The Child of the Moat: A Story for Girls. 1557 A.D.

Chapter 2: PREFACE

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About This Book

A frame narration finds an archaeologist telling a melodramatic historical tale to a girl he fosters after a sea disaster; inside that frame, a mid-16th-century story set at Hall Holwick follows an orphaned child caught in village feuds and divided loyalties. The narrative moves through curses, secrets, imprisonment, theft, persecution and torture, and it stages duels, rescues, a pitched battle and surprising discoveries. Themes of hatred, love, remorse and judgment shape characters’ choices, leading to confrontations, reconciliations and the revelation of long-hidden matters tied to a great iron chest.

DEDICATED
TO
AVIS DOLPHIN

PREFACE

On the analogy of the famous apple,—“there ain’t going to be no” preface, “not nohow.” Children do not read prefaces, so anything of a prefatory nature that might interest them is put at the beginning of chapter one.

As for the grown-ups the story is not written for grown-ups, and if they want to know why it begins with such a gruesome first chapter, let them ask the children. Children like the horrors first and the end all bright. Many grown-ups like the tragedy at the end. But perhaps the children are right and the grown-ups are standing on their heads. Besides they can skip the first chapter; it is only a prologue.