropolitan Archives who aided me in my documentary research while I was in London, but all hail the honorable order of librarians, without whom I would have been lost.

And particular thanks to Kate Walton and Alye Helms, for more late-night (and sometimes afternoon) conversations about the book. Their comments kept me on course when I was lost in the wilds of seventeenth-century history—and one well-timed question from Kate regarding the Cailleach Bheur saved my sanity when I needed it most. The Kate in this novel is not named for her, but she feeds my general conviction that anyone with that name must be an excellent person indeed.

Dramatis Personae

The Royal Family of England

Charles Stuart, first of that name—
King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland

Henrietta Maria—
Queen to Charles I

Charles Stuart, second of that name—
Prince of Wales, and after King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland

Catherine of Braganza—
Queen to Charles II

James Stuart—
Duke of York, and brother to Charles II

James Stuart—
late King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, and father to Charles I

Mary Stuart—
late Queen of Scots, and mother to King James

 

The House of Lords

William Laud—
Archbishop of Canterbury

Thomas Wentworth—
Lord Deputy of Ireland, created Earl of Strafford

Thomas Grey—
Lord Grey of Groby

John Mordaunt—
Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon, and a Royalist conspirator

Edward Hyde—
later Earl of Clarendon, and a Royalist conspirator

William Craven—
Earl of Craven

Maxwell—
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod

 

The House of Commons

John Glanville—
Speaker of the House of Commons

William Lenthall—
Speaker of the House of Commons

Sir Antony Ware }

Thomas Soame }—
aldermen and members for London

Isaac Penington }

John Pym—
a Parliamentary leader

John Hampden }

Denzil Holles }—
allies of John Pym

Arthur Hesilrige }

William Strode }

Sir Francis Seymour—
a knight and member of Parliament

William Prynne—
a member of Parliament

 

The New Model Army

Oliver Cromwell—
a general and member of Parliament, and later Lord Protector of England

Henry Ireton—
a general and member of Parliament

Thomas Fairfax—
Lord Fairfax of Cameron, likewise a general

Thomas Pride—
a colonel

Edmund Ludlow—
an officer

Richard Cromwell—
son of Oliver Cromwell, and second Lord Protector

George Monck—
general of the Army in Scotland

 

Londoners

Sir Morris Abbot }

Thomas Alleyn }—
Lord Mayors of London

Sir Thomas Bludworth }

Sir William Turner—
an alderman of London

Katherine Ware—
wife to Sir Antony Ware

Burnett—
manservant to Sir Antony Ware

Thomas Farynor—
a baker

Humphrey Taylor—
a Puritan

Benjamin Hipley—
a spymaster

John Lilburne—
leader of the Leveller movement

Marchamont Nedham—
a printer of news

John Bradshaw—
Lord President of the High Court of Justice

Elizabeth Murray—
suo jure Countess of Dysart, and a Royalist conspirator

John Ellin—
a doctor

Samuel Pepys—
a diarist

Robert Hubert—
a traitor

Sir Michael Deven—
a mortal man, now dead

 

The Onyx Court

Lune—
Queen of the Onyx Court

Valentin Aspell—
Lord Keeper

Amadea Shirrell—
Lady Chamberlain

Nianna Chrysanthe—
Mistress of the Robes

Sir Prigurd Nellt—
a giant, and Captain of the Onyx Guard

Sir Cerenel }

Sir Essain }

Sir Mellehan }—
knights of the Onyx Guard

Sir Peregrin Thorne }

Dame Segraine }

Gertrude Goodemeade—
a brownie of Islington

Rosamund Goodemeade—
her sister, and likewise a brownie

Sir Leslic—
an elf-knight

Lewan Erle—
an elf-lord

Carline—
an elf-lady

Angrisla—
a nightmare

Tom Toggin—
a hob

Bonecruncher—
a barguest

Blacktooth Meg—
the hag of the River Fleet

 

Foreigners, exiles, and deceased fae

Fiacha }

Nuada }—
Ard-Ríthe, High Kings of Ireland

The Dagda }

Conchobar—
King of Ulster

Eochu Airt—
ollamh and ambassador from Temair

Ailill—
King of Connacht

Medb—
Queen of Connacht

Feidelm of the Far-Seeing Eye—
poet and ambassador from Temair

Nicneven—
the Gyre-Carling of Fife

Kentigern Nellt—
an exiled giant, and brother to Sir Prigurd Nellt

Halgresta Nellt—
their sister, likewise a giant, now dead

Cunobel—
an exiled knight, and brother to Sir Cerenel

Ifarren Vidar—
an exiled lord

Orgat—
a powrie of the Border

Cailleach Bheur—
the Blue Hag of Winter

Wayland Smith—
King of the Vale of the White Horse

Irrith—
a sprite of Berkshire

Invidiana—
late Queen of the Onyx Court

City of London