Named of the Dragon (29 page)

Author's Note

If you should chance to go to Wales, and if the road should lead you down to Angle, where the Haven meets the sea, then you'll find Castle Farm standing as I've described it, the green hills behind, and the cows peering curious over the fence from the field where the ancient stone dovecote still sits, and the cats coming round from the little back garden to give you a proper Welsh welcome. Above the western door the blind-eyed Gerald Stone will fix its gaze beyond you to the tower by the gate, where round the high and roofless walls the wind tells its tales in a whispering voice and the crows keep restless watch. And as you stand there on the gravel lane that leads in one direction to the sea and round the corner to the coastal path, and in the other gently curves away and down past Auntie Frances's pink cottage to the village street, you may catch a glimpse of a black-and-white dog bounding happily up to the sheds at Ralph's heels, or of Pam hard at work in her garden. I know these things because I passed a winter in the old West House of Castle Farm, with Pam and Ralph Rees as my landlords and friends and the people of Angle as warm and as helpful as family. There were too many people for me to thank properly here, but I'm deeply indebted and grateful to all of them, and especially to my good friends Margoe and David Hammon, whom I met some years ago in Chinon, France, while doing research for
The Splendour Falls,
and who were most insistent I should journey down to visit them, in Pembroke. "We have a castle, too," they said, "and you could write about it."

So they do. And so I have.

About the Author

Bom at Brantford, Ontario, Susanna Kearsley developed early on a taste for travel and has briefly lived in Asia, Britain, and the United States. Her novel
Mariana
was awarded Britain's Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize in 1993 and has since been translated into seven languages.
The Splendour Falls
followed in 1995 and
The Shadowy Horses
in 1997. Susanna Kearsley is married and lives near Toronto.