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| ISBN: 0 7472 5071 5 |
A knight in fourteenth-century Devon, Sir William Beauscyr
is accustomed to total control of his estates and servants. He is
angered when the powerful tin miners appropriate land he considers
his own, even though they are entitled to do so, and his anger turns
to fury when one of his villeins joins the tinners, removing himself
from Sir William's service. The Bailiff of Lydsford, Simon Puttock,
and Sir Baldwin Furnshill are called in to adjudicate, but they have
been in the area only a short time when the runaway villein is found
murdered on the moors. There are many suspects: Sir William himself,
who shows no grief at the man's death; Sir William's younger son,
Sir John, a firebrand who has made no secret of his wish to take matters
into his own hands; an older miner who was taking money to stop tinners
encroaching on land, in effect running a protection racket; and others.
As the case develops, tension mounts on the moors, and only after
a vicious battle between the tinners and Sir William's men will the
truth out and normality be restored.
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