Paul Doherty: Angel of Death

'Very. As I said, he thanked you.' Ranulf thought that now was not the time to tell about the heavy clinking purse the king had tossed to him.

'Does he want to see me?'

Ranulf shook his head. 'Oh, no. He said you were to rest. He's off to Flanders, taking an army there. But he said he would see you on his return.'

Corbett nodded and again thought of his favourite verse from the psalms: 'Put not your trust in Princes.' The king was as fickle as the sun in winter. He thought back to St Paul's, again seeing de Luce's eyes glaring at him through the screen, and cursed his own stupidity and folly. He should have been more cautious. Yet Maeve had come. The only woman, indeed, the only person, he had ever really loved.

'And how long will you be here?'

'Oh, for months,' she said. 'Long enough for you to get better and for us to get married.'

Corbett could have shouted with joy. He felt the winter outside had broken, the spring had come at last and there was something to live for.

This novel is based on fact. Edward I brutally sacked Berwick and burned the Red House of the Flemings because they refused to surrender. Edward did hold a great assembly of the realm at St Paul's, at which Walter de Montfort had been appointed to argue vehemently against the king's right to tax the Church. His death took place as described, violently and suddenly, leaving men wondering whether God was punishing Edward of England or vindicating royal rights. The Church did eventually reach a compromise with Edward as did his barons. The king waged a successful war in Flanders, but in Scotland the sack of Berwick proved to be a point of no return and the Scots refused to submit.