The Price of Blood
The second book in Bracewell’s outstanding Emma of Normandy series, set in 11-century England, when Vikings are on the brink of invasion.1006 AD. Queen Emma, the Norman bride of England’s King Æthelred, has given birth to a son. Now her place as second wife to the king is safe and Edward marked as heir to the throne. But the royal bed is a cold place and the court a setting for betrayal and violence, as the ageing king struggles to retain his power over the realm. Emma can trust no one, not even the king’s eldest son Athelstan, the man she truly loves.Elsewhere Viking threats to the crown are gaining strength, and in the north the powerful nobleman Ælfhelm is striking an alliance with the Danes. His seductive daughter Elgiva, former mistress to the king, is forced to act as a pawn in his plan, and is given as wife to a Viking Lord. Can King Æthelred finally listen to Athelstan, whose plan to strengthen the kingdoms’ ties will put off the Viking threat once and for all?Emma must protect her only child without abandoning her noble position. And her inner conflict, between maternal instinct and royal duty, will be played out against the dramatic and bloody struggle for Britain’s rule.
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The Price of Blood
Patricia Bracewell
Harper
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2015
Copyright © Patricia Bracewell 2015
Maps © Matt Brown 2015
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Cover photographs © Dave Wall / Arcangel Images (medieval interior); Gordon Crabb / Alison Eldred (woman)
Lines from William of Malmesburyâs Gesta Regum Anglorum, The History of English Kings Vol. 1 edited by Mynors, Thomson, and Winterbottom (1998) are reproduced by kind permission of Oxford University Press
Patricia Bracewell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the authorâs imagination.
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.
Source ISBN: 9780008104603
Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 9780008104597
Version: 2015-05-07
In the Year of our Lord 979 Ãthelred, son of Edgar ⦠came to the throne ⦠His life is said to have been cruel at the outset, pitiable in mid-course, and disgraceful in its ending â¦
He was hounded by the shade of his brother, demanding terribly the price of blood. Who could count how often he summoned his army, how often he ordered ships to be built, how often he called his nobles together from every quarter, and nothing ever came of it?
The evil could not be lulled to rest ⦠for enemies were always sprouting out of Denmark like a hydraâs heads, and nowhere was it possible to take precautions â¦
â The History of the English Kings
William of Malmesbury
Twelfth Century
Contents
*Indicates a Fictional Character
Anglo-Saxon England, 1006â1012
Royal Family
Ãthelred II, King of England
Emma, Queen of England
Children of the English king, in birth order:
Athelstan
Ecbert
Edmund
Edrid
Edwig
Edgar
Edyth
Ãlfgifu (Ãlfa)
Wulfhilde (Wulfa)
Mathilda
Edward
Emmaâs Household
Aldyth, niece of Ealdorman Ãlfhelm
Elgiva, daughter of Ealdorman Ãlfhelm
*Father Martin
*Hilde, granddaughter of Ealdorman Ãlfric
*Margot
Wymarc
Robert, Wymarcâs son
Leading Ecclesiastics
Ãlfheah, Archbishop of Canterbury
Ãlfhun, Bishop of London
Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, Archbishop of Jorvik
Leading Nobles
Ãlfhelm, Ealdorman of Northumbria
Ufegeat, Ãlfhelmâs son
Wulfheah, Ãlfhelmâs son (Wulf)
*Alric, his retainer
Ãlfric, Ealdorman of Hampshire
Godwine, Ealdorman of Lindsey
Leofwine, Ealdorman of Western Mercia
Eadric of Shrewsbury
Godwin, Wulfnothâs son
Morcar of the Five Boroughs
Siferth of the Five Boroughs
Thurbrand of Holderness
Ulfkytel of East Anglia
Uhtred of Northumberland
Wulfnoth of Sussex
Normandy
Duke Richard II, Emmaâs brother
Duchess Judith
Dowager Duchess Gunnora, Emmaâs mother
Robert, Archbishop of Rouen, Emmaâs brother
The Danes
Swein Forkbeard, King of Denmark
Harald, son of Swein
Cnut, son of Swein
Hemming
Thorkell
Tostig
Shrove Tuesday, March 1006
Calne, Wiltshire
Ãthelred knelt, his head clutched in his hands, bowed beneath the weight of his crown and his sins. Somewhere above, the vesper bells rang to mark the call to evening prayer, and at the very moment of their tolling he felt his limbs tremble, convulsed by a force beyond his control.
The familiar, hated lethargy settled over him, and though he strove to keep his head down and his eyes shut, a will far stronger than his own pulled his gaze upwards. The air before him thickened and turned as black and rippling as the windswept surface of a mere. Pain gnawed at his chest, and he shivered with cold and apprehension as the world around him vanished. Sounds, too, faded to nothing and he knew only the cold, the pain, and the flickering darkness before him that stretched and grew into the shape of a man.
