Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Josiah Cartwright lay restless in the cabin of his barge Waterwitch. The angry quarrel with Nathaniel Cryer at Hambro’s Wharf in London had upset him greatly and his head still rang with the foul-mouthed threats of revenge sworn by Nat with such consuming anger. In the three days since then he had hardly slept. He and bis fourteen-year-old grandson Jed had brought Waterwitch up the Thames to Weybridge and to the Wey Navigation completing the six miles up the river to Newark in the last of the daylight. Now they rested moored to the towpath alongside the 12th century ruins of Newark Priory. This had always been a peaceful spot that guaranteed a restful night but on this particular night Jo’s mind was full of apprehension. Nat Cryer and his eighteen-year-old son Billy were not men he trusted: he was sure reprisals were on the way and likely as not the Cryers were not far behind him on the river. Jo’s son George had stayed behind in London to complete some business and would catch them up next day on a friend’s harge. But for now with only young Jed for company he felt more than a little vulnerable. Sarah their tireless old mare stood tethered to a tree alongside the barge quietly enjoying her evening nosebag. It was early May and the spring night was cold and windless; a heavy mist lay across the water hanging like a wet cloak around Waterwitch. It added to Jo’s sense of unease. The moonlight struggled to penetrate the mist and where it fell upon the crumbling old priory it imparted a ghostly image to the ruins standing alone on their island between two branches of the river just across the field from Waterwitch. This be a lonely place Jo thought a place for them as might be up to no good. In his mind’s eye he conjured up a gruesome picture of Nathaniel Cryer as vivid as it was unreal. He saw the craggy unshaven face the lantern. (LL)