The Tale of Oat Cake Crag

Table of Contents

 

 

THYME OF DEATH
WITCHES’ BANE
HANGMAN’S ROOT
ROSEMARY REMEMBERED
RUEFUL DEATH
LOVE LIES BLEEDING
CHILE DEATH
LAVENDER LIES
MISTLETOE MAN

BLOODROOT
INDIGO DYING
A DILLY OF A DEATH
DEAD MAN’S BONES
BLEEDING HEARTS
SPANISH DAGGER
NIGHTSHADE
WORMWOOD
HOLLY BLUES

AN UNTHYMELY DEATH
CHINA BAYLES’ BOOK OF DAYS

 

DEATH AT BISHOP’S KEEP
DEATH AT GALLOWS GREEN
DEATH AT DAISY’S FOLLY
DEATH AT DEVIL’S BRIDGE
DEATH AT ROTTINGDEAN
DEATH AT WHITECHAPEL

DEATH AT EPSOM DOWNS
DEATH AT DARTMOOR
DEATH AT GLAMIS CASTLE
DEATH IN HYDE PARK
DEATH AT BLENHEIM PALACE
DEATH ON THE LIZARD

 

THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM
THE TALE OF HOLLY HOW
THE TALE OF CUCKOO BROW WOOD
THE TALE OF HAWTHORN HOUSE
THE TALE OF BRIAR BANK
THE TALE OF APPLEBECK ORCHARD
THE TALE OF OAT CAKE CRAG

 

WRITING FROM LIFE
WORK OF HER OWN

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2010 by Susan Wittig Albert.

 

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Albert, Susan Wittig.

eISBN : 978-1-101-45990-4

1. Potter, Beatrix, 1866-1943—Fiction. 2. Women authors—Fiction. 3. Women artists—Fiction. 4. Human-animal relationships—Fiction. 5. Animals—Fiction. 6. Villages—Fiction.

7. England—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3551.L2637T36 2010

813’.54—dc22 2010008218

 

 

Cast of Characters
(* indicates an actual historical person or creature)

Beatrix Potter
* is best known for her children’s books, beginning with
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
(1901). Miss Potter lives with her parents,
Helen and Rupert Potter
, at Number Two Bolton Gardens, in South Kensington, London. She spends as much time as possible at Hill Top Farm, in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey.
Mr. and Mrs. Jennings
and their children live in the Hill Top farmhouse and manage the farm while Miss Potter is in London.

Will Heelis
,* a solicitor, lives in the nearby market town of Hawkshead and is a frequent visitor to Near Sawrey. He and Miss Potter became secretly engaged in
The Tale of Applebeck Orchard.

Winston Churchill
,
*
First Lord of the Admiralty, is an ardent supporter of aeroplane development and a visitor to the aeroplane factory.

Mr. Fred L. Baum
, landowner and aeroplane developer, lives at Lakeshore Manor. His partner and pilot,
Oscar Wyatt
, also built the aeroplane.
Paddy Pratt
is a former odd-jobs man at the manor, recently discharged by Mr. Baum.

Captain Miles Woodcock
and his new wife,
Margaret Nash Woodcock
, live in Tower Bank House. Mrs. Woodcock is the former headmistress of Sawrey School. Captain Woodcock is the justice of the peace for Sawrey District.

Dimity Woodcock Kittredge
, Captain Woodcock’s sister, is married to
Major Christopher Kittredge
, the master of Raven Hall. The Kittredges have two small children,
Flora
and
Baby Christopher
.

Vicar Samuel Sackett
is the vicar of St. Peter’s Church in Far Sawrey.
Mrs. Hazel Thompson
(a cousin of Agnes Llewellyn) keeps house for him.

Mrs. Grace Lythecoe
, a widow who lives in Rose Cottage, is the object of Vicar Sackett’s affection.

Sarah Barwick
operates the Anvil Cottage Bakery in Near Sawrey. She is a Modern Woman who wears trousers and rides a bicycle to deliver her baked goods.

Jeremy Crosfield
, eighteen, has finished his studies at Kelsick and is currently teaching at Sawrey School. He is an artist and amateur botanist.

Deirdre Malone
, seventeen, keeps the accounts for
Desmond Sutton’s
veterinary practice and helps
Rose Sutton
manage the eight Sutton children at Courier Cottage.

Caroline Longford
, seventeen, a student of music composition at the Royal Academy of London, is visiting her grandmother,
Lady Longford
, at Tidmarsh Manor.

Lester Barrow
operates the village pub, the Tower Bank Arms.

George
and
Mathilda Crook
live at Belle Green, where Mrs. Crook takes in boarders. Mr. Crook is the village blacksmith.

Dick
and
Agnes Llewellyn
live next door to Belle Green, at High Green Gate.

Lucy Skead
is the village postmistress. She lives with her husband,
Joseph
(the sexton at St. Peter’s in Far Sawrey), at Low Green Gate Cottage.

John Braithwaite
is the constable for both Near and Far Sawrey. He and his wife,
Hannah
, live at Croft End Cottage with their children.

Tabitha Twitchit
, president of the Village Cat Council, is a calico cat with an orange-and-white bib, currently residing with Mrs. Lythecoe.
Crumpet
is a handsome gray tabby who covets Tabitha’s place on the Council.

Rascal
, a Jack Russell terrier, lives with the Crooks at Belle Green but spends his time managing the daily life of the village.

Winston
the pony lives at Hill Top Farm and takes Miss Potter wherever she wants to go.

Professor Galileo Newton Owl, D.Phil.
, is a tawny owl who conducts advanced studies in astronomy and applied natural history from his home in a hollow beech in Cuckoo Brow Wood and his lookout post atop Oat Cake Crag.