Status Updates From Forest of Secrets (Ursula B...

The air sang with tension...so great that it was easy to imagine that it could be plucked like a lutestring and would emit a sound.

It was Monday, the twenty-eighth of July, and July was behaving well. We had awoken to sunshine and a few harmless white clouds, and a light breeze chasing their shadows across the cornfields round Minstead. The harvest had recovered from the rainstorm and was growing vigorously now. Poppies and cornflowers glowed amid the crop; and in the grass of the paddock where our horses...grazed..grasshoppers were chirping.

“My unconventional way of life had taught me to be prepared...and my luggage contained some unusual items for a lady. I had brought with me not only a tinderbox and a lantern that could be adjusted to show only the ground beneath one’s feet but also the dagger and picklocks... In addition, I had packed a pair of breeches, a man’s shirt and jacket, and a cap such as a groom might wear.”

I do enjoy being back in the 16th century with Ursula Blanchard, now seeking answers about possible strange non-Christian events in a distant Wood as well as another possible threat from followers of Mary.

Years ago, when I was on a journey to East Anglia, a flight of wild geese had passed overhead. The friend who was riding beside me said..that I had a wildness in me; that I followed adventure, as a wild goose follows the call of its kind. There had been some truth in that. But not now. I had outgrown my youthful wildness long ago. Weary after my latest adventure..thankful to have come through..safely, I wanted..rest.

Okay I complained that the last one badly needed an editor and that holds true for this one, too.

Though now I'm wondering if the writing has always been this stilted and weird (in a way that isn't necessary to be historically accurate) and I just didn't care in the past because I need to know what bullshit Ursula is up to.