A Suit of Swords

By M.J. Logue

Lynten sprawling in the ashes with her cap askew and her tray spilled, and the laces of her bodices cut through, all her linen showing and a thin line of blood where a man's knife-point had scored through her shift and torn her poor flesh beneath, trying to cover her plump bare breasts with inadequate hands -
"Hey," Hollie said mildly, "that's not nice. Don't do it."

And the man with the knife turned, thinking to give the gawky Englishman a second smile, and all his mates jeered and clapped, standing clear so that the hearth was as bare as an arena.

Amsterdam, Christmas 1626

It has been a year of wonders for Puritan's brat Holofernes Babbitt. Run away to the Low Countries at eighteen to take up a career as a mercenary in the Imperial Army, so far Hollie's luck has held. At least, he's still alive.

Homeless, friendless, and broke till the spring campaigning starts again, it looks as if it may be a bleak Christmas for Hollie.

But miracles happen, at midwinter...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781326496180

M.J. Logue

Writer, mad cake lady, re-enactor, 17th century historian. Been slightly potty about the clankier side of Ironside for around 20 years, and lists amongst my heroes in this unworthy world Sir Thomas Fairfax, Elizabeth Cromwell and John Webster (for his sense of humour.) When not purveying historically-accurate cake to various re-enactment groups across the country, M.J. Logue can usually be discovered practising in her garden with a cavalry backsword. Often to be found loitering, in an ill-tempered manner, at uncivilwars.blogspot.com - do pop along and pass unhelpful remarks!

Book preview

A Suit of Swords

A Suit of Swords

by

M. J. Logue

www.uncivilwars.blogspot.co.uk

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.

Copyright © 2015 M.J.Logue

All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the author.

December 2015

It's been a hell of a year for Hollie Babbitt and the rebel rabble, and this story is by way of thanks for that year.

In January he was a perfectly unknown russet-haired captain of horse in the Army of Parliament, circa 1642. And since then the Uncivil Wars books have been #1 Kindle downloads, I've done book-signings, I've been interviewed on the radio, and Bernard Cornwell of immortal fame has a copy of Red Horse in his To Be Read pile.

Book three has been nominated for three awards. Book four is stocked in a library. That's pretty big stuff, for someone who'd never sold a book before January.

So. Well. Here it is - Hollie's first real Christmas, for those who wondered.

Dedicated, as ever, to the Little Commonwealth; to Alan and the Dizzybat, for being there for the last twenty years (which is a sobering reflection); Anny, for being partially responsible for Holofernes Babbitt -

And of course to my own Kersen, without whom there would never have been any of this.

1

Amsterdam, Christmas 1626

Margriete wished it would snow.

There was a certain wrongness about this constant miserable drizzle, that dragged mud and slurry from stout boots across the Blue Cat's clean swept boards. She didn't remember past winters in Amsterdam as always being this downright gloomy, every nose a-drip, every collar turned up. In her youth she remembered skating on the thick-frozen canals,