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Prologue

“If we are h

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer reater share of honor!”

—William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

King Henry V

Derbyshire, England, 1793

The Knightsguild School for Gentlemen

“Don’t look down,” Jarrod Shepherdston, the twenty-second Earl of Westmore, ordered as he and Griffin Abernathy, seventeenth Viscount Abernathy, gave Colin McElreath, twenty-seventh Viscount Grantha up onto the outer wall of the bell tower that stood watch over the quadrangle in the center of the Knightsguild property “There’s nothing to fear Just keep yourand you’ll be fine”

“And whatever you do, Colin, don’t look down” Griffin gave Colin one last boost up the wall, then stepped away and stood shoulder to shoulder with Jarrod to watch as their fellow Free Fellow began the Herculean task of overcouild bell tower

Don’t look down There’s nothing to fear Just keep yourand you’ll be fine

Colin pressed his face against thebetween the crevices in thefor a handhold as he inched his way up the tower He clenched his teeth, jammed the toe of his boot into a crevice, and slowly crept skyward

Don’t look down

Easy for them to say Jarrod and Griffin had their feet fir the outside of a bell tower in the hts But then his cohorts, the two other Free Fellows, didn’t fear a bit of altitude They were destined to becoreatest heroes, and heroes were above such foibles

And he would be, too After tonight Colin took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and fought the fear It ell after ht, but it wasn’t coh to illuminate his way Colin didn’t knohether thatway to the quadrangle below

Don’t look down

Grunting with the effort, Colin felt for the next handhold He gripped the stone with his hands and planted his right foot into a foothold, pulling with his ar hiht hand, left foot Pulling and pushing Pushing and pulling in rhythher Until the bit of ht foot tule

Colin tightened his grip, clinging to the wall, fighting the terror threatening to overtake hiainst his chest as he scra

“Thunderation!” Griffin swore, ducking as bits of stone and mortar rained down on the courtyard “He ”

Jarrod looked up, shielding his eyes with his hand as he squinted into the night sky, ress “He’s hit that tricky bit But he’s ht on anything except reaching the top of the tower,” he replied with the greater wisdoe of ten years and six ht”