A Blood Red Horse (32 page)

In the end, the author just has to hope the balance is right. When I came to write the sequel to
Blood Red Horse, Green Jasper
, I felt Will, Ellie, Kamil, and Hosanna had given me the confidence to read what I needed, then shut the books and write the story. When I grew nervous, I remembered the words of a wise friend. If as a historical novelist you make a historical mistake, he said, don't fret. “Real” historians make mistakes too.

Ambroise.
The History of the Holy War
, translated by Marianne Ailes, Malcolm Barber, ed. London: Boydell Press, 2004.

Cummins, John.
The Hound and the Hawk, The Art of Medieval Hunting.
London: Phoenix Press, 2001.

Gabrieli, Francesco.
Arab Historians of the Crusades.
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.

Gilligan, John.
Richard the Lionheart
, 2nd ed. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989.

Hyland, Ann.
The Medieval Warhorse from Byzantium to the Crusades.
Gloucestershire, England: Sutton Publishing, 1994.

Lawrence, C. H.
Medieval Monasticism
, 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 1991.

Pickthall, Muhammad Marmaduke.
The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, An Explanatory Translation.
New Haven, Connecticut: Meridian Books, 1997.

Power, Eileen.
Medieval People.
New York: Routledge and HarperCollins, 1999.

Storey, R. L.
The Medieval World
, The Chronology of World History series. Oxford, England: Helicon, 1994.

1. Gavin often teases Will that he should be a priest rather than a knight. Why do you think he does this?

2. Who do you think shows greater signs of knightly behavior, Gavin or Will? How so?

3. The horses in this book each have distinctive personalities. Do you see any similarities between the personalities of each horse and its owner (Gavin and Montlouis, Will and Hosanna)?

4. During Will's first practice tournament on Hosanna, the horse seems to follow its instincts, rather than Will's lead. While the horse's maneuvers impress everyone watching, it is also evident that Will has his hands full taming Hosanna. “I think we have both got a lot to learn,” Will says to his father afterward (p. 38). In the end, what do you think Will learns from Hosanna?

5. The novel states, “You never knew when your sins might catch up with you” (p. 17). Do you think Gavin's sins catch up with him? Do Will's? What are they and how so?

6. Why do you think Gavin is at times mean and antagonistic toward Ellie, and at other times kind and thoughtful? For example, when Gavin's dog dies, he quietly assents to Ellie's thoughtful
burial, an instant later stalks off without a word, and a month later hands her a carved wooden dog. Why does he treat her this way?

7. Why do you think Gavin chooses to continue with the hunt and run Hosanna until the horse collapses, rather than stop when his fellow huntsmen suggest they stop?

8. Brother Ranulf and Ellie both know that meeting for reading and writing lessons is forbidden. Why do both feel it is worth the risk?

9. Compare the Christians and the Saracens. How are they similar? How are they different?

10. Saladin notes that “strength and mercy” go together (p. 73). What does he mean? When Saladin says this to Kamil, Kamil does not believe it. In the end, does he change his mind?

11. What similarities do you see between Kamil and Will? Between Kamil and Gavin?

12. Sinan tells Kamil, “Never betray your feelings” (p. 169). How do you think Kamil interprets this advice?

13. Sinan and Saladin, two elders of the Muslim faith, have very different views on how the battle with the Christians should be carried out. How would you describe their differences? Do you agree or disagree with either man's approach? How so?

14. Saladin tells Kamil, “Sacrifices must be made in the name of honor and love. Only then is the sacrificial gift worthy of the giver” (pp. 176-177). What do you think Saladin is trying to tell Kamil? Do you think Kamil ever fully understands or heeds Saladin's advice?

15. While both brothers hold a deep-rooted hatred for the Saracens, war affects Gavin and Will differently. At one point, Gavin says to Will, “Everybody has to get through this in their own way, little brother” (p. 123). Describe how each brother endures battle. What is it about each young man that brings about very different reactions to the same situation?

16. In reference to Hosanna, Kamil says, “He has taught me many things, and not all of them to do with horsemanship” (p. 198). What do you think Kamil learns from Hosanna? What is it about this horse that brings about so much change in Kamil, and in Will?

17. Kamil is intent on avenging his father's death. Yet when he faces the man who killed his father, he chooses not to kill him. What do you think brings about his change of heart?

18. Do you think it is realistic for Kamil and Will to work together—and pray together—for Hosanna's recovery?

19. At the start of the novel, Gavin and Will have an antagonistic relationship, but by the end they have more respect for one another and are friendlier toward each other. What do you see as the pivotal point in their relationship?

20. The story of Will and Gavin continues in K. M. Grant's next book,
Green Jasper
. What do you think the future holds for these two brothers? For Ellie? For Kamil?

As the third of seven children, I was brought up in a large, rambling house in the country full of creaking floorboards, dry rot, and the smell of wood smoke and books. My older sisters and I first used stories to explain the inexplicable. Why, when the thunder clapped and the lights went out, did the candle cast a shadow like a giant spider? Was the spider always there and we just never noticed? And was that dark lump in the corner the head of our ancestor Francis Towneley, executed for his faith in 1746, and a lock of whose hair we had in a little frame in the drawing room? Our nanny, who was Irish and once threw the cat out of the window, scolded us for being silly. But as we thought she was a witch, we simply added her to our stories.

I was sent away to a convent boarding school at age ten, and I hated it. My dog objected to my departure so much that he would sit on my suitcase and nip anybody who came near it. During the holidays, although strictly not allowed, he slept on my bed—which was fine except on Christmas Eve, when I had to banish him downstairs because he always tried to bite Santa Claus.

We always had ponies, some wicked, some less wicked, but we loved them all. My first was a piebald called Mischief—because if he decided to escape, there was no bolt, no knot, no lock that he could not undo. When he galloped, you were really flying, but he steadfastly refused to jump anything, even a twig, which was very embarrassing when we went out hunting.

When I was fourteen, my mother saw a notice in the paper advertising a five-year-old mare called Miss Muffet for sale. We
went to look at her. She was wild, having lived on a hillside all her life, and so dirty that we didn't know what color she was. Although we took apples, she would neither look at us nor listen, only sniffed the wind and trembled. I don't know what it was—something in the prick of her ears and the way she seemed so lonely, perhaps—but we could not help but bring her home. When we washed her, this beautiful red color emerged and, although I didn't know it at the time, that was the beginning of my book
Blood Red Horse
. When she finally allowed us to be her friends, Muffet turned out to be the most loyal, steadfast, and brave horse I have ever known. She became an Endurance champion and, on my twenty-first birthday, was honored as Endurance Champion of the Year. When she died, aged nearly thirty, we lost something irreplaceable. In
Blood Red Horse
, Sacramenta and Hosanna are both a tribute to her. Just as Hosanna inspires Will and Kamil, so Muffet inspired me.

Now I am married and live in the city of Glasgow with my husband and children. Our garden is not big enough for a horse! When our third child was a baby, I went to the university and studied history, especially medieval history. It was so full of wonderful stories, with people both wicked and heroic, and horses played such an enormous part in their lives that it was almost impossible not to write about them. So, although I work as a journalist, in 2002 I couldn't resist one day just trying out the first line of a book, then a second, and then, before I knew it, I was off. The results are the de Granville novels, which, I hope, show you—as clearly as Muffet showed me—that “the air of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears.”

Two kings.

One throne.

Brothers on the brink of war.

The king is missing. The country is in turmoil. And some men would do anything for power. What will two brothers risk for the woman they both love and the king they both have sworn to serve? The de Granvilles are going to gamble it all on one boy and a blood red horse to save a fair maiden and the throne of England …

Read on to see a sneak peek at the continuation of this epic in

Green Jasper

Book Two of the de Granville Trilogy.

Hartslove, Valentine's Day, 1193

“If you don't sit still, Miss Ellie, wedding day or no wedding day, I'll be tempted to box your ears.”

High up in the keep of Hartslove Castle, a fat old nurse was braiding Eleanor de Barre's smooth hanks of auburn hair and threading them through with gold. It was early afternoon, but the candles were lit because it was snowing lightly and darkness had already begun to fall. Lurking by the door, two younger girls, identically dressed in long red tunics, were staring at the bride.

Ellie colored slightly. “It's only hair,” she said defiantly, and made a face into the tin disk that hung on the wall. Old Nurse opened her mouth, but something in Ellie's face made her shut it again.

One of the younger girls moved forward to help, but the other looked mutinous and kicked the door with the edge of her foot. Bang, bang, bang. The girl knew it irritated Ellie, but she didn't care. Marissa cared about very little except her twin sister, Marie, and not always about her. It was just over a fortnight since they had been brought to Hartslove Castle in a cart and dumped,
so it seemed to Marissa, because after their father was killed on crusade, Gavin de Granville was the only person who would agree to take them in. It was his duty, so she had heard him say. Fourteen-year-old girls could not be left to fend for themselves. Duty!

She kicked the door harder. Bang, bang, BANG. If she were to be considered a duty, she was going to make the duty a hard one. Now Gavin was to marry this Ellie, who clearly resented having two children foisted on her and scarcely bothered to conceal the fact.

Bang, BANG, BANG! Not that Marissa was jealous of Ellie. Who on earth could really want to marry a knight with one arm, even if he had lost his arm heroically on crusade? Ellie was welcome to Gavin. Yes, she was welcome to him, particularly since that got her out of the way of Gavin's younger brother, Will.

At the thought of Will, Marissa temporarily suspended the banging and, quite without thinking, smoothed her own hair. Old Nurse threw her a glance—which was a mistake, because Marissa immediately dropped her hands and began banging again. Will had been nice to them, when, that is, he could be dragged away from that red horse, with whom he seemed unhealthily obsessed. Horses were just animals—animals Marissa hated. She kicked the door harder than ever.

Will had only stayed a day before going off to take possession of lands in the west given to him by King Richard, along with the title Earl of Ravensgarth. After he had gone, Marissa had written, in the careful hand her mother had taught her before she died, “M
ARISSA
, C
OUNTESS OF
R
AVENSGARTH
” on a vellum piece, leaving it purposefully out for Ellie to see. She knew Ellie had burned it, pushing every piece into the flames with a
poker. This gave Marissa particular pleasure. Ellie was marrying Gavin. She couldn't have Will, too. BANG, BANG, BANG, and a smile of triumph.

Irritated beyond endurance, Ellie turned round, causing Old Nurse to huff like a hippopotamus as her neat handiwork was whipped out of her hands. “Why don't you both go and find some mistletoe or something to thread through the dogs' collars?” Ellie tried to make it a suggestion rather than an order. “You'll find piles of greenery in the great hall. The dogs should look nice today as well as us.”

Marissa gave her an insolent stare, which Ellie, forgetting herself entirely, returned in kind. “Come, Marie,” Marissa said, glaring at Old Nurse. “They don't want us here.” Then giving the door a final kick, she stamped unevenly down the stone steps.