Ngaio Marsh - Off With His Head

HARPER

an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by HarperCollins Publishers 2009 Off With His Head first published in Great Britain by Collins 1957

Copyright © Ngaio Marsh Ltd 1956

Ngaio Marsh asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of these works

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author–s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780006512455

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007344727

Version: 2018–04–03

Cover

Title Page Ngaio Marsh Off With His Head

Copyright Copyright Copyright Cast of Characters Author’s Note 1 Winter Solstice 2 Camilla 3 Preparation 4 The Swords Are Out 5 Aftermath 6 Copse Forge 7 The Green Man 8 Question of Fact 9 Question of Fancy 10 Dialogue for a Dancer 11 Question of Temperament 12 The Swords Again 13 The Swords Go In Keep Reading Also by the Author About the Publisher HARPER an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk Published by HarperCollins Publishers 2009 Off With His Head first published in Great Britain by Collins 1957 Copyright © Ngaio Marsh Ltd 1956 Ngaio Marsh asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of these works A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author–s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication. Source ISBN: 9780006512455 Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007344727 Version: 2018–04–03

Cast of Characters

Author’s Note

1 Winter Solstice

2 Camilla

3 Preparation

4 The Swords Are Out

5 Aftermath

6 Copse Forge

7 The Green Man

8 Question of Fact

9 Question of Fancy

10 Dialogue for a Dancer

11 Question of Temperament

12 The Swords Again

13 The Swords Go In

Keep Reading

Also by the Author

About the Publisher

To anybody with the smallest knowledge of folklore it will be obvious that the Dance of the Five Sons is a purely imaginary synthesis combining in most unlikely profusion the elements of several dances and mumming plays. For information on these elements I am indebted, among many other sources, to England’s Dances by Douglas Kennedy and Introduction to English Folklore by Violet Alford.

N.M.

Over that part of England the Winter Solstice came down with a bitter antiphony of snow and frost. Trees, minutely articulate, shuddered in the north wind. By four o’clock in the afternoon the people of South Mardian were all indoors.

It was at four o’clock that a small dogged-looking car appeared on a rise above the village and began to sidle and curvet down the frozen lane. Its driver, her vision distracted by wisps of grey hair escaping from a headscarf, peered through the fan-shaped clearing on her windscreen. Her woolly paws clutched rather than commanded the wheel. She wore, in addition to several scarves of immense length, a handspun cloak. Her booted feet tramped about over brake and clutch-pedal, her lips moved soundlessly and from time to time twitched into conciliatory smiles. Thus she arrived in South Mardian and bumped to a standstill before a pair of gigantic gates.

They were of wrought-iron and beautiful but they were tied together with a confusion of shopkeeper’s twine. Through them, less than a quarter of a mile away, she saw on a white hillside, the shell of a Norman castle, theatrically erected against a leaden sky. Partly encircled by this ruin was a hideous Victorian mansion.