- Evocative debut historical novel set in England and Wales during the thirteenth century- Will appeal to the readers of Ellis Peters and Elizabeth Chadwick- A haunting picture of childhood in the medieval period: a tale of loyalty, loss and loveLoyalty is a strange thing sometimes it runs deeper than blood.Will and his brother Ned are on the long march from the Fens to North Wales, commandeered into the army of ditch-diggers heading west towards Flint, where they will be preparing the ground for the foundations of Edward Is new castle. The boys are nervous, and rightly so, for not only is Ned a mute, whose abilities as a horse-whisperer and herbalist make him suspicious in the eyes of their English overseers, but they have been close to the enemy - Ned had been secretly taking lessons in music from Ieuan ap y Gof, an exiled bard, when the Welshman disappeared one night without warning not long before Edwards officers came recruiting. The boys are besieged on all sides - by the regular soldiers who dislike the otherworldly Ned, and by the beleagured Welshmen who see the ditch-diggers only as agents of the king.The boys find themselves a long way from home, virtually friendless and then captured by the enemy, suspected of treason and near killed before they are able to escape. Finally, when all appears lost, Will learns that love is sometimes harder to understand and to come to terms with than death itself ...
