1324
January 8—Marco Polo dies
January—Tiphaine joins the company
May—The Wedding to the Sea
Summer—Wu Company travels and trades through Lombardy
September—Wu Company travels to Avignon
October—Wu Company travels to Chartres
1325
April—Wu Company travels to England
1326
September—Isabella, Mortimer and Edward III cross the channel and land in Suffolk
October—Edward III assumes his duties as heir
November—Edward II captured by Isabella’s forces
1327
January 24—Edward II of England deposed in favor of Edward III with his mother as regent
February 1—Edward III crowned at Westminster
April, July, September—Plots discovered to free Edward II
September 21—Edward II dies in Berkeley Castle
Acknowledgments
Everything Under the Heavens
My profound gratitude to Michael Cattagio, reference librarian, retired (not so much). No one has ever been quicker on the draw when I ask for information I need right now.
Thanks also go to freelance editor and author, see Laura Anne Gilman, who coped womanfully with a manuscript delayed when I fell off a ladder in my garage and sprained my wrist so badly I couldn’t type for three weeks. That will interfere with the story going forward. I can’t believe I made my deadline. I wouldn’t have but for Laura Anne’s willingness to work nights and weekends. She also brags on Twitter (@LAGilman) when she gets to read a new Stabenow book before anyone else.
You know when an author realizes she has reached the ne plus ultra of her profession? When she discovers a cartographer among her fans. Dr. Cherie Northon (and I bet Thom had a hand in it, too), take a bow for the terrific map.
And didya see that magnificent cover art? Gere Donovan Press, people. S’all I’m sayin’.
By the Shores of the Middle Sea
As always, my thanks to reference librarian Michael Cataggio, freelance editor Laura Anne Gilman, cartographer Cherie Northon, and all those wonderful people down at Gere Donovan Press.
And a big shout-out to the readers who so recklessly spend their hard-earned after-tax dollars on my books. I couldn’t do this without you, guys. Thanks.
The Land Beyond
As always, my thanks to reference librarian Michael Cataggio, freelance editor Laura Anne Gilman, cartographer Cherie Northon, and especially to all those wonderful people down at Gere Donovan Press—Scott, Caton, Mike—and everybody who worried I was going to kill off North Wind. Tsk.
Bibliography
MY INTENT AS A STORYTELLER is always to entertain, but this book also required a great deal of research over many years, and was influenced by the work of many scholars, without whose heavy lifting this by comparison light-hearted romp would not have been possible. Here’s a list of just a few of the books that helped Johanna and Jaufre on their way.
Ackroyd, Peter. Foundation: The history of England from its earliest beginnings to the Tudors.
—The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling.
Armstrong, Karen. Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths.
Barber, Malcolm. The New Knighthood.
Bergreen, Laurence. Marco Polo, From Venice to Xanadu.
Bonavia, Judy. The Silk Road.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Discoverers: A History of Man’s Search to Know His World and Himself.
Brotton, Jerry. A History of the World in 12 Maps.
Brown, Lloyd A. The Story of Maps.
Brown, Michelle. The World of the Luttrell Psalter.
Burman, Edward. The Assassins.
—The World before Columbus, 1100–1492.
Cahill, Thomas. Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe.
Cantor, Norman. The Medieval Reader.
Caro, Ina. Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train.
Cawthorne, Nigel. Sex Lives of the Popes.
Chareyron, Nicole. Pilgrims to Jerusalem in the Middle Ages.
Chute, Marchette. Geoffrey Chaucer of England.
Collis, Louise. Memoirs of a Medieval Woman: the Life and Times of Margery Kempe.
Cosman, Madeleine Pelner. Medieval Wordbook.
Costain, Thomas. The Three Edwards.
Coss, Peter. The Lady in Medieval England, 1000-1500.
Croutier, Alev Lytle. Harem, The World Behind the Veil.
Crowley, Roger. City of Fortune.
Dalrymple, William. In Xanadu.
Dougherty, Martin. Weapons & Fighting Techniques of the Medieval Warrior.
Evangelisti, Silvia. Nuns: A History of Convent Life.
Foltz, Richard C. Religions of the Silk Road.
Fox, Sally, researched and edited by. The Medieval Woman: An Illuminated Book of Days.
Freeman, Margaret B. Herbs for the Medieval Household for Cooking, Healing and Divers Uses.
Garfield, Simon. On the Map, A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks.
Gies, Frances and Joseph. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages.
— Life in a Medieval City.
—Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages.
Gillman, Ian, and Hans-Joachim Klimkett. Christians in Asia before 1500.
Goldstone, Nancy. Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe.
Grotenhuis, Elizabeth Ten, editor. Along the Silk Road.
Hansen, Valerie. Silk Road, A New History.
Herrin, Judith. Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire.
Hollister, C. Warren. Medieval Europe.
Hopper, Vincent F. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: An Interlinear Translation.
Hutton, Alfred. The Sword and the Centuries.
Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map.
Jones, Dan. The Plantagenets.
Jones, Terry. Medieval Lives.
Lacey, Robert & Danny Danzier. The Year 1000, What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium.
Leon, Vicky. Uppity Women of Medieval Times.
Lewis, Raphael. Everyday Life in Ottoman Turkey.
Leyser, Henrietta. Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England 450-1500.
Man, John. Gutenberg: How One Man Remade the World with Words.
Manchester, William. A World Lit Only by Fire.
Miller, Malcolm. Chartres Cathedral.
Morier, James. The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Isphahan.
Mortimer, Ian. Medieval Intrigue.
—The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England.
Mayor, Adrienne. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World.
Miller, Malcolm. Chartres Cathedral.
Mortimer, Ian. Medieval Intrigue.
—The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England.
Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice.
Newman, Sharan. The Real History Behind the Templars.
Ohler, Norbert. The Medieval Traveller.
Polo, Marco. The Adventures of Marco Polo. Many editions.
Robinson, James. The Lewis Chessmen.
Rowling, Marjorie. Everyday Life of Medieval Travellers.
—Life in Medieval Times.
Stark, Freya. The Valleys of the Assassins.
Starr, S. Frederick. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane.
Trask, Willard R. Medieval Lyrics of Europe.
Tooley, Ronald Vere. Maps and Map-Makers.
Tuchman, Barbara. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century.
Turner, Jack. Spice: The History of a Temptation.
Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.
Whitfield, Susan. Life Along the Silk Road.
Weis, Rene. The Yellow Cross: The Story of the Last Cathars’ Rebellion Against
the Inquisition, 1290-1320.
Wood, Frances. The Silk Road, Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia.
The first historical novels I read were bestsellers in the 50’s and as such available in the 60’s as tattered paperbacks in boat cubbies all over southcentral Alaska, which was how they swam into my ken. They include but are not limited to Anya Seton, Thomas B. Costain, Norah Lofts, Samuel Shellabarger, Georgette Heyer, Frank G. Slaughter, Grace Ingram, C. S. Forester, Rosemary Sutcliff and James Michener.
Nowadays I read Diana Gabaldon (Outlander), Sharon Kay Penman (the Princes of Gwynedd and the Plantagenets series), Sharan Newman (the Catherine LeVendeur series and one of two authors to be listed in both the fiction and non-fiction sections of this homage), Francine Matthews (aka Stephanie Barron and the author of the Jane Austen history mysteries but also of many other fine historical novels, including one that might inspire you to take a pry bar to a certain tomb in England), C.J. Sansom (Matthew Shardlake), Imogen Robertson (Westerman and Crowther) and P. F. Chisholm (Sir Robert Carey), as well as the late Ariana Franklin (Adelia Aguilar), Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael) and Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody).
These are only a few among many. For a lifetime of enjoyment and for the inspiration to write my own, my heartfelt thanks to you all.
About Dana Stabenow
DANA STABENOW was born in Anchorage, Alaska and raised on a 75-foot salmon fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska. Her mother was a deckhand and she and Dana spent nearly five years living on board. For the next three decades, Dana refused to eat salmon.
Dana received a BA in Journalism from the University of Alaska, toured the world with a backpack discovering English pubs, German beer and Irish men, before returning to Alaska to work for BP at Prudhoe Bay, inside the Arctic Circle. Knowing that there must be a warmer job out there, she gave it all up to become a writer. In 1991, the first Kate Shugak Mystery, A Cold Day for Murder, won the Edgar Award for the Best Paperback Novel and her first thriller, Blindfold Game, hit the New York Times bestseller list
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About the Kate Shugak Series
Kate Shugak is a native Aleut with a touch of Russian heritage working as a private investigator in Alaska. She’s 5 foot 1 inch tall, carries a scar that runs from ear to ear across her throat and owns a half-wolf, half-husky named Mutt. Orphaned at eigh years old, Kate grew up to be resourceful, strong willed and defiant. She is tougher than your average heroine – and she needs to be to survive the worst the Alaskan wilds can throw at her.
Kate used to work as an investigator for the Anchorage DA’s office but after her throat was slashed while saving a child, she resigned from her job, and returned to the log cabin her father built on her tribe’s native lands, deep in Alaska’s largest national park in the shadow of the Quilak Mountains.
For fourteen months Kate remained in the wilderness – her voice cut down to a raspy growl by the jagged scar stretched across her neck. Then, during the worst winter on record, a congressman’s son disappeared... Two weeks later, the DA’s investigator sent to find him was also reported missing. The FBI turned to the one person they knew had the skills to track down the missing men in the depths of an Alaskan winter. This is where you’ll meet Kate in book one, A Cold Day for Murder.
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Books 10–20 are also available in a single omnibus edition:
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Also by Dana Stabenow
Liam Campbell Mysteries
Fire and Ice
So Sure of Death
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Better to Rest
Star Svensdotter
Second Star
A Handful of Stars
Red Planet Run
Others
Blindfold Game
Prepared for Rage
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This omnibus edition first published in the UK in 2016 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Dana Stabenow, 2014, 2014 & 2015
The moral right of Dana Stabenow to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781784979515
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Silk and Song Page 71
