The Nine Giants (24 page)

Nicholas thought of another friend and smiled.

‘What do you make of Abel Strudwick?’ he said.

‘His verse is an abomination,’ snapped Hoode.

‘Yet he has finally found a market. His ballad on the Lord Mayor’s Show is the talk of the town. He describes my fight below the water in more detail than I could myself.’

‘The fellow is a bungling wordsmith.’

‘Let him have his hour, Edmund.’

‘He uses rhyme, like a sword, to hack.’

‘There are worse things a man may do.’

Hoode agreed and took a kinder view of the waterman. He felt a vestigial sympathy for him because of the way that he was routed at the flyting contest. It had been a fight between the world of the amateur and that of the professional. Abel Strudwick had no chance. He was entitled to his brief moment of glory as a ballad-maker. Such thoughts led Hoode on to consider the merits of the raw amateur whose passions were not inhibited by too great a knowledge of the technicalities of poetry. He recalled the Lord Mayor’s banquet to which Nicholas had been bidden as an honoured guest.

‘Tell me, Nick. What was it like?’

‘What?’

‘This play of theirs –
The Nine Giants.
’

‘Do I detect jealousy here?’

‘No, no, of course not,’ said Hoode quickly. ‘I am above
such things, as you well know. My plays have held the stage for years and I fear no rival. I just wish you to tell me what this pageant of the nine worthy mercers was like.’ He fished gently. ‘Tedious, perhaps? Over-long and underwritten? Basely put together?’

‘It was very well received,’ said Nicholas.

‘By Mistress Stanford?’

‘By her especially.’

Hoode drooped. ‘Then is my cause truly lost.’

‘I liked the piece myself. It had quality.’

‘What sort of quality, man?’

‘Height and hardness.’

‘You lose me here.’

‘The Nine Giants
resembled our own at Richmond.’

‘They stood in a circle?’

‘They were tall, straight and monstrously wooden.’

Edmund Hoode laughed for an hour.

If you enjoyed
The Nine Giants,
look out for more books in the Bracewell Mystery series …

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While England is brought low by rumours of Queen Elizabeth’s declining health, celebrated theatre company Lord Westfield’s Men suffer their own bitter blows. A vicious feud between players causes chaos; a rival company launches a new production; a mysterious beauty reduces their leading actor to a lovelorn wreck; and a brutal murder leaves the group of actors reeling. With matters so fraught, even a performing horse becomes a threat.

Stage manager Nicholas Bracewell, accustomed to damage control, is the only man with the wit to keep the company afloat. As the Queen sinks towards death, Nicholas begins to discern the connections between the company’s misfortunes and the larger shadow falling over England …

When fire destroys their London theatre, Lord Westfield’s players must seek out humbler venues in the countryside. But stage manager Nicholas Bracewell is distracted by a shocking tragedy – a mysterious messenger from his native Devon, murdered by poison. Though the messenger is silenced, Nicholas understands what he must do: return to his birthplace and conclude some unfinished business from his past.

The rest of Westfield’s Men, penniless and dejected, ride forth with him on a tour that will perhaps become their valedictory, dogged as they are by plague, poverty, rogues and thieves. And among the sinister shadows that glide silently with them towards Devon is one who means Nicholas never to arrive …

E
DWARD
M
ARSTON
was born and brought up in South Wales. A full-time writer for over forty years, he has worked in radio, film, television and the theatre and is a former chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association. Prolific and highly successful, he is equally at home writing children’s books or literary criticism, plays or biographies.

www.edwardmarston.com

T
HE
B
RACEWELL
M
YSTERIES

The Queen’s Head • The Merry Devils • The Trip to Jerusalem
The Nine Giants • The Mad Courtesan • The Silent Woman

T
HE
R
AILWAY
D
ETECTIVE
SERIES

The Railway Detective • The Excursion Train
The Railway Viaduct • The Iron Horse
Murder on the Brighton Express • The Silver Locomotive Mystery
Railway to the Grave • Blood on the Line
The Stationmaster’s Farewell • Peril on the Royal Train

The Railway Detective Omnibus:
The Railway Detective, The Excursion Train, The Railway Viaduct

T
HE
C
APTAI
N
R
AWSON
SERIES

Soldier of Fortune • Drums of War • Fire and Sword
Under Siege • A Very Murdering Battle

T
HE
R
ESTORATION
SERIES

The King’s Evil • The Amorous Nightingale • The Repentant Rake
The Frost Fair • The Parliament House • The Painted Lady

T
HE
H
OME
F
RONT
D
ETECTIVE
SERIES

A Bespoke Murder • Instrument of Slaughter