Blog Tour: Stand and Deliver
Highwaymen are often glamorised in literature and film as dashing figures on horseback, upholding the values of Robin Hood, stealing from the rich if not giving to the poor! However, many were bloodthirsty and violent rather than gentlemanly and gallant. Philip Caveney’s character, Tom Gregory, was inspired by the exploits of Gentleman Jack Sheppard, a notorious robber in the 18th century whose ‘spectacular escapes from various prisons, including two from Newgate, made him the most glamorous rogue in London’.
‘Stand and Deliver’ is an exciting romp of an adventure, full of colourful characters and daring deeds, and I am delighted to be able to share part of Chapter Two for my stop on the Blog Tour. You’ll be desperate to know what happens next…
CHAPTER TWO
In which we meet the orphan, Ned Watling, assistant to Tom Gregory, and learn how they first met.
A short distance from the cave, Ned was collecting firewood. He was fifteen years old and currently employed by Tom Gregory. Actually, when he thought about it, employed wasn’t really the right word. As far as Ned was aware, employed people received a wage for their efforts. All Ned got in return for his toil was a place to lay his head for the night, and his meals, which he was obliged to prepare himself. Oh, he had also received some promises.
Tom had repeatedly assured him that somewhere down the line, Ned would receive a handsome payout for his services – but the highwayman was very vague about when that time would actually come. And Ned had been working for him for nearly two years now. Before the cave, there’d been other hideouts: mouldering rooms in various towns across the country, abandoned warehouses and, for a few months, even the ruins of an old monastery near Chelmsford. Tom would ply his trade for several months, until too many people came looking for him, and then he would be obliged to move on. The cave had been their lair since early spring and, as the weather had steadily warmed, so Tom’s robberies had become more frequent, more daring. When Ned had first met Tom and been invited to enlist with him, he hadn’t fully understood what he was signing up for, but since he had come to work for the highwayman, he had learnt one thing above all else. Tom Gregory was unpredictable.
Oh, when he was in good humour, he could be jovial company, no doubt about it. He was always ready with a quip or a hearty song. But Ned had found to his cost that Tom also had a darker side. And one thing the highwayman hated more than anything else was to be kept waiting.
“Ned?” His voice echoed through the forest with an urgent tone. “Where the blue blazes are you?”
Ned began to run, plunging frantically through the undergrowth in the general direction of the cave. The last thing he wanted was to put his master into one of his moods.
“Here, Master Gregory!” he yelled. He burst into the clearing in front of the cave, dropped the big bundle ofbranches he’d been carrying and ran to catch hold of Black Bill’s bridle. Tom glared down at him for a moment.
“Where were you?” he asked.
“Just gathering firewood,” Ned assured him. “You remember, I told you it was running low?”
“Yes, fair point . . . but I expect you to be here when I return.” Tom swung himself down from the saddle and strode towards the cave, his sack of booty slung over one shoulder. “Fetch me a tankard of ale, lad, my throat’s parched!”
“Right away, Master Gregory!” Ned started towards the dense screen of bushes where the barrel of ale was stored, then hesitated as Tom shouted something else.
“And get that horse unsaddled and fed, while you’re at it.”
“Er . . . yes. Of course.” Ned hesitated, unsure of which task to do first. Black Bill eyed him warily and snorted, as if warning that he didn’t like to be kept waiting, either. Ned turned back to the horse and started to unbuckle his saddle.
“Ned?” Now Tom’s voice echoed from within the cave. “Where’s that ale?”
“Oh, er . . . coming Master Gregory.” Ned abandoned the saddle and turned to run towards the bushes. Halfway there, he stepped on a length of broken branch, which swung upwards and smacked him in the face. He stood for a moment, dazed, holding his stinging nose, tears filling his eyes.
“NED!” The anger in Tom’s voice jolted him back to his senses. He ran to the bushes, pulled them aside, grabbed a tankard and thrust it beneath the tap of the ale barrel. Dark liquid slopped into it, and he kept filling it until the froth foamed at the brim.
He glanced nervously over his shoulder. Tom was sitting on a chair in the gloomy interior, inspecting the booty that he’d just stolen. He lifted his head and gave Ned the glare, the one that he always gave shortly before he really losthis temper.
“For pity’s sake, boy, are you bringing that drink or what? I’m about to die of thirst here!”
Ned turned, started back towards the cave and tripped on a tree root, upending the tankard and spilling its contents down the front of his shirt. He hit the ground, the impact knocking all the breath out of him, and lay there for a moment, thinking that surely to heaven there must be a better way to spend his life than this.
In that moment, he recalled how he had first met the man that people called The Shadow.
Many thanks to the lovely people at UClan for inviting me to take part in this Blog Tour. Make sure you look at the other posts to find out more about this colourful historical adventure!
Stand and Deliver Philip Caveney
UClan Publishing ISBN: 978-1915235411