by Robert Thier
For Robert, becoming a writer followed naturally from his interest in his-tory. “In Germany,” he says, “we use the same word for story and history. And I've always loved the one as much as the other. Becoming a storyteller, a writer, is what I've always wanted.”
Besides writing and researching in dusty old archives, on the lookout for a mystery to put into his next story, Robert enjoys classical music and long walks in the country. The helmet you see in the picture he does not wear because he is a cycling enthusiast, but to protect his literary skull in which a bone has been missing from birth. Robert lives in the south of Germany in a small village between the three Emperor Mountains.
Other Books by Robert Thier
The Robber Knight
When you are fighting for the freedom of your people, falling in love with your enemy is not a great idea.
Sir Reuben, the dreaded robber knight, has long been Ayla’s deadliest enemy. She swore he would hang for his crimes. Now they are both trapped in her castle as the army of a far greater enemy approaches, and they have only one chance: stand together, or fall. Welcome to "The Robber Knight"—a tale full of action, adventure, and romance.
Special Edition with secret chapters revealed and insights into Sir Reuben’s mysterious past.
Upcoming Titles
At present (2016) The Robber Knight and Storm and Silence are Robert Thiers’s only books published in English. However, book two of the Robber Knight Saga, The Robber Knight’s Love, is being edited for publication, and the sequel to Storm and Silence is also in the works. Keep updated about the books’ progress on the internet.
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This book is also available in printed format. More information on this and any other subject connected with Robert Thier’s books on: www.robthier.com/
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The cover of this book was created by the author using various licensed images and an image available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License. This image, “Bank of England::Threadneedle Street” was provided by den99, and the author thanks the photographer for sharing their work in this way. The image is available on the internet at: www.flickr.com/photos/10260831@N02/2789463034
Disclaimer:
This work is a work of fiction. All names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real names, businesses, places, events and incidents, or to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Endnotes
[1] This list is not a work of fiction. It is taken, virtually word for word, from articles arguing against women’s suffrage which were published in renowned newspapers such as the London Times.
[2] Suffragettes were women who advocated women’s right to vote in political elections, which was against the law in most countries in the 19th century. The word comes from ‘suffrage’. That suffragettes dressed up as men in order to gain this right secretly is no fiction: in 1853, a woman disguised as a man attempted to vote in Cincinnati, was caught, and served a prison sentence.
[3] British Criminals were often not put into prison, but instead simply shipped off to one of the British colonies. Australia was a particularly popular prison-continent.
[4] In Victorian England, there was no decimal coin system similar to the one we have today. Instead, Victorians used three kinds of coins: the pound (£), which was worth 20 shillings (s), one of which in turn was worth 12 pence or pennies (d). It may at first seem strange that ‘penny’ would be abbreviated with a ‘d’ and not a ‘p’, but it makes sense if one takes into consideration that the name of the ancient Roman coin equivalent of the penny is called ‘denarius’. It is also worth noting that one pound back then was worth vastly more than it is today, which is not surprising, considering that the coins were made out of pure gold.
[5] The place where all the people who had no work or other means of supporting themselves ended up in Victorian London. It was an image of horror Victorian parents used to frighten their children with, a fact that reveals much about the conditions in such places.
[6] The central city of an Empire.
[7] In the early 19th century, the forerunners of Darwin’s theory of evolution first appeared, such as Lamarck’s 1809 ‘Theory of Transmutation’. For many Victorians, finding out that they were supposed to be the cousins of apes instead of creations of God’s divine will was a rather big disappointment, which led to many people simply ignoring such new scientific discoveries.
[8] A street in London where ever since the Victorian Era, a lot of newspapers are based. For this reason, ‘Fleet Street’ was and is a synonym for ‘British Journalists’, much as ‘Wall Street’ is a synonym for ‘American Finance’.
[9] This would be Joseph Fry & Sons, a British pioneer in chocolate making. The clever inventors at Fry & Sons produced some experimental forms of solid chocolate as early as the 1830s, but the modern chocolate bar as we know it was not invented until 1847, a few years after this book takes place.
[10] Ascot is a little village in Berkshire, England. For over three centuries, ever since 1711 to be exact, the British aristocracy have been flocking there to bet their money on horses at the great Ascot horse race.
[11] The Victorian version of ‘Hurrah’.
[12] A cry uttered to a horse to make it move faster.
[13] Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901, commonly known as Queen Victoria.
[14] An old British English term for ‘great’ or ‘awesome’, sadly fallen into disuse, to the disappointment of learned linguists all over the globe.
[15] An insult for a Victorian Man. Current scholarship is debating the subject of which bits of himself the man would have to be faking.
[16] A Victorian dance, the forerunner of the square dance.
[17] This does not refer to being gay or lesbian. In Victorian times, ‘coming out’ meant being introduced into society, which usually meant a girl’s first ball or dinner party.
[18] Not actual pea soup. This is an expression for the thick fog that sometimes lies over London, which, it has been attested by credible witnesses, does not taste of peas.
[19] Monsters from Greek mythology with snakes for hair. The horror of every hairdresser.
[20] A British English term for nonsense (or a man’s private parts, depending on the context).
[21] Like a suit jacket, only with two long tails of cloth hanging over the wearer’s bottom.
[22] ‘By Jove’ is a British English expression of surprise. Jove was an alternative name for the ancient Greek god Jupiter. Why exactly the British Victorians, all good Christians, used the name of an ancient god who hadn’t been worshipped for thousands of years to express their surprise is one of the mysteries of history.
[23] Ifrit is the most common spelling in western cultures, but the proper English pronunciation would suggest rather a spelling like ifreet.
[24] Old British English expression for ‘excellent’ or ‘fantastic’. Another one of those dying British English words that deserves linguistic rejuvenation.
[25] Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo and saved Britain from occupation by the French Army, was Great Britain’s most revered military hero. To refer to him as a French pussycat would have been considered less than polite in Victorian Britain.
[26] French for ‘high dressmaking’
. It is a term normally used to describe the most exquisite and expensive fashion, or, in this case, to utilize sarcasm.
[27] Not a medieval sword, the like of which knights used in the Middle Ages, but something more akin to a sabre which was used during the 19th century by the fashionable Victorian gentleman for self-defence, duelling and murder.
[28] A famous antique statue of a (quite impressively muscled) Olympic athlete, by the ancient Greek sculptor Myron – one of the most famous statues of antiquity, in spite of the fact that the broken-off arm was put back on wrongly during restoration.
[29] A reference to Jane Austen’s famous romance novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’, in which the hero, Mr Darcy, spends ten thousand pounds to save the heroine’s sister from disgrace, although his love for her has been rejected. His generosity, coupled with a good dose of romancing, ultimately leads to a happy end.
[30] Greek god of Love, often depicted in modern times as a baby-like figure with wings, and armed with a bow that shoots arrows with little hearts attached to the tip. Known also by his Roman name of Cupid, his name is often used as synonymous for ‘love’.
[31] A term still used today, this room is not called by its name because people like to draw pictures in it, but withdraw to it. Sometime after the seventeenth century, the ‘with’ in ‘withdrawing room’ was lost in the labyrinth of linguistics.
[32] The call employed by fencing partners before beginning the duel, to warn their opponent of its beginning. It is French for ‘Attention!’
[33] A curved one-edged sword popular in the Orient from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century.
[34] An intense coughing sickness that even today can result in death. You really don’t sound at your best when you have it.
[35] For some strange reason, in British English, you can use the word ‘bird’ to refer to a man, although they generally don’t have wings.
[36] A dance, the predecessor of square dance, that was popular in the Victorian Era. Amusingly enough, the first quadrilles were not dances, but military parades, where soldiers would perform formation riding. Apparently, the riding gentlemen enjoyed this so much that they decided to swap the horses for ladies and take the pastime to the ballroom as a kind of dance. Which goes to show that male intelligence is sufficient to recognize the superiority of women over horses as dancing partners. Hurray!
[37] The gentry were (and still are) a class of landowners in England who have managed the astonishing trick of being treated and seen as nobility without actually having a noble title. On the social ladder, they lie between the real nobility and the middle-class. Elisabeth Bennet from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is an example of a gentry girl.
[38] In case anybody is wondering what whalebones are doing in Lilly’s attire – that is what hoop skirts were often made of.
[39] A heavy cavalry regiment in Britain during Victorian times. My advice: not get in their way while they’re galloping.
[40] For any homosexuals among my readers, I should perhaps point out that Lilly’s incredulity is natural, considering the time she lived in. Back in Victorian England, only very few people displayed homosexual tendencies in public, which was quite understandable, considering the fact that until 1861, homosexuality was a capital offence. Fortunately, that particular law has landed on the rubbish heap of history.
[41] This ingenious line is taken from the 1649 poem Going to the Wars written by Richard Lovelace and addressed to a lady named Lucasta. It runs like this:
Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace,
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such
As thou shalt adore;
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more.
Translation: ‘Sorry sweety, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. I love you and all, but I have to go to war and kill a lot of bad guys before I can get back to you. (I actually managed to make my translation rhyme!) The line quoted in the text above has been applied to all sorts of situations where duty comes before love.
[42] Not the name of a circus artist famous for her fast cartwheels, or anything like that. No, the ‘Spinning Jenny’ is one of the first industrial machines invented during the Industrial Revolution in England, by James Hargreaves.
[43] Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London, is an area where for a long time in English history, anybody has traditionally been allowed to publicly speak and debate on important political and social issues. Many important events, meetings and demonstrations have taken place there, and the idea of a speaker’s corner has been taken up by a lot of other countries and cities.
[44] Professor Anstruther is a product of my imagination. However, he is based on scientists of the Victorian Age who propounded similar theories, connecting head size or facial features to intelligence and character traits. For instance, Cesare Lombroso, an Italian criminologist and physician, came up with the theory that criminality is not a character flaw, but an inherited trait, and that it can be recognized by studying a person’s facial features. Nice, isn’t it?
[45] A ‘peer’ in the ancient British English sense is one of the most of the most important and powerful lords, who is a member of the House of Lords and thus, in times gone by had considerable political influence.
[46] My sincere apologies to anybody living in the East End. Please keep in mind that this book takes place over a hundred and fifty years ago. I know perfectly well that today, its residents are not smugglers and cutthroats – well, at least most of them aren’t… **evil author grin**
[47] On buildings with classical Greek/Roman or neo-classical architecture, there are three kinds of columns. Doric columns are simple, straight and austere, Ionic columns are curly-twirly, and Corinthian columns are extremely curly-twirly. Guess which kind is Mr Ambrose’s favourite?
[48] By ‘hulk’, Karim is not referring to an overgrown green monster who likes to smash things. In Victorian times, prisons were overflowing with criminals, and ‘hulk’ was a term for an old navy ship that was no longer fit for sea, and was therefore used as a temporary, floating prison. I don’t know why the Victorians preferred to store their prisoners on water rather than on land. Maybe they thought the ship rats deserved some company.
[49] A famous Austrian piano builder whose pianos were preferred by pianist and composer Franz Liszt, because his energetic playing smashed all other pianos to bits.
[50] Squads like this did indeed exist in the armies of the East India Company. It is here that camouflage gear for soldiers is said to have originated.
[51] A mythological British Queen who fought a brutal war with her husband for the Throne of England. Makes one appreciate modern divorce procedures, doesn’t it?
[52] Please, all Chinese readers, excuse the offensive term. People in the 19th century weren’t very politically correct.
