MIRRORED SWORD PART TWO: THE TOUR

by Allan Hands

It is the year 1470 and England is on the cusp of renewed civil war. Tom Roussell, alias the Beast of Ferrybridge—the great champion of the rebel cause—is now sergeant-at-arms to Susanna Mandeville, the one woman in the world he can’t abide, and who can’t abide him. She is the king’s greatest admirer yet a reckless kiss between her and Tom (each blames the other) caused such a public disturbance that the authorities had to intervene, finally binding the two in a contract that makes her the toy and him the tool of a scheming and venal palace. His Majesty can now control Tom through her, because she is his boss, and meanwhile he strengthens his hold on her also, because Susanna can’t manage a beast without help. The king has two other holds on them. She is a painter, a painter needs a patron, and who better than a king! Tom has a brother, now the king’s hostage.

It is at this time that the king marches north on a mission to pacify or subdue the rebels. Susanna joins him as his would-be artist and mistress, and Tom must come too, as her sergeant-at-arms, and to save his brother. Every town, every stop along the way provides new opportunities for misunderstandings and revelations, shared and magnified by the same characters encountered before, as England slides closer and closer to the brink. At last, the time for big decisions can no longer be put off, culminating in chivalry and high treachery at the king’s ancestral home, Fotheringhay Castle, even as civil war finally breaks out. The end is swift and merciless. England flees and England pursues. A small band of survivors rides seawards, daring to entrust their future to broad horizons, as the dark forces of revenge close in on them.

Mirrored Sword Part Two is divided into fourteen chapters, each headed by a calendar date for the year 1470, and subdivided into sections representing the viewpoints of the hero and heroine. It comes with a decorative map.

476 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 4, 2021

About the author

Allan Hands is a pen name borrowed from the author’s grandfathers (Allan McPherson and Claude Hands). It is a more convenient handle on his book than is his real name, which you can find listed in the book’s front matter as owner of the copyright.

Allan is 66 years old (2022), which is younger than you might think and much older than he feels. He was born in Sydney, Australia. His parents divorced when he was twenty-one, and both passed away during the COVID catastrophe, but they are always together in his thoughts, and Mirrored Sword is dedicated to their memory.

Allan graduated from Macquarie University in 1976 with a B.A. specialising in English literature. He has worked in a variety of jobs as driver and labourer, and he ended up in Queensland, where he obtained a diploma in education from the Carseldine College of Advanced Education. He then commenced a career as school teacher, mostly in south-east Queensland but also with a two-year spell in the outback as part of the distance education program.

He now lives on four sunny acres with his library and his dog, enjoying the space and time to study at leisure, including the classics in Latin, Greek and English, some physics, philosophy and Christian studies. A jack of all trades and master of none, he likes to think his first novel will establish him as a master of something.

His priorities as an author: firstly, write great books; secondly, write books that sell. He has almost finished researching his next ambitious story, a novel set in ancient Greece. Meanwhile Mirrored Sword Part One and Part Two are available at Amazon (doing better in the UK than US), and a combined volume is temporarily free at NetGalley (May 2022).