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  PRAISE FOR

  The Last Hours

  ‘Wonderful and sweeping, with a fabulous sense of place and history.’ – Kate Mosse

  ‘An enthralling account of a calamitous time, and above all a wonderful testimony to the strength of the human spirit. I was caught from the first page.’ – Julian Fellowes

  ‘Atmosphere, imagination and narrative power of which few other writers are capable.’ – The Times

  ‘A vividly-wrought and powerful story. With The Last Hours, Minette Walters has brought her impressive skill as a writer of psychological crime to create a dark and gripping depiction of Medieval England in the jaws of the Black Death.’ – Elizabeth Fremantle

  ‘Walters’s skill and subtlety in portraying the suffering and disarray of a feudal society in which disease rampages and God has seemingly gone mad is masterly. And, as with her bestselling suspense novels, the psychological drama is gripping.’ – Elizabeth Buchan, Daily Mail

  ‘Walters’s crime novels are admired for their claustrophobic atmosphere and precision-engineered suspense. With The Last Hours, she has swapped that taut plotting for a more expansive structure and ambitiously broad canvas.’ – Guardian

  ‘Gripping and original.’ – BBC History Magazine

  OTHER BOOKS BY

  Minette Walters

  The Ice House (1992)

  The Sculptress (1993)

  The Scold’s Bridle (1994)

  The Dark Room (1995)

  The Echo (1997)

  The Breaker (1998)

  The Shape of Snakes (2000)

  Acid Row (2001)

  Fox Evil (2002)

  Disordered Minds (2003)

  The Devil’s Feather (2005)

  The Tinder Box (2006)

  Chickenfeed (2006)

  The Chameleon’s Shadow (2007)

  Innocent Victims (2012)

  A Dreadful Murder (2013)

  The Cellar (2015)

  The Last Hours (2017)

  First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Allen & Unwin

  First published in Australia in 2018 by Allen & Unwin

  Copyright © Minette Walters, 2018

  The moral right of Minette Walters to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.

  Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.

  Allen & Unwin

  c/o Atlantic Books

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  26–27 Boswell Street

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  Phone: 020 7269 1610

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  Email: [email protected]

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Hardback ISBN 978 1 76063 216 8

  Trade paperback ISBN 978 1 76063 217 5

  E-book ISBN 978 1 76063 885 6

  Maps by Janet Hunt

  Set in 12.1/17.2pt Minion Pro by Bookhouse, Sydney

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Printed in Great Britain

  eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

  For my excellent Durham friends in Dorset Amber, David, Geoffrey, Huw, Isobel, Jill, Josh, Les, Mike C, Mike W, Richard

  and Patrick and Lynden in Australia

  So great a plague has never been heard of from the beginning of the world to the present day . . . The sickness befell people everywhere . . . and generated such horror that children did not dare to visit their dying parents, nor parents their children, but fled for fear of contagion.

  John of Fordun, Scotichronicon

  Towns once packed with people were emptied of their inhabitants, and the plague spread so thickly that the living were hardly able to bury the dead. In some religious houses not more than two survived out of twenty. It was calculated by several people that barely a tenth of mankind remained alive . . . Rents dwindled and land was left untilled for want of tenants (who were nowhere to be found). And so much wretchedness followed these ills that afterwards the world could never return to its former state.

  Thomas Walsingham, St Albans Abbey, Chronicle

  Many villages and hamlets became deserted . . . Sheep and cattle went wandering over fields and through crops and there was no one to look after them . . . In the autumn [following the pestilence] no one could get a reaper for less than 8d, or a mower for less than 12d. Therefore, many crops perished in the fields for want of someone to gather them.

  Henry Knighton, Chronicle

  Places, people and events from The Last Hours

  Places

  Melcombe, the port in Dorseteshire where the Black Death first entered England on 24 June, 1348. Within days, many of the inhabitants were dead; within weeks, the sickness had spread to the rest of the county. One chronicler described it as ‘a pestilence that moved at the speed of a galloping horse’. All who contracted it died.

  Bradmayne, a demesne of some four hundred and fifty people, situated a half-day’s ride from Melcombe, and an early victim of the pestilence. Upwards of one hundred perished in the second week of July, 1348, amongst them Lord Peter, the betrothed of Lady Eleanor of Develish.

  Develish, a demesne of some two hundred people in mid-Dorseteshire, the fiefdom of Sir Richard, a brutish tyrant, who governed until his death from the pestilence in July, 1348. To make Develish seem grander than it was, Sir Richard ordered his serfs to dig a moat around his manor house in 1338. This allowed the house and the handful of acres on which it stood to be quarantined when the pestilence came.

  The nobility

  Sir Richard of Develish (48), an illiterate Norman, encumbered by debt and disowned by his family. To return himself to solvency in 1334, he took a fourteen-year-old Saxon bride with a generous dowry. Twenty years older than she, and finding her unappealing, he treats Lady Anne (a noble in her own right) as badly as he treats his serfs. Within a few months of marriage, and to avoid having to make monetary reparation for rape, he forced her to adopt and raise as her own a newborn girl, sired by him to the thirteen-year-old half-sister of his brother-in-law. Named Lady Eleanor, this is his only child. While on a visit to Bradmayne to formalise Eleanor’s betrothal to Lord Peter, Sir Richard contracts the pestilence.

  Lady Anne of Develish (28), educated, literate and skilled in medicine, she was married out of a nunnery and follows the teachings of Christ and not the Church. From the time she came to Develish as a young wife, she has worked quietly to improve the health, lives and knowledge of her serfs through education and care. To protect them from the pestilence, and in direct contradiction of the Church’s teachings, she withdraws them inside the moat and burns the bridge to prevent anyone crossing; this includes her sick husband, who is left to die in the serfs’ village beyond the moat. She makes enemies of Sir Richard’s steward, daughter and priest by doing this, but earns the gratitude and loyalty of her people. She assumes control of Develish on Sir Richard’s death.

  Lady Eleanor of Develish (14), only child of Sir Richard and adopted daughter of Lady Anne. I
gnorant of her true parentage, she adores the father who spoils her and hates the mother who tries to discipline her. Wilful and cruel, her wild rages become worse after her father’s death, and she denounces Lady Anne as a heretic when she learns that the woman is not her biological mother.

  Lord Bourne (mid-60s), a King’s treasurer from Wiltshire who plunders Dorseteshire gold with the help of eleven fighting men. On his first visit to Develish, he burns the village; on his second, his attempts to gain entry are resisted and he vows to take revenge.

  Freemen

  Father Anselm (mid-60s), a drunken priest. He and Lady Anne are mutually distrustful. She believes him unfit to be a priest; he believes her to be a heretic. Lady Anne cannot forgive his exoneration of Sir Richard’s brutal violation in 1338 of a ten-year-old serf girl, Abigail Startout, who died from internal rupturing and loss of blood.

  Hugh de Courtesmain (29), a duplicitous Norman steward hired by Sir Richard to raise extra taxes on his serfs. He comes to Develish on the recommendation of Sir Richard’s sister, Lady

  Beatrix of Foxcote, who speaks highly of his zealotry in whipping defaulters. Arrogant, and with little time to establish his authority before Sir Richard dies, he finds himself friendless once Lady Anne assumes control of the demesne. Stripped of his position as steward and deeply resentful of Thaddeus Thurkell for taking his place, he looks to exploit Eleanor’s hatred of both Lady Anne and Thaddeus Thurkell in order to wrest power back to himself.

  Serfs

  Thaddeus Thurkell (21), a bastard-born slave who is hated by the man his mother marries. Dark-skinned, black-haired and a head taller than other men, he rarely speaks and gives respect only to Lady Anne, who has been tutoring him in secret for more than a decade when she makes him her steward after Sir Richard’s death. As clever, literate and educated as she, he is unwavering in his loyalty and admiration for her, and together they strive to protect Develish while the pestilence rages outside. Their efforts are threatened when Thaddeus discovers the body of his half-brother Jacob, killed by a stab wound to his chest. Believing Lady Eleanor to be the culprit, and certain she intends to accuse the sons of Lady Anne’s leading serfs of the crime, he persuades Lady Anne the death was an accident and, without her knowledge, removes the boys from the demesne. He leaves Lady Anne a letter excusing their absence on the need to replenish the demesne’s diminishing stocks of food before winter sets in.

  Eva Thurkell (37), mother to Thaddeus, she blames her son for her husband’s anger at being duped into marrying a harlot from another demesne. When Lady Anne appoints Thaddeus as her steward, and Eva learns how many secrets her son has been keeping from her (most notably his admiration for Lady Anne), she develops an intense and bitter jealousy of the woman.

  Will Thurkell (44), an aggressive bully whose greatest frustration stems from the recognition that an unknown man’s bastard is more intelligent than he is. As resentful as his wife of the secret teaching and encouragement Lady Anne has given Thaddeus, he aids and abets Eva in trying to unseat him as steward.

  Gyles Startout (48), an English serf who was raised to the position of paid fighting man in Sir Richard’s retinue in 1338, when Lady Anne demanded that her husband recompense him for the violation of his daughter Abigail. The preferment allows Gyles to accompany his hated master wherever he goes, and he does so willingly to report what he sees to Lady Anne. He is the lone survivor of Sir Richard’s ill-fated visit to Bradmayne and waits for fourteen days to prove he’s free of the pestilence before Lady Anne permits him to cross the moat. She appoints him her captain of arms and he trains the men of Develish in the use of weapons in order to defend the demesne against attack.

  John Trueblood, James Buckler, Adam Catchpole and Alleyn Startout (brother to Gyles), leaders amongst the serfs and members of Lady Anne’s advisory council.

  Martha Startout (wife to Gyles) and Clara Trueblood (wife to John), leaders of the female house servants.

  Isabella Startout (13), daughter of Gyles and Martha Startout, and younger sister of Abigail, she is chambermaid to both Lady Anne and Lady Eleanor. Recognising her cleverness, Lady Anne teaches her to read and write and she, in turn, teaches other servants in the household. The affection Lady Anne has for her causes jealousy in Eleanor. In the final pages of The Last Hours, Eleanor takes Isabella prisoner and tortures the maid before Lady Anne can rescue her.

  Robert Startout (11), son of Alleyn and Susan Startout, cousin to Isabella and nephew of Gyles. Because he has some sympathy for her, he speaks on Lady Eleanor’s behalf when she is tried by the serfs for her wounding of Isabella. His intervention is appreciated by Isabella, who has some understanding of why her young mistress is so disturbed.

  The five young men who depart the demesne with Thaddeus

  Naive and bored, all are easily seduced into furtive assignations with Eleanor inside the church. Careless of her motives, they submit to her sexual games and find themselves implicated in the death of Jacob. While maintaining their innocence, they are nevertheless convinced that she plans to accuse them. At first reluctant to be taken from the demesne by Thaddeus, they commit themselves to searching out supplies for Develish.

  Ian and Olyver Startout (15), identical twin sons of Gyles and Martha Startout, and older brothers to Isabella. Ian is the natural leader; Olyver the follower.

  Edmund Trueblood (15), son of John and Clara Trueblood. As The Last Hours ends, he reveals the secret of Eleanor’s birth to Thaddeus, having learnt it from his mother, who acted as wet nurse when Eleanor was first brought to Develish.

  Peter Catchpole (16), son of Adam and Rosa Catchpole. Lazy by nature, he responds better to Thaddeus’s leadership than his father’s, though his commitment to proving himself is never as strong as his friends’.

  Joshua Buckler (15), son of James and Jenny Buckler, he is the least confident of the youths. He gains in self-esteem when Thaddeus puts him in charge of seven hunting dogs found roaming a deserted demesne.

  AUTUMN AND WINTER, 1348

  (EXTRACT FROM A PRIVATE JOURNAL KEPT BY LADY ANNE OF DEVELISH)

  The night of the eleventh day of September, 1348

  When the hourglass tilts, midnight will have turned and a new day started. Yet I still can’t bring myself to move. Once done, this cannot be undone, and the guilt will be mine. I should have been more of a mother to Eleanor, for I knew better than anyone the vileness of her father’s nature. But would she have listened if I’d warned her that his love for her was unnatural? Will she listen now?

  I must put an end to indecision. Despite the vicious wounds Eleanor inflicted on her, Isabella Startout came in search of help for her, and the maid’s sweet generosity should be my guide. In my heart I know I must act. To do nothing will be to betray the girl I have called daughter all these years.

  God forgive me. I can surely bear Eleanor’s hatred more easily than she will bear the slur of incest if this misbegotten child is born.

  Mea culpa.

  One

  Develish, Dorseteshire

  THE NIGHT SEEMED DARKER WHEN Lady Anne took her leave of Eleanor and stepped away from the serf’s hut. Perhaps she’d tarried longer than she realised in her attempts to persuade her daughter to understand the stark choices that faced her. There was no telling time with the moon hidden by cloud. She pulled her cloak tighter about herself as protection against the rising wind and felt her way blindly along the path to the manor house. Behind her, the church was lost in blackness; ahead of her, the glow of the six candles she lit each night in the south-facing window of her chamber was just discernible through the panes overlooking the forecourt. Their feeble light was all that was visible in the enshrouding darkness.

  Only John Trueblood knew of her visit, for he’d had to open the padlock on the door of Eleanor’s prison. She didn’t doubt he would speak of it to Clara but hoped both would believe that her sorrow at being disowned by her adopted daughter had compelled her to come. Certainly, John had seen her sadness when she left; he’d given her arm a cl
umsy pat and begged her not to take Lady Eleanor’s hate-filled words of that afternoon to heart. Once the girl’s strange madness passed, she would know that Milady was her true mother. Lady Anne thanked him for his kindness, but tears clouded her eyes as she made her way back to the house. She doubted Eleanor would ever come to see that an abortive of angelica, wormwood and pennyroyal was a gift of love and not hate.

  She had left the girl to administer the purgative herself, saying the choice of what to do must be hers. If Eleanor decided to keep the baby, she must live with the consequences afterwards because Lady Anne could not protect her from gossip once her belly began to swell in earnest. She had warned Eleanor against repeating the lies she’d told Isabella about being raped by serf boys because all would guess the truth as soon as the infant was born. There wasn’t a woman in Develish who wouldn’t be able to name the real sire when she saw the baby’s features and worked out from the date of delivery that Sir Richard, the girl’s own father, was still in Develish at the time of conception. Dead he might be, but he still had the power to destroy any chance his daughter might have of an unsullied future.

  Lady Anne trod softly as she approached the forecourt, anxious not to be seen coming from the direction of Eleanor’s prison, but loose stones shifted beneath her feet and her heart skipped a beat when a beam of light shone briefly on her face as the shutter of a lantern was opened and closed. It was impossible to make out who was holding it until she heard the voice of young Robert Startout. He sounded very frightened. ‘Oh, milady, milady,’ he stammered. ‘My Uncle Gyles has need of you. He sent my mother to your chamber, but you weren’t there—and nor could she find you anywhere else.’