Warrior Scarlet (27 page)
Authors: Rosemary Sutcliff
He thought he had left it too late. And as always with him, he met fear with anger. ‘I am not kind!’ He flung the word away as though it were a wasp that had settled on him, and swung round to the doorway; then checked again to look back at her. ‘Well, are you coming, or is it that I must go back alone? There are other girls on the Hill of Gathering tonight.’
There was a sudden white flash of anger in Blai, answering his own as the fire in the grey dagger answered to the flint. ‘Then let you take one of them to leap through the fire with you, my young Golden Lord!’
But Drem’s anger had escaped him. He shook his head. ‘I do not wish for any of them, Blai.’
She looked at him in silence, a long, clear look; and for a moment he was still afraid that he was too late. Then she smiled, and still without a word, began to tend the fire, so that it could be safely left. When that was done, she sprang up and came to Drem where he waited in the doorway; and he caught her hand in his sound one, and they ducked out into the moonlight and the blustering spring wind, and ran laughing, with Whitethroat at their heels, back towards the Beltane fires.
Rosemary Sutcliff was born in 1920 in West Clanden, Surrey.
With over 40 books to her credit, Rosemary Sutcliff is now universally considered one of the finest writers of historical novels for children. Her first novel,
The Queen Elizabeth Story
was published in 1950. In 1959 her book
The Lantern Bearers
won the Carnegie Medal. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and in 1978 her book,
Song for a Dark Queen
was commended for the Other Award.
In 1975, Rosemary was awarded the OBE for services to Children’s Literature and the CBE in 1992. Unfortunately Rosemary passed away in July 1992 and will be much missed by her many fans.
Beowulf: Dragonslayer
The Armourer’s House
The Capricorn Bracelet
The High Deeds of Finn MacCool
The Hound of Ulster
The Sword and the Circle
The Light Beyond the Forest
The Road to Camlann
The Shining Company
Sun Horse, Moon Horse
The Witch’s Brat
The Chronicles of Robin Hood
Bonnie Dundee
The Mark of the Horse Lord
Frontier Wolf
Knight’s Fee
Blood Feud
Simon
Song for a Dark Queen
Tristan and Iseult
Brother Dusty-Feet
Sword Song
WARRIOR SCARLET
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17302 0
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2014
Copyright © Sussex Dolphin Limited, 1957
First Published in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, 1957
The right of Rosemary Sutcliff to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.