A Place Beyond Courage

Elizabeth Chadwick
lives in Nottingham with her husband and two sons. Much of her research is carried out as a member of Regia Anglorum, an early medieval re-enactment society with the emphasis on accurately recreating the past. She also tutors in the skill of writing historical and romantic fiction. She won a Betty Trask Award for
The Wild Hunt
, her first novel, and was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Award in 1998 for
The Champion
, in 2001 for
Lords of the White Castle
, in 2002 for
The Winter Mantle
and in 2003 for
The Falcons of Montabard
. Her sixteenth novel,
The Scarlet Lion
, was nominated by Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Society, as one of the top ten historical novels of the last decade.

Visit the author’s website at
www.elizabethchadwick.com

’Elizabeth Chadwick is a gifted novelist and dedicated researcher; she deserves to be mentioned with Anya Seton and Dorothy Dunnett’ - Sharon Kay Penman

Praise for
A Place Beyond Courage

‘Chadwick’s historical grasp is secure and vivid in this punchy prequel to her last FitzGilbert epics . . . an absorbing narrative that canters along’
Financial Times

‘Another example of how to write compelling historical fiction . . . by the best novelist in this genre’
Driffield Leader

More praise for Elizabeth Chadwick

‘One of Elizabeth Chadwick’s strengths is her stunning grasp of historical detail . . . her characters are beguiling, and the story intriguing and very enjoyable’ Barbara Erskine

‘The best writer of medieval fiction currently around’
Historical Novels Review

‘Elizabeth Chadwick knows exactly how to write convincing and compelling historical fiction’ Marina Oliver

Also by Elizabeth Chadwick

THE CONQUEST
THE CHAMPION
THE LOVE KNOT
THE MARSH KING’S DAUGHTER
LORDS OF THE WHITE CASTLE
THE WINTER MANTLE
THE FALCONS OF MONTABARD
SHADOWS AND STRONGHOLDS
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
THE SCARLET LION

A Place Beyond Courage

ELIZABETH CHADWICK

Hachette Digital

www.littlebrown.co.uk

Published by Hachette Digital 2009

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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

eISBN : 978 0 7481 1306 4

This ebook produced by JOUVE, FRANCE

Hachette Digital
An imprint of
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DY

An Hachette Livre UK Company

Acknowledgements

I’d like to take this page to say thank you. Since
A Place Beyond Courage
is my seventeenth novel, many of the usual suspects are involved, but it doesn’t diminish my gratitude. Without their input, I’d have had considerably more hassle to finish the work. Indeed, without them I probably wouldn’t have this great job.

So thank you to my agent Carole Blake and Oli Munson at Blake Friedmann who have shared so much of the ‘John Marshal’ experience with me. To the editorial team at Little, Brown - Barbara Daniel and Joanne Dickinson for letting me get on with my work in my own way, and to Richenda Todd for letting me get away with nothing - which I truly appreciate when I am too close to the narrative to see wood for trees - or to tell north from south!

I would also like to thank Alison King for showing me John FitzGilbert the man, and taking me beyond the brief hints provided by chroniclers and poets.

I am grateful to Angela Kennedy and Frank Garton for talking to me about living with a visual disability.

My husband Roger continues to be totally good-natured and amenable concerning my obsessions with various medieval men, but as he’s known me since I was seventeen, I guess he’s used to my foibles by now - but my love to him anyway for understanding!

My thanks must also go out to fellow friends and professionals in the RNA and the various online communities including Friends and Writers, Penman Review and UK Novelists, who aid my writing efforts by ensuring that my frequent moments of procrastination are fun and profitable - in that I can always learn something new.

Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’i chasront

The brave and the valiant are to be sought often between the hooves of horses for never will cowards fall down there

L’Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal

KING OF ENGLAND THE CONTINENTAL DYNASTIES 1066-1216

MARSHAL FAMILY TREE