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PART I

The South of England

January 1502

Chapter One

THE LITTLE VILLAGE of Moreton was surrounded by a high stone wall, the gray of the stones casting a long, early- shadow over the many houses packed inside Well-worn pathways connected the buildings, radiating out fro church and the tall white town hall Now, in the dian to stretch, sleepy-eyed women lazily walked toward the toell and four atekeepers opened the heavy oak gates in the stone wall

Inside one house, a plain, narroo-story, ashed house, Alyxandria Blackett listened with every pore of her body for the creak of the gates When she heard it, she grabbed her soft leather shoes and began tiptoeing toward the stairs, which were, unfortunately, on the other side of her father’s bedroo before the sun rose, slipping a plain, rather coarse woolen dress over her slight figure And today, for once, she didn’t look down in disgust at her body It seeain soain so to be flat-chested and hipless At least, she thought with a sigh, she had no need for corsets In her father’s roolance to , flipped the wool of her skirt over her ar the fourth step, as she knew it creaked badly

Once downstairs she didn’t dare open ashutter The sound ht wake her father, and he verya table covered with papers and ink and a half-finished will her father was drafting, she went to the far wall, gazing up with love at the two hts of self-pity for what God had forgotten in her physically disappeared when she thought of herto for

“Can’t make up your mind?” came her father’s voice from the foot of the stairs

Instantly, she ran to him, put her arm around his waist and helped him sit at the table Even in the dark room she could see the bluish circles under his eyes “You should have stayed in bed There’s tiht”

Catching her hand for a moment, he shter thought of her little elfin face with its tip-tilted violet eyes, tiny nose and curvy little h—but to hi her gently “Go and see if you can choose which instrument to take and leave before so for their latest love”

“Perhaps thisI should stay with you,” she whispered, her face showing her concern for him Three times in the last year he’d had horrible pains in his heart

“Alyx!” he warned “Don’t disobey s and leave!”

“Yes,what, to hi up at the corners, her esture she pulled the long, steel-stringed cittern fro, she looked back at her father “Are you sure you’ll be all right? I don’t have to leave this ”

Ignoring her, he handed her her scholar’s box, a lap desk containing pen, ink and paper “I’d rather have you creatinghome with a sick old esture he began to plait her long hair into a fat braid down her back Her hair was heavy and thick, perfectly straight without a hint of curl and the color was, even to her father, very odd It was alether every hair color possible on one very sht yellow, deep red, a golden red, ray

When her hair was braided, he pulled her cloak from the wall, put it about her shoulders and tied the hood over her head “Don’t get so engrossed you forget to stay waro, and when you return I want to hear so beautiful”

“I’ll dothe door behind her

From their house at the very back of the toall, directly across froates, Alyx could see nearly all of the town as the people were beginning to stir and get ready to greet the day There was a matter of inches between the houses and in the tiny alleyway that ran along the wall Half-timbered and stone, brick and stucco houses sat side by side, ranging in size from the mayor’s house down to the tiny houses of the craftsmen and, like her father’s, the lawyers’ A bit of breeze stirred the air and the shop signs rattled

“Good ravel before her house called to Alyx “Are you working on so for the church today?”

Slinging the cittern by its strap onto her back, she waved back at her neighbor “Yesand no Everything!” She laughed, waving and hurrying toward the gate

Abruptly, she stopped as she nearly ran into a cart horse One look up showed her that John Thorpe had purposefully tried to trip her