Lupin – The Princelings Books: Jemima Pett

30 January, 201514 July, 2015

Pirates is three years old

It’s three years since I published The Princelings and the Pirates. That was book 2 and I’m now working on book 7! I know a few readers are rushing to keep up, and it’s all the more helpful since the first book went on free sale, as Pirates’ sales picked up beautifully in 2014.

The Princelings and the Pirates is where Fred meets Kira for the first time. Kira is kidnapped from her home castle, Dimerie, and Fred rescues her from Castle Marsh. How their love blossoms is part of the adventure in the Princelings and the Lost City. It’s not really a romance, though – except I love the way Fred does that cool thing of pretending he doesn’t care when he has to sort out the mystery. Yes, Fred, we read you – ok!

The rest of the series is really about the way life in the realms changes, partly due to the inventions George is involved with, but also other reasons, like commercial developments and power struggles. Will they be able to meet the commitment Lupin, Fred, George and Victor were involved in making to Hugo, Lord Mariusz, at the end of Book 1? Time will tell!

21 December, 201311 January, 2014

Fred’s Yuletide Escape 10 – Solstice Eve

This is the final part of Fred’s Yuletide Escape. Chapters average 1000 words. If you missed the start, you can find it here.

King Fred of Marsh decided to take off for a little adventure before his Yuletide duties start. He planned to spend the night at the Inn of the Seventh Happiness, however, he was kidnapped and driven off to a pirate encampment, where the pirate captain told him they want amnesty and a home of their own, and sent a ransom demand to Castles Buckmore and Marsh. Fred took advantage of a storm to run off, and met his brother George, who was looking for him in his flying machine. They lifted off just as the pirates came over the hill chasing them, and went back to Castle Buckmore to work out a solution. Now read the final part…

Chapter 10: Solstice Eve

George circled the field twice as Fred pointed over his shoulder to tell him where to go. They were both well wrapped up against the cold of the open cockpit, having stowed the lightest members of the 25^th Rifle Brigade in the passenger cabin. George made his final approach to his choice of landing area and touched down lightly, taxiing to the end of the field to leave space for Pippin, who was flying one of Lupin’s machines right behind him. Lupin, Haggis of the Rifle Brigade and Frankie, an ex-pirate from Castle Marsh, climbed out of the second machine and they joined the others at the field boundary.

“They said they’d meet us here,” Fred said to the others. “I hope we’ve got it right.”

Haggis was already touring the edge of the wood, looking out for danger. His men had gone in different directions, making sure they hadn’t been drawn into a trap. The 25^th had been attached to Castle Marsh for some years now, and rarely got round to any soldiering, although they did get called for training exercises once a year. As Fred watched them, he was sure they were enjoying themselves. He felt sick to the stomach, hoping he wasn’t going to be captured again. It was too close to Solstice now, and he didn’t want to ruin his daughter’s birthday party the day after.

A group of pirates appeared at the edge of the forest.

“Are we going to parley here or do you want to sit by our fire?” the Cap’n asked genially.

“Let’s just do it here,” Lupin replied, waving his hand at Pippin, who brought out a large wicker basket from the freight compartment of the machine, and started unpacking a picnic.

“Oh my, well, I don’t mind if I do,” said the Cap’n. “Name’s Bones. And you are Prince Lupin, very pleased to meet you.” He shook the Prince’s hand vigorously. Fred smirked as he saw Lupin’s half-concealed reaction.

Once settled, Pippin handed round food and drink, and Prince Lupin outlined some of the ideas they had discussed for a permanent home for the pirates. “What the other kings will want to know, before they will support me in this venture,” he said, “is what you propose to do about working with the rest of us in the realms, to maintain law and order and live peaceably together.”

“Peaceably, yes, I think we’re all for that,” replied the Cap’n. “I mean, what does everyone else do to live peaceably without getting bored?”

“Well, I’m always busy,” said Lupin, sighing. “Fred has his Natural Philosophy to keep him busy. Vexstein have their brewery, Palatine have their Seat of Learning and other ventures. Dimerie has the winery of course. All sorts of different things.”

“And what about the kings council? Would we be part of that?”

“You’d have to earn your place, show you were serious about honest living, that sort of thing. We could sort out the details once we agree where you’re going to go. Have you seen a castle you want to renovate?”

“We want to be on the coast, of course. And somewhere with some good dark places in the basement.”

“Why’s that? You don’t want to keep people in dungeons, I hope.”

“No, we just like to feel safe and secure at various times,” he said, shooting a glance at Frankie. “What about funds? How much gold do we get?”

“Well, nobody really gets any gold these days,” Lupin said. “It’s all done on paper, called credit. I suggest you and your financial adviser have a couple of days at Buckmore with my steward Baden. He can talk you through the system and you can make yourself happy that your funds will be secure.”

Cap’n Bones turned to Fred. “Is this how it works for you? How much have you got in funds?”

“I-I don’t rightly know,” stammered Fred. “I’ve never thought about it. Enough, I suppose, since nobody’s ever complained.”

“So, we have to find you a suitable castle,” said Lupin, steering the conversation back to what he wanted to cover. “Have you ever been to Castle Roc?”

Bones went to shake his head, but one of the others stepped forward and whispered in his ear. He scratched his head thoughtfully. “It’s just a ruin, though, isn’t it?”

“It can be rebuilt. We’ll find people to help you, advise you. Get your followers in there and everyone can lend a hand. It’ll be no worse, even at the start, than living rough here.”

“Can you guarantee we’ll be left in peace?”

“If you want to live in peace, well, that’s all we want too. We’ll visit socially, of course. That would be a peaceable thing to do.”

Lupin wanted to give them a chance, but he didn’t want to leave them entirely unsupervised.

“Very well, then. I accept!” Bones put his hand forward to shake Lupin’s, and Lupin took it. Fred smiled again as he watched Lupin cringe at the contact. Lupin had a fastidious nature.

The rest of the parley consisted of eating and drinking. The pirates started chatting to the soldiers, and Frankie came over to Fred and George.

“He’s up to something, you know.”

“I think we all think he is,” said Fred quietly. “We just don’t know what.”

“It’ll be easier having them in one place,” added George. “You never know, they might just fit in with the realms, after all, they’re a funny enough lot – take Smallweed and Colman, for example.”

Frankie shrugged.

Haggis was standing behind them. “We’ll just have to keep alert,” he said.

“Thanks,” said Fred. These were good people; he was glad they were part of Castle Marsh. He suddenly realised he had all the advisers he needed at Marsh already: Frankie, Haggis, Jupiter, all with good common sense and a wide variety of experiences. If only he could find a steward, his adventure would have been completely worthwhile.

“We’re done, then, I think,” said Lupin, coming over to them.

“Great, I can’t wait to get home,” grinned Fred.

“You’ve got to do your Solstice speech tomorrow,” George reminded him.

“Ah.” Fred’s face fell. At least he was going home. Home to Kira. Home to Castle Marsh, and to the Yuletide festivities. He wondered if that narrator might turn up. He climbed into the flying machine behind George, and started whistling a happy tune. Then he started planning his speech.

He’d had enough adventure for one year.

THE END

That’s it for this year… don’t forget Dylan’s Yuletide Journey is free on Smashwords for all eReaders. Have a happy seasonal celebration and we’ll be back in the New Year with more stories, the new book Bravo Victor and new ideas! Thank you for your support and good luck in 2014.

20 December, 20135 January, 2014

Fred’s Yuletide Escape 9 – A Place of Their Own

This is the ninth of ten parts of Fred’s Yuletide Escape. Chapters average 1000 words, although this is the shortest at under 600 words. If you missed the start, you can find it here.

King Fred of Marsh has decided to take off for a little adventure before his Yuletide duties start. He planned to spend the night at the Inn of the Seventh Happiness, however, he was kidnapped and driven off to a pirate encampment, where the pirate captain told him they want amnesty and a home of their own, and sent a ransom demand to Castles Buckmore and Marsh. Fred took advantage of a storm to run off, and met his brother George, who was looking for him in his flying machine. They lifted off just as the pirates came over the hill chasing them. Now read on…

Chapter 9: A place of their own

“You think we should give in to them? I am surprised.” Prince Lupin looked as astonished as he sounded.

“I don’t see it as giving in. I think it makes sense. They want a castle they can live in, make their own community. We want to get rid of what some people consider a danger to law-abiding people. Surely if they’ve at least got a base, we can start to rehabilitate them?” Fred had done some thinking about the subject, despite his tiredness and distraction.

“What if they just use it to regroup, then attack everyone around them, return to their pirate ways,” asked George.

“Well, we won’t have to chase them all over the countryside like we are at present,” replied Fred.

The six people present considered that. Baden got up to refresh their glasses while the others thought.

“Do we need to make them think they’ve won a hard-fought battle over this?” The way Lady Nimrod asked questions turned them into suggestions.

“How could we manage the funding, though?” asked Nerys, Queen of Buckmore, Lupin’s wife, and Kira’s sister.

Fred shifted in his seat. “I know we don’t have that much standing in security, but I feel Marsh has to be involved in this to some extent. It was Ludo who brought this mess on the realms in the first place.”

“Oh, I expect they’d have found someone else if Ludo hadn’t been around, Fred. You shouldn’t take this on yourself.”

“I’ve never been much good at this business of the castles having security to support their communities,” George said, “ but I think my royalties from the strawberry juice power plant have made a big difference to Marsh, haven’t they?” he said, looking at Prince Lupin, who looked at Baden.

“Well, yes, George. It’s a steady stream of credits, even though it’s relatively small. It has big potential in relation to Marsh’s other securities.” Baden said.

“Could I apportion some of that to the pirates’ new castle? Would that make a difference?”

“That’s very generous of you George, but I don’t think it’s necessary,” said Lupin.

“What if all the castles gave a small amount of security to the venture,” said Fred. “I think it’s called a levy, or something. Then everyone would share the cost of setting it up, and it wouldn’t be a burden on any one castle. We all share the problem.”

“Do you think the Kings’ Council would agree?” Lupin was more than sceptical, but he kept his tone light.

Fred looked glum. “Only if you persuaded them,” he admitted.

“But if I’m willing to give up some of my royalties – if you’re ok with that, Fred, since it’s Marsh earnings – well, wouldn’t it set an example.” George was encouraging. “Surely enough would come in, even if not all. We could establish the castle and sort the rest out later.”

“Like whether they have representation on the Kings’ Council,” suggested Nimrod.

“It would make sense,” said Fred. “It would make it interesting, too!”

Fred, George and Nimrod laughed, Baden and Lupin looked thoughtful.

“When did we last establish a new castle?” asked Nerys.

“Miles, of course, at Fortune,” Lupin told her. Miles was Nerys’s brother.

“No, before that. Miles was in the line of succession, even if it was the female side. This wouldn‘t have that precedent,” she said.

Everyone fell silent. There hadn’t been a castle established in their lifetimes, possibly not even in their parents’ lifetimes.

“Well, it sounds like an opportunity to me,” said Nimrod.

Come back for the final part tomorrow, Saturday. Can it all be sorted out before Solstice?

16 December, 201331 December, 2013

Fred’s Yuletide Escape 7 – Ransom

This is the seventh of ten parts of Fred’s Yuletide Escape. Chapters average 1000 words. If you missed the start, you can find it here.

King Fred of Marsh has decided to take off for a little adventure before his Yuletide duties start. After visiting his neighbours at Castle Wash, he planned to spend the night at the Inn of the Seventh Happiness. However, after a pleasant conversation with Willoughby the Narrator, he was kidnapped and driven off to a pirate encampment, where he has been for a couple of days. The pirate captain wants amnesty and a home of their own, but Fred has taken advantage of a storm to run off. Elsewhere…

Chapter 7: Ransom

The ransom demand had arrived at Castle Marsh and Castle Buckmore at the same instant, thanks to the extension of the vacuum tube message system to outlying areas. Rapid discussions took place between Kira (Queen of Marsh), George (Fred’s brother, visiting Castle Buckmore) and Lupin (Prince of Buckmore) using the same method. Five minutes was not a long time to wait between bursts of conversation when it would take a whole day to travel between the two castles.

The demand read: “We have King Fred. We want our own castle. And plenty of money to support us. Make sure we get it by Solstice or he walks the plank. From Cap’n Bones on behalf of all exiled pirates not otherwise settled.”

In his office at Castle Buckmore, Lupin toyed with the original message while he waited for a reply to his enquiry of Argon, proprietor of the Inn of the Seventh Happiness. “He must have gone to Seventh Happiness from Wash. He wouldn’t have gone to Humber.”

“Well,” George replied, “If there was a choice he’d have gone to Seven H. Humber’s all right, but…”

“Ah,” said Lupin as his steward, Baden, entered with another message.

“Argon reports he booked a room, but didn’t use it,” Lupin told George.

“Didn’t he think that was suspicious?” asked George.

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you,” Lupin replied. “But who knows what goes on at a busy place like that. Maybe he thought he’d changed his mind.”

“I’d better go down and talk to him, find out if he saw anything, if anyone else saw anything.” George flew everywhere in a fraction of the time it took the best of coaches.

“Yes, although if we know who’s got him, and what they want, what do we have to gain?”

“We need to find him and rescue him, surely,” said George, somewhat surprised at Lupin’s reaction.

“That’s a good plan, George,” said Baden. “If we can get him out of their clutches we can tackle the problem of rehoming them without undue pressure.”

“Ah, yes, of course,” said Lupin. “Sorry George, not thinking straight. What do they mean by ‘plenty of money to support us’ anyway?”

“It sounds to me like they want their own castle, with full access to the credit system,” said Baden.

“Not just rehomed wherever we can fit them in, then?”

“No.”

“But that’s… what’s the word… anarchy?”

“Well, either anarchy in that they don’t recognise any of the existing kings, or an attempt to join the system as a fully fledged entity,” Baden replied.

“I’ll get going, then,” said George. “I wonder if they’ve discussed this with Fred? It’s more his thing than mine.”

“Do you think he’s suggested it to them?” Lupin was shocked.

“No,” said George and Baden together. “He’d have developed a better plan if he had,” added George. “I’ll update you when I’ve talked to Argon.”

“Good, good,” said Lupin as George left.

“Are there any castles we could give them?” Lupin asked Baden.

“None in habitable condition, I don’t think. Roc is nicely out of the way, and on the coast, but it’s a shell. Forest was blown up, and anyway, Lord Duffield maintains it’s still his. There are a couple up north, one not far from Palatine and the other further north, again on the coast. I don’t know what condition they’re in.”

“Well, that’s a start, in terms of negotiation.”

~~~

“So he booked the cubbyhole, had supper with the narrator, and you didn’t see him afterwards?”

“Exactly so, Prince George,” said Argon. “It was a busy night, we were practically full, a couple of minor royals from Cabot on their way up to Humber staying in the best suite, everyone piling in after the narrator had done his stuff…”

“It’s ok, Argon, I don’t expect you to mollycoddle every wandering princeling that comes through your bar.” George grinned at him. In fact, it was Victor who had mollycoddled him and Fred on their adventures when they were princelings, since Argon had been abducted himself, but he didn’t need to say so. “I don’t suppose the narrator’s still around?”

“No, sir, he went off on his travels. To Wash, I think.”

“I don’t suppose Victor saw anything?”

“I didn’t think to ask him. Hold on.”

Argon disappeared into the kitchen area and George could hear him call to Victor.

“I don’t know where he is,” he admitted as he returned. “He’s got some new idea he’s working on.”

“Here, Dad!” said Victor, coming in through the main door. “Hi, George! Thought I saw the machine land.”

“Hi Victor. I’m looking for Fred.”

“Oh. He didn’t stay the night. Night before last…?”

“That’s right.”

“Yeah, he went off with Rum’s mates.”

“Who?”

“Rum. He runs the Wash stagecoach. Works very hard. There, back, there, back. Goes to Forest sometimes too.”

“OK. So he brought Fred in from Wash when he arrived?”

“Probably. Didn’t see him arrive. Think he said Wash though. Where’s Fred?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.” George wondered if Lupin had told Argon that Fred had been kidnapped. Best not to say anything, in case, he told himself. “You said he might have gone off with Rum’s mates. Do you know who they are?”

Victor thought for a moment. “I’ve seen them before. On the Mare Swine. Not seen them round here before, though.”

“They’re pirates, then. Is Rum a pirate?”

“Used to be. Same as Pippin.”

George took Victor’s point. Many pirates had taken up the offer of mending their ways and taken on new roles in society. Pippin had been on the same pirate ship as George when he had been captured, and had asked if he could work for him when he was granted a pardon. He now ran the Flying School at Buckmore. This Rum person had been on the Mare Swine, on which Fred and Victor had been captive, but now ran a viable stagecoach business.

“When will Rum be back here?” George asked.

“Dinner time tonight,” Victor answered. “He’ll be near Wash now.”

“Well, the wind’s dropped a bit, although it looks like it might be stormy later, so I might as well take the machine up for a little look around and see if I can spot anything odd,” said George, eyeing the sky from the main door. “I don’t think there’s much else I can do.” And after sending off a message to Lupin, and another, longer one to Kira, he took the flying machine up into the freshly washed blue sky, and headed towards the ruined Castle Forest, to the southwest, on a hunch.

Continued on Wednesday…