Yuletide 2021 at Castle Marsh

Princelings Revolution

Yuletide is always a special time of year, whatever world you live in. I hope you enjoy this story which follows on from Princelings Revolution (but takes place before the bonus story in the paperback). It’s the idea I had for a winter story last year, but needed to wait till the time was right. Enjoy just over 1800 words of your favourite characters.

Princelings Revolution 3d
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Yuletide at Castle Marsh 2021

Fred raised a glass of sparkling Wozna Cola and clinked it with Jasmine’s. “To 2022!”

“Yes, to 2022, Daddy.” She sipped, and looked at the sky through the window to the west. “I hope they land safely.”

“Mmm. Willoughby was confident the weather would hold, even across the Great Western Sea. I hope it’s just another of those magical skills he has.”

Jasmine looked down to hide her smile. Willoughby’s ninja skills did not stretch to weather forecasting. With him on board, though, there was a good chance of avoiding danger before it hit them.

These were strange times. Last Yule she and Willoughby had travelled from Castle Vexstein, now under the rule of Locksley. He was steadily refusing any title such as Lord or King, even though he was of noble birth. A cousin of hers, in fact… or was it second cousin, if he was her father’s cousin, no, brother. Well, half-brother. She shook her head. Fred’s family was so confusing. 

“Troubled, sweet?” Fred asked.

“No, just confused by Locksley’s relationship to me. We were with him just before Yule last year, before we came down to stay with you at the Inn of the Seventh Happiness.”

“Ah, yes. I was there, homeless, and a pauper. I’d just discovered I was penniless a few weeks earlier. And George was fretting about getting the Daughter of Pelican built. And now…”

“Now we are home, the people have chosen you to lead them again, and George has fulfilled the promise you made to Mariusz, who turned out to be Willoughby’s uncle.” 

It was Fred’s turn to nod. “Well, let’s hope we have a nice settled life from now on.”

“You’ll get bored if you don’t have some exciting project to work on.”

“Not as bored as George will be. Improving the flying boats won’t be as much interest for him as designing them and testing them.”

“Daddy… did you realise that technically Willoughby is the same age as me?”

“What! He’s been in the realms since before you were born. Before I met your mother even.”

“Only just. About six months. He and I were born in the same year.”

Fred frowned. “In Hattan, you mean?”

“Yes, then he came down the time tunnel and went back eleven years. So on the one hand he’s a lot older than me, and on the other, we’re the same age.”

“You can’t be both at once.”

Jasmine kept her face expressionless. Willoughby had a way of being anything he wanted to be. It was hard to know who the real Willoughby was, but she probably knew him better than anyone. In fact…

“They’ve just come over the coast south of Caerleon.”

“How do you know these things? Ninja skills, I suppose. I should have stopped him teaching you.”

“I would have had them anyway, just not known how to use them, how to trust them.”

It was Fred’s turn to look out of the window. “I suppose we’d better go out with the launch to bring them in. This wind will push them into the reeds otherwise.”

“So it’s a great honour, and indeed a great pleasure, to have Lord Mariusz with us this year, after all the troubles we’ve been through, and all the patience you’ve had, putting up with George and me and our secret project. But now you all know the truth. And perhaps Mariusz wouldn’t mind saying a few things to you all at our final feast of 2021. Mariusz?”

Fred sat down. 

The huge black and white coat that housed Mariusz, lord of Hattan, rose as its owner got to his feet.

“Ur, well, hi everybody. I was never much of one for speechifying. It’s hard to understand all the changes that have happened in the Realms since I was last here in 2010. I’d been visiting so often in the previous ten years that I thought I knew you all, that it was a settled place, full of partying and socialising. At least, thanks to Wozna,” he raised his glass to them and sipped, “I could get around among you incognito as a simple cola salesman. I enjoyed my visits, and I enjoyed meeting you, or your countrymen, at any rate. I hope everything will settle down in this new way you have of picking your leaders, which sounds pretty good to me. 

“With everything that went on, I’m amazed that Fred and George managed to keep the agreement we made; stop the time tunnel that brought Wozna to you and you wait until the technology George invents catches up with me. Thank you for having me back, and I’m glad to say, sales of Wozna are nearly back to what they were six months ago.” He grinned at them, hoping they understood his joke. “Well, that’s in my time, of course. It’s often hard to keep promises. What you guys have gone through to keep that promise, well, I admire you even more for it. You’re the genuine article, you guys. I’m glad you made it safely through these years.

“And now, can I suggest a toast? To Fred and George!”

The Marshfolk were very happy to toast Fred and George, especially with the Wozna that most of them had never tried in the past, but had decided was a great party drink.

wozna bottles

“Thanks, Jasmine.” Mariusz helped himself to the espressimenta she offered him, as they settled cosily around the fire in Fred’s study. “Yeah, things are changing at Hattan, too. The five families met up last month, after the last grandfather had passed on, and decided to end the war between us. So we’re working on new commercial ties, agreements over trades, sharing apprenticeships, all sorts.”

“Is Saku okay?” George asked. 

“Yeah, he’s well, playing with new ideas. But he naps in the middle of talking about them sometimes. He’s not so young as he used to be.”

“He’s outlived Argon, though. He must be very old.”

Mariusz sighed. “Sad, that. I must get up and visit Victor while I’m here. Will that be okay? Do you have a stage up the tunnel now or anything? I reckon I could never run up and down it like I did in May. Almost the death of me, that was!”

“I can fly you up any time,” George said. “Unless Jasmine and Willoughby want to take you?”

“Willoughby, fly me? I don’t think so!”

“Jasmine’s the pilot, uncle. I’ll just come for the ride. Fred likes her to have supervision still.”

Jasmine smiled. Fred frowned, but checked Jasmine’s face and relaxed.

“You must be very fit, though,” Fred said to Mariusz. “I could never have done all that, even with the time tunnel.”

Mariusz paused. “To be truthful, young Fred, I don’t reckon it did me any good at all. Ever since then I’ve had a bit of an ache in my side, and I don’t think it’s a stitch from exercising.”

“What do your medics say?”

“Oh the usual. ‘Take it easy, don’t work so hard.’ It’s not as if I’m travelling any more.”

Willoughby regarded his uncle, then looked away, a haunted expression in his eyes, which only Jasmine caught. The pair exchanged glances that seemed to contain a whole conversation.

The next morning Fred took Mariusz for a tour of the Marsh, since it was a beautiful mid-winter day with no frost and almost summer-like winds. George took them in the old flying machine so they could go to places like Summernot beach and the old forest. He even flew within sight of Arbor to give Mariusz at least a view of his old holiday spot. 

“Elinor,” Mariusz sighed. “She was quite something.”

Fred had a long thought about time and its effects. Maybe he wouldn’t tell Mariusz about the Huguenots. “We’re good friends with the Arborites now. Things have changed a lot there. You probably never met Queen Rosebud.”

“I thought Jess would have been in charge by now.”

Should he tell Mariusz the whole story? He stared at the trees giving way to the marsh again and decided not. “If we go back now, you can have a light lunch before going up to see Victor. I’d love it if you came back tonight, but I understand if you want to stay over, with all this travelling.”

“I want to make the most of it, Fred. I didn’t want to say in company, but this pain in my side is pretty bad. I doubt I’ll be visiting again. I don’t know what will happen at Hattan when I go, but it needs a good, steady organiser. I know he’s wanted here, but you’ve taught him everything he needs to know about running a complex organisation. I spoke with Willoughby last night about maybe him taking over from me. He’s thinking about it. And he’s family, and that’s important at Hattan.”

Fred nodded. It wasn’t that his guest just wanted to stay home in Hattan. He was preparing to hand over. What would Willoughby say?

flying machine

Mariusz came back from Victor’s the next morning, looking happy but tired. He talked about Victor and his family for a couple of hours, obviously pleased that the young person he’d known since he was a baby had grown into a fine family man with plenty of business ventures running at once. 

“He told me all about your funding crisis for the Daughter of Pelican, too. I totally approve of your solution. Very ingenious.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Fred had completely forgotten that he had used Mariusz’s Wozna account to pay for the flying boat development, and apologised for not raising it himself. Mariusz waved a hand. 

“Not a problem, young Fred.” He looked around, taking in all his surroundings. “You’ve got a fine place here. I know you’ve been through a lot to get here, and I appreciate it. I never came to Castle Marsh before. I don’t think I missed much then, but I’m real glad I didn’t miss it now.”

“I’m sorry you can’t stay longer, but… well, you have a castle to run.”

“Yes, we never get a vacation, do we? Can I just wander around alone for a few minutes? Want to take it all in, you know.”

“Of course. George says to leave no later than three. You’ll be flying into the sunset all the way.”

“That sounds pretty. I’ll see you down at the boardwalk.”

Fred watched him stroll off, taking the stairs to the battlements, and then wander along, stopping to lean out every now and then. 

An arm crept through his as Jasmine leant against him.

“Hi.”

“Hi yourself.”

“I’m not sure I should tell you, but Willoughby says he won’t be coming back.”

Fred stiffened. “Willoughby said… him or Mariusz?”

“Mariusz, of course! Why wouldn’t Willoughby come back?”

The certainty in Jasmine’s voice made Fred wonder…

No, Willoughby would come back. At least to say a proper goodbye.

© J M Pett 2021

Short Story | Fred at Yuletide, 2020

Seven H 2020

A little something with Fred at Yuletide for our festive season. This episode fits between the antipenultimate and penultimate chapters of Princelings Revolution! I decided you need it, because I had an idea of something to write for this time next year, so I might make a habit of it. That will be interesting, because I have no idea what will happen after next year. It’s just over 1000 words.

Seven H 2020

Fred at Yuletide

Yuletide at the Inn of the Seventh Happiness was nothing like it had been at Castle Marsh.  Fred had no idea what he had expected, but somehow it wasn’t this.

At Castle Marsh, as with most castles, Yuletide started at the winter solstice, with the Solstice Speech given by the king or lord, which ended with everyone renewing their allegiance to their seigneur.  Fred had discovered that word for a king or lord reigning over a given tract of lands and all that lived in it, in an old book on the shelf by the fireplace. He’d also discovered that two of the wandering stars were due to meet in the night sky this solstice, and although he saw them getting closer in the days before the festive season, it was just storm, rain and cloud on the night itself.

He’d spent a great deal of time looking in the books by Victor’s fireplace, as he was now. They were a strange assortment, left behind by travellers over the centuries. His mind drifted to Castle Marsh’s library, and he admitted to himself, their library was just such a mixture, but larger. He ached as he thought of his old home.  Had the library been destroyed?  Was the castle itself still standing? Was anyone still loyal to … the castle, he realised with a jolt.  It wasn’t really the king they were loyal to, although some kings did gain more personal support from their people.  It was the castle itself, the land that supported them, that they worked hard on to provide for themselves, their families and their friends.

Had he underestimated that in all he’d done?  He sighed.

“What’s up brother?”  George was drawing on a piece of paper stretched on a board, that he balanced between his knee and the arm of the sofa.

“I was just thinking of solstice speeches, and what allegiance meant at the castle. They didn’t even have a speech here, just the party.”

George smiled at him, and carried on with his scribbling.

How did George always manage to have a project on the go?  He never drifted along, wondering what to do next.  Although, to be fair, Fred had never had the time before to wonder what to do next. 

“What are you drawing?”

“Idea for something people could use in an emergency.”

“What, when flying?”

“Yeah.  I’ve been thinking about it ever since I jumped out of the old Pelican and escaped from Blackbird’s clutches.  I hung on to the little rescue boat and it sort of glided through the air, but threatened to tip me up, because it wanted to turn over. I was playing with things turned over and a weight below them, and I think I’m on the right lines. Look.”

Fred looked. In the top corner there was a semicircle, like a D on its flat side, and two lines coming down to a point below it. At the point was a stick person, arms going up to the lines on either side. Then further over George had sketched a sort of three-dimensional picture of something like a jellyfish, with strings coming down from it all the way round, ending in a point.

“What goes here?” he asked, indicating the point where the strings joined.

“Ah, that’s the tricky bit. I don’t know. Some sort of harness, I think. I’ve scribbled these ideas out, look. It would be too difficult to climb into something with lots of straps to do up if you had an emergency.  When I did it, I just grabbed the boat and jumped.  It has to be that simple really.  But I was doing some calculations on size, and the amount of air this thing I’m calling a canopy, because it goes overhead, will hold.”

“You see, that’s my problem.  You’ve always got something to do.  What do I do?  I’m useless.”

“Don’t say that near Victor,  He’ll find you plenty to do.”

Fred laughed. “I’m on dishwashing this week. I’ve got at least an hour before I’m needed in the kitchen.”

“There you are then. New job: kitchen dogsbody.”

They laughed, but Fred felt that George had summed it up well. Fred was no longer king of Marsh.  He was a nobody, and had to work his way just like everybody else.

“By the way, I had a letter from Kurtz,” George said. “They are going ahead with the new plane just as we suggested.”

“I love the way you slide that into the conversation days after you got the letter from them.  I thought it must have been bad news.”

“No. They accept our financial situation is unusual, but being partners and all, as long as we’re still going to go to see Mariusz, they’ll produce the plane as agreed.”

“That’s incredibly good of them.”

“They want to see us make it work. They’ve got at least four big customers waiting to see if it does.”

“When do we have to get to Mariusz again?”

“After May 6th.”

‘Only five months.”

“At least five months. It wouldn’t make sense to turn up on his doorstep the day after he’s agreed to close the time tunnel. I reckon late June would be fine.” George put his work aside and leaned forward to look in his brother’s eyes. “And you need to be back in Castle Marsh by then.  It’s where you belong.”

“They don’t want me.”

“They will. Trust me.”

Fred thought about his words as he was washing the glasses and food dishes in the kitchen behind the bar. A few people had protested that he didn’t need to, some laughed and said it served him right. Fred just shrugged his shoulders and got on with it. Victor thanked him for helping out, every day. 

To be honest, it helped his pride that he could do something that helped Victor, and at the same time gave him solitude—in the middle of a very busy place—to think things through.  He could hardly gaze out of a window at a distant view at 7H; the settlement was sunken in the plain with sheer cliffs surrounding it. He thought over all the events of the past year, and the new allies he had—including Locksley, to his great surprise.  And being busy helped.

Meanwhile, he was with his brother, his daughter and his steward, if Willoughby could still be called that, and his friend Victor. They were safe and warm, and well fed, when others would be wet, cold, and hungry, with no place to go.

He was grateful to his friends and family for their support. They were together. And tomorrow, Yuletide would end with Green Willow Day, the first day of a new year.

© J M Pett 2021

Princelings Book 9 is now underway!

original cover concepts

I’ve started writing book 9 in the Princelings series, the Chronicles of Marsh.

My Camp Nanowrimo project this year was to finish editing one of my other books.  Since I did that, and I was only two-thirds of the way through camp, I reckoned I should get going on the Princelings saga again.

I’ve only written two chapters so far, and that’s a cheat, because the second was already written. Fred is telling Willoughby how to write the history of Castle Marsh, so we have a linking story of things going on in the present, plus a catch-up on how we got to this point.

original cover conceptsAt some stage I will run out of pre-written tales, and will write new ones to fill in the gaps between the last one and the start of the final book, gaps that cover the time of books 7 & 8 that haven’t yet been aired here or on my blog. And when the underlying story now ends, we’ll be all ready to start book 10.

That’s the plan, anyway.

I haven’t got anything approaching a cover idea yet, but I thought you’d like to see Dani’s original concept sketches for the second edition covers. They’re just scribbles, and she’ll hate me for showing them, but I like them anyway!

Princelings series – current plans

window on the marsh

Princelings fans may be wondering what’s happening next, since The Princelings of the North came out in January.

I wrote a couple of short stories around Christmas time that suggested further developments in tensions between Fred, the different types of ex-pirate, and the Kings’ Council.  There was also one that featured Hector, who seems to have got himself settled at Castle Marsh already.

These are all ‘local colour’ in the transition through these years, parallel with our own, really, before we get to the final book in the series, which should happen in 2020-21.

I’ve already mentioned I’m planning a book before that.

window on the marshThe Chronicles of Marsh

The Chronicles of Marsh will bring together a series of short stories to give a sort of snapshot of the times.  I would dearly love to go back to the start of King Fred’s reign to pick up past short stories, like Zephyrs, and the longer Fred’s Yuletide Escape. Zephyrs is more of a vignette of Fred, Kira and George interacting as Fred makes Castle Marsh a place for science (to use the modern term).  I’m not sure whether it shouldn’t stay as it is.  But Fred’s Yuletide Escape turns out to be an important event in the politics of the Realms.  The question is, should I really try to shoe-horn it into another story, one that fits between POTN and the last one?

My vision is to look at it from Castle Marsh’s point of view, and use Willoughby as the hook.  Willoughby is now steward, but said in his own book that he’d written a story of the Heroes of Dimerie (his version of The Princelings and the Pirates), and felt he would like to work on a real narrative of the history of the Realms. This could be his opportunity—at least to put the key points of history down as seen from Marsh.  There should be enough exciting incidents going on to keep the reader happy.

In some ways, this is how Traveler started: Hugo went down the tunnel, something happened to make a little story, then he came back again.  Then he did it again. It all linked up until the twist came and it headed to a climax.

So that’s something like my idea for Chronicles. I can imagine Fred and Willoughby discussing it as a project, perhaps one day when George is overdue and they are standing looking out for him. Fred might start it off by telling Willoughby his Yuletide adventure. Then Willoughby can write it down, and carry on.

Queen Kira

Fans of Queen Kira may wonder where she fits into all this. Several years ago I believed she was going to die in childbirth. We’ve even got to the stage where that might have happened. Fred all alone facing these uncertain times makes sense for some of the actions I think he’s going to take. Having Kira by his side would make that more difficult. But I just can’t bring myself to commit to losing her. Daughter Jasmine is all set to take on the role of heroic female in the series. Maybe she’s just too young, though.

I find myself grieving for Kira. I wonder if I should just leave them to live happily ever after?

Princelings Revolution

Book 10 is relatively straightforward. It’s a classic adventure with time travel unravelled. It has revolution and planes and crashes and just-in-time panic. Everything comes full circle. All I need to do is write it.

I just feel I need to write book 9 first!


I’m now reblogging news items on here to my author blog jemimapett.com. It just seems sensible to write things once, but collate them all to Jemima’s news pages, rather than write different pieces in two or even three different places.  Some will go to the publishers site too.  I apologise if that means you see them more than once, and I’ll understand if you stop ‘following’ one or more of the websites.  Just as long as you keep getting notifications of new posts somewhere!

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