Tuesday Teaser: Midnight is a Lonely Place by Barbara Erskine

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week’s teaser is from a favourite re-read, Midnight is a Lonely Place by Barbara Erskine.  Kate Kennedy retires to a remote cottage on the Essex coast to work on her biography of Byron.  But she soon discovers she may not be alone…

It was as she put her hand to the light switch that she realised there was someone in the room.  Her mouth went dry.  She held her breath, listening, aware that the other person was doing the same thing, painfully conscious that she was standing silhouetted against the bright light of the hall.

It was a woman.

This is not one I read last thing at night – not unless I want to sleep with the light on!  Barbara Erskine scared herself when she wrote this book, as she says in an extract from this interview:

When I started writing Midnight is a Lonely Place, which I think is probably the scariest of my books, my desk was actually against the window, looking out, with my back to the room. By the time I′d finished the book I was right over the other side of the room, with my back against the wall. I felt so uncomfortable I kept thinking, ′Well, I′ll rearrange it a little bit …′ until I ended up in the corner where nothing could creep up on me unseen!

 

Teaser Tuesday: Medieval and Tudor Teasers

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I’m still reading When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman, about the struggle between the Empress Maude and her cousin King Stephen over the English throne:

The great hall was crammed with people: Arundel’s harried servants and disquieted garrison, Maude’s men, fearful villagers, who’d fled their homes for the greater security of the castle. The latter milled about in confusion, some clutching meagre belongings, others trying to comfort wailing children and hush barking dogs, all watching their liege lady and her husband, mutely entreating Adeliza and Will to deliver them from this evil come so suddenly into their midst.

Last week I also dipped into The Queen of Subtleties by Suzannah Dunn, looking for quotes for my post on dialogue in historical fiction. The novel has two narrators, Anne Boleyn and Lucy Cornwallis, Henry VIII’s confectioner. First, two sentences from Anne:

Privacy at court is scarce; and, of course, the bigger you are, the less you have. There was all the, ‘Dance with me, Anne’; and only so many ruby earrings that I could explain away and sugar stallions that I could get the boys to eat.

And here’s Lucy:

This is exactly what I need: to stir long and hard over a flame, east to west for luck, turning spiced breadcrumbs and a pool of claret into a glossy dough…Every time the door gusts open – bang, bang, bang, all day; people careless with a loose latch – I glimpse rain seething among the cobbles.

 

January Poll: Who has been the most maligned by history?

Richard III, accused of murdering his two nephews, ran away with this one. It seems unlikely his name will ever be cleared.  The Richard III Society have a good analysis of the case and the suspects.

In second place, Anne Boleyn.  More about her at The Anne Boleyn Files including a post on her reputation and how far she was responsible for breaking up Henry VIII’s first marriage.

Despite the efforts of revisionist historians, King John, who ties for third place with Marie Antoinette, will probably always be Bad King John to most people, but one myth at least should be laid to rest: that the name John was never used again by the British royal family because of its association with him.

Catherine Delors has a great post on Marie Antoinette and cake here.  No, there is no proof she said, ‘Let them eat cake.’  It’s been attributed to various other French princesses, as far back as Louis XIV’s Queen, but there’s not much proof they said it either.  Nancy Barker has written an article I am trying to track down about how this phrase came to be associated with Marie Antoinette: ”‘Let Them Eat Cake’: The Mythical Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution,” Historian vol 55 no 4, 1993 (709-724).  For more about the vilification of Marie Antoinette in general, I highly recommend Chantal Thomas’s The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie Antoinette, translated by Julie Rose.

In fourth place, Elizabeth Woodville, accused of being a witch and a social climber.  Susan Higginbotham has a page debunking Elizabeth Woodville myths here and recommending sources on her.  Susan also posts on the Woodvilles at her blog.

And last but not least, Edward II.  At the Edward II blog Alianore has a post on why, although Edward II may have been a bad king, he wasn’t a bad man.

Miss Moppet: Why I voted for Marie Antoinette

The cake thing. It will not go away. Although I enjoyed Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, and the film made it clear that MA did not say ‘let them eat cake’ it showed her stuffing cake morning, noon and night. Not one contemporary reports her doing this and at least two comment on her abstemious habits.  Nor was she likely to be found in the early hours passed out drunk:

Yes, she stayed up all night dancing and gambling.  But she didn’t drink.

Lady Moppet of Yorkshire: Why I voted for King John

Why do you think?  Because he would have given me no peace if I hadn’t!

I am not very pleased with John at the moment, due to his lack of concern for my own reputation.  I will say, though, that people fail to set his actions in context.  He executed hostages, including children, but that was (a) a legitimate act of war at the time and (b) part of the job of being a medieval king.  Mercy was all too easily equated with weakness. ( Thus Henry I on one occasion found it necessary to blind his own granddaughters and cut off their noses.)

***

If Richard III didn’t kill the Princes, who did?  Vote for your preferred candidate in the February poll!

 

The Alphabet in Historical Fiction: D is for Dialogue

For this letter I decided to do things a little differently…instead of writing about one book or a series of books I would write about something that causes controversy among writers and readers of historical fiction – dialogue.

Different writers have different approaches – and also, the way dialogue is written has changed over the years, with older books more likely to historicise speech.  I decided to compare five different scenes from five different writers, all set in the Tudor period.

WARNING: Later in this post Anne Boleyn will use some very strong language!

 

The Dragon’s Loyalty Awards

Thank you so much to Alayne of The Crowded Leaf who honoured me with this award!

This award is for those followers who are the most loyal and give bloggers joy by commenting regularly and giving their support. Pass it on to 3 to 7 followers who are as loyal as dragons.

Okay. It’s my moment of glory! Picture a red carpet, arc lights, and Moppet in a long evening frock (tail sticking out the back).  And some little gold envelopes…

In the Bloggers category, the awards go to:

Elizabeth Chadwick of Living the History

Misfit of At home with a good book and the cat…

Marg of Reading Adventures

In the Commenters category, the awards go to:

Mr. Ken

Love History

Meneldur

Yes, I know the commenters have nowhere to display their awards, but they can print them out and stick them on the fridge.  Or something.

See you at the after-party!

 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lost Chapter

SPOILER WARNING:

Below the book cover image are spoilers for the following chapters of The Hobbit

Chapter IV ‘Over Hill and Under Hill’

Chapter V ‘Riddles in the Dark’

Chapter VI ‘Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire’

and the first volume of The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring)

The above is my 1981 paperback copy of The Hobbit, and, sad to relate, it has reached the end of its reading life, having fallen apart between pages 192 and 193.  I could never throw this companion of nearly thirty years out, but for my re-read I had to resort to a more robust hardback copy.

Which happened to be a 1937 first edition.  Thus I was able to read the original version of Chapter V, ‘Riddles in the Dark’ – which differs in several points from the revised second edition of 1951 and all subsequent reprints.

What is, in retrospect, the most important passage in the whole book is identical in both versions of the chapter.  Bilbo has regained consciousness after a fall to find himself alone in a tunnel in the mountains:

His head was swimming, and he was far from certain even of the direction they had been going in when he had his fall.  He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel.  It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it.

it was a turning point in Tolkien’s career too.  When he wrote The Hobbit, he thought of the ring Bilbo found, which conferred invisibility, simply as a useful tool in his subsequent adventures.  It was only when Tolkien came to think about writing a sequel that he developed the concept of the Ruling Ring, the Dark Lord’s most precious possession, which would drive the entire plot of The Lord of the Rings – or, if you prefer, provide the McGuffin that allowed Tolkien to explore themes of loyalty, friendship, obsession and sacrifice.

Having decided that the ring Bilbo found was an immensely powerful magical object which would enslave its possessor, Tolkien needed to find a way to make this tally with what had been said about it in The Hobbit – in particular, Gollum’s attitude toward it.  Thus the revisions to the second edition of The Hobbit, which is the one I read as a child.  Ever since I discovered that there was a ‘lost chapter’ I intended to read it for myself, and the Lord of the Rings readalong was the perfect opportunity to do it.

Detailed notes on all the points of difference are available online; I wanted to see what kind of impression the chapter made when read from beginning to end, compared to the later version which I knew so well.  (Quotations from the second edition are in black, and those from the first edition are in purple).

Bilbo’s discovery of the Ring come during my favourite adventure, the capture of his party by goblins in the Misty Mountains.  Tolkien sets the scene with some atmospheric description:

It was getting bitter cold up here, and the wind came shrill among the rocks.  Boulders, too, at times came galloping down the mountain-sides, let loose by mid-day sun upon the snow, and passed among them (which was lucky) or over their heads (which was alarming).  The nights were comfortless and chill, and they did not dare to sing or talk too loud, for the echoes were uncanny, and the silence seemed to dislike being broken – except by the noise of water and the wail of wind and the crack of stone.

Then comes a storm.  This is how Tolkien pictured the scene:

Reading through the rest of Chapter IV, it occurred to me that if Gandalf had been tweeting this part of the adventure, it would have streamed something like this:

 

Teaser Tuesday: When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My book this week is When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman.  And it’s likely to be my book next week and the week after as well…this one is a chunkster!  So here’s a chunky teaser:

The night was clear, the sky adrift in stars.  The moon was on the wane, casting a wavering, silvery gleam upon the cresting waves.  The ship rode low in the water, and Berold was unnerved to realize the freeboard was only three feet or so above the surface of the bay.  He was already feeling queasy, and whispered a quick plea to St Elmo, who was said to pity those poor souls stricken with seasickness.  He’d heard that, depending on the wind and the tides, a crossing from Barfleur to Southampton might take a day.  Twelve hours lay ahead then, the longest twelve hours of his life.

 

Year of the Historical: The Time of Singing by Elizabeth Chadwick

One book, four challenges

The Time of Singing is my first historical fiction read of 2010, and therefore my first entry for the Year of the Historical reading challenge.  Set in the late 12th century, it also qualifies for the Tournament of Reading.  It’s my C entry (C for Chadwick) in the Alphabet of Historical Fiction.  And it’s also the first book of 2010 in my own Royal Mistress Challenge.

The true story of a forgotten royal mistress

The royal mistress in The Time of Singing is Ida de Tosney, a young heiress and ward of Henry II. Ida was the mother of William Longespee, but while he is well known to history, it was only recent geneaological research which brought Ida’s story to light.

As this is a Royal Mistress Challenge book, it is my duty to administer a Mary Sue Litmus Test on poor Ida.  Now it’s an insult even to suggest that an Elizabeth Chadwick book contains a Mary Sue…but I did say I’d test every single book I reviewed, so…here goes.

The only reason Ida got any points at all?  I had to tick the box for these two questions:

Is the character related to royalty or nobility?

Ida is related to the Scottish royal family.

Is an otherwise chaste or stoic character immediately attracted to her/him?

Who is this otherwise chaste character?  Well, not Henry II.  At fifteen, Ida is taken to Court to meet him:

Her rose-coloured gown was embellished with vine-leaf coils of delicate green thread at the sleeves and neckline.  Small clusters of garnet grapes adorned the scrollwork, and the outline borders were worked with seed pearls.  The belt, double-looped at her waist,was of her own weaving, and it too was decorated with pearls, for she was an heiress and these were her court robes, especially made for her presentation to the King whose ward she was.  Beset with anxiety, she had imagined the moment a hundred times, envisaging her curtsey, the rise and the step back. She hoped that if he spoke to her, she would be able to make an appropriate answer.

Ida’s innocence and shyness immediately attract Henry’s attention.  Seeking comfort and companionship after the death of his beloved mistress Rosamund de Clifford, he decides that Ida will take Rosamund’s place.  Ida is never comfortable in the role of royal mistress, even after she has given Henry a son, and she starts seeking for a way to escape from her gilded cage.  When she meets Roger Bigod, heir to the earldom of Norfolk, she thinks she might have found it.

Roger, who is on a quest to win back the estates his father lost through rebellion, wins Ida’s trust by treating her with the respect and restraint she didn’t get from Henry.  But Roger sees Ida as unattainable.

…Among the women he caught sight of Ida with her infant son.  Slim and vibrant in a gown of red silk, she was laughing and holding the baby over her head as she sang to him.  The baby was crowing back at her and waving his swaddling-free arms.  The sight jolted Roger and he started to retreat, but Ida looked up, saw him and, with the laughter still on her face like sunshine, beckoned him into the garden.

Caught, Roger had little option but to go forward, all travel-stained and sweaty as he was.

‘God’s greeting, my lord Bigod,’ she said, managing a curtsey, even though she now had the baby balanced on one hip.  It had a nimbus of soft dark hair and eyes of Ida’s bright hazel-brown.

‘And to you, mistress,’ Roger bowed.  ‘You are looking well.’  Better than well, he thought.  Good enough to eat.

In the end it’s Ida who devises a way out.  But she discovers that there will be a terrible price to pay: if she marries Roger, she will have to leave her little son William behind.

Ida’s marriage to Roger is only the beginning of their story.  Roger has to fight to win back and keep his inheritance.  Ida has to find a way to live with her separation from her son William.  And William has to grow up and make a place for himself at the unstable and dangerous Angevin court.

The Time of Singing is an absorbing, atmospheric and intriguing book which pulled me into its world.   It also inspired several questions!  So…(fanfare) the Misadventures of Moppet is proud to present its first author interview!

Q and A with Elizabeth Chadwick

Q. What brought Ida and Roger to your attention and made you want to write their story?

A. With Roger Bigod, I found myself very curious about him after writing my Marshal books [The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion, about William Marshal, and A Place Beyond Courage, about his father John Marshal]. His eldest son married William Marshal’s firstborn daughter, and Roger lived through a similar time to William, but in a different sort of way – getting on with it quietly in the background, mostly in England, but still, eventually, a man of great power.

Ida fascinated me because I wanted to know about the mother of William Longespee. I was also interested to know more about royal mistresses in my period. Were they all pushy sirens on the make, or were they sometimes young girls whom an unscrupulous monarch would take advantage of because he had the power and because he could?

Q. The lives of royal mistresses seem to be quite shadowy in this period – Ida being a perfect example with her story only recently having come to light. Powerful official mistresses who gather huge amounts of cash and land don’t usually appear until after 1500 – Alice Perrers being the earliest example. Ida gets presents and trinkets from Henry and from others who want her goodwill, but that is offset by the fact that she is Henry’s ward, so presumably he’s still enjoying revenues from her inheritance.  Do you think it’s true to say that the pushy-siren type didn’t come along till later centuries? Or is that too much of a generalisation?

A. I think the cash and land thing does seem to have grown up later on and that it’s not too much of a generalisation, although perhaps it’s down to documentation too. Henry had Rosamund Clifford and we know nothing about her (conventionally). How much influence did she have? What was she really like? We know some of the names of Henry I’s mistresses and he seems to have kept a harem at Woodstock, but no one stands out as having made a mint from it. It has been suggested that Isabelle de Beaumont [mistress to Henry I] bought her family into favour with her body, but she didn’t do much good for herself. William the Conqueror’s mother [Herleva, mistress to Robert I, Duke of Normandy] seems to have had quite a bit of clout, but again, still nothing like the glamour pusses of later monarchs.

Q. Is much known about Ida’s life before she came to court?

A. Absolutely nothing is known about her early years. There’s not even a birth date for her (although it can be worked out to be within certain parameters). We don’t know where she was brought up, if she was educated, or anything. I fleshed her out in The Time of Singing with recourse to my alternative research, except for when I gleaned small snippets from charter and documentary evidence. And they were small snippets. As far as I know there are no charters of hers from her own lifetime, or even her name as a witness to any of Roger’s, although he does mention her sometimes in the body of charters. ‘Comitisse Ida uxoris mee.’ She is one who has slipped through the net except for a few spangles left on the threads, and there must be dozens more like her.

Q. Princess Alais, Richard the Lionheart’s sometime fiancée, is mentioned at one point – she and Ida would have been at court at the same time. Do you think there is any truth in the rumours that she too was Henry’s mistress?

A: At one time I’d have shaken my head emphatically and said ‘No way; Henry would have had to be bonkers to do that.’  But Sharon Penman (who was also in the no camp) has told me that historian Ralph Turner has argued that perhaps Henry did have it away with Alais and that the argument does have legs. I haven’t read Turner’s piece myself and I’ve not looked at Alais in any detail in my own research.  If Henry did, then perhaps there was a pattern in his later life of seducing very young women over whom he had power.  Not a nice thought, but very feasible if you look at it from that angle.

Q. Characters from your other novels have cameo roles in The Time of Singing – including William Marshal. The family were named Marshal because they held the office of Marshal at court and I noticed that it’s a Marshal, John FitzJohn [meaning John son of John], who escorts Ida to her first private meeting with the King.  Is this William Marshal’s older brother?

A. Yes, John FitzJohn was indeed William Marshal’s brother and was the royal marshal at this time. ‘My John’ (have to call him that!) FitzGilbert died in 1165.

Q. The marshals were in charge of the court whores – would they also take some responsibility for the higher-born mistresses like Ida and Rosamund de Clifford?

A. Not really. If John’s doing the job at this point it’s more because the Marshal was also in charge of the ushers and arranging who got in to see the King. It was a policing/escort/bouncer sort of service. The Marshal’s job from what I can glean where it involved the court concubines, was making sure the cat fighting between them didn’t get out of hand and making them pay fines if and when it did! It was more about policing the activities of the working girls and keeping them in order.

Q. I’m curious – do the records say exactly what they got fined for?!

A. I’ve only seen a passing reference and now I can’t remember where, but it was for disorderly behaviour. More than that is within the realms of either the serious researcher or the historical novelist!

Rosamund and Ida were daughters of the nobility and their circumstances different to the run of the mill. I don’t know how Henry got it on with Rosamund, but Ida was actually Henry’s ward. He was supposed to be her guardian….

Q. There’s a wonderful description of a hair fragrance Ida makes with dried rose petals, watercress, nutmeg and powdered root of galangal. I had to Google galangal (try saying that three times) to find out what it was but now I really want to try the recipe! The descriptions of the process of making it are so detailed I wondered if you had tried it or a recipe like it and if so with what results?

A. That hair fragrance recipe is still available in The Trotula – details here and more about cosmetics.

I haven’t tried out the recipe, but I’ve been intending to. I thought it would be a good extra for a Regia Anglorum show, but I haven’t had a chance to get it together yet. I do want to have a go. The Trotula is absolutely fascinating. To remove redness from the face ‘we put on leeches of various colours which are in reeds, but first we wash in wine the place to which they ought to adhere.’ Euwwww!  To get rid of freckles, you make a paste from bistort root (?), cuttlefish bones and frankincense mixed with water and rub it into the affected area, then remove with an exfoliator made with ‘water of bran’ or breadcrumbs….

A great book for historical cosmetic recipes is The Artifice of Beauty by Sally Pointer.  As well as an overview discussion on cosmetics down the centuries from ancient Egypt to now, there is a detailed guide to recreating perfumes and cosmetics with adapted recipes.  So there’s Jacobean perfume, Alkanet lip paint (Egyptian and beyond), Kohl eyeliner paste (Egyptian), Galen’s cold cream (2nd century AD), Rouge, 17thC washball, Victorian rose soap, Vinegar of the Four Thieves (late Middle Ages onwards. Disinfectant).  Given the time to mess I’d love to have a go with these.

Q. Some delicious sounding food is mentioned in The Time of Singing - is there a particular medieval recipe you’ve tried and would recommend?

A. I would love to investigate and have a go at medieval wafers – but I don’t have the skills, requisite equipment or a decent recipe, but you hear of them as snack food and I’m sure they’d be delicious.

Most of the time there’s a lot of adaptation and extrapolation involved due to lack of precise directions. Some things are still what we’d eat today such as a herb omelette or onion soup, or a pasty made with cheese, onion and turnip (I guess we’d use potato today).

Apparently High medieval aristocratic cuisine in Britain was not unlike North African cuisine of today, but we’ve lost most of it. Sweet and Sour rabbit is very good (made with chicken for the squeamish!). I found a recipe online.  I have served similar to this one at a show and it went down very well.

***

A very big thank you to Elizabeth Chadwick for taking the time to answer my questions.  I would also like to thank Kellie who provided one of the questions.

Elizabeth’s next novel, To Defy a King, released in the UK in May 2010, will continue the stories of the Marshal and Bigod families. The Time of Singing will be published in 2010 in the US by Sourcebooks with the title FOR THE KING’S FAVOR.

Find out more about The Time of Singing here.

Elizabeth Chadwick’s website and blog.

 

Encore une challenge: French Historicals Oh La La!

Could we resist?  We could not!!!

The French Historicals Challenge is being hosted by Enchanted by Josephine.  Here are the rules:

The reading Challenge will run from January 1st to December 15th 2010.

All you have to do is read any Historical Fiction or Non-fiction books based on French history or French historical figures.  Books can also overlap with other Challenges.

Reading Levels:

La Princesse: Read 3 books
La Dauphine: Read 6 books
La Reine: Read 9 books
L’Impératrice: More than 9 books

I’m going for La Princesse – read 3 books.  But which three?

There are quite a few Marie Antoinette books I’ve been wanting to read.  Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund.  Les adieux a la Reine by Chantal Thomas.  I’d like to re-read the Victoria Holt title which first interested me in French history, The Queen’s Confession.

Going further back, C.W. Gortner’s The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is one of the books I’m eagerly awaiting this year.  I also want to read La Reine Margot by Dumas.  Aimee du Roi, by Catherine Decours, about Louis XIV’s mistress Madame de Montespan, was already on my list for the Royal Mistress Challenge, as was Our Lady of the Potatoes by Duncan Sprott, a novel about one of Louis XV’s mistresses.  I also have a biography of Madame de Pompadour by Evelyne Lever to read.

I’ve yet to find anything Napoleonic I like as much as A Rose for Virtue by Norah Lofts, about Hortense, daughter of the Empress Josephine.  This might be the year to try Sandra Gulland’s Josephine trilogy.  Another 2010 release I want to read is Catherine Delors’ For the King, about the 1800 assassination attempt on Napoleon.

I would like to read something set during the Second Empire, especially focusing on the Empress Eugenie.  Any suggestions?

 

Teaser Tuesday: Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My book this week is Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott, a novella in the sensation fiction genre.  I thought this was better with the third sentence, so I left it in.

When alone Miss Muir’s conduct was decidedly peculiar.  Her first act was to clench her hands and mutter between her teeth, with passionate force, “I’ll not fail again if there is power in a woman’s wit and will!”  She stood a moment motionless, with an expression of almost fierce disdain on her face, then shook her clenched hand as if menacing some unseen enemy.