The Accidental Highwayman

[
   Kit Bristol and Friend
   ]

 

 

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For my most excellent friends Zeke & Nora

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 

N
O MATTER
how solitary an author is at work, everyone he knows plays a role in shaping his stories. And not just friends and family—other authors may have the biggest influence of all. This story would not exist without J. R. R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, C. S. Lewis, Susan Cooper, Lewis Carroll, Madeleine L'Engle, Harry Harrison, Mary Renault, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen, Henry Fielding, Charlotte Brontë, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Charles Dickens, and so many more. I encourage you to read them all and fill your head with worlds.

I also wish to thank Prathima Bengalooru, my London-based researcher of non-digitized archives; Roscoe the French Bulldog and Quincy Ryan for modeling; the Faerie Council of Leeds for information regarding the Book of Eldritch Law; Trinity College Library in Dublin; Netherfield Farm in West Tisbury, Massachusetts; and my lifemate, Corinne Marrinan Tripp.

 

CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

EDITOR'S
NOTE

PREFACE

 

1.
     
A P
ROCLAMATION
AT
M
ARKET

2.
     
T
HE
D
AY'S
S
ECOND
I
NTERROGATION

3.
     
R
ATTLE
R
IDES
O
UT

4.
     
T
HE
I
MPOSTER

5.
     
E
SCAPE
TO
K
INGSMIRE

6.
     
T
HE
W
RONG
H
IGHWAYMAN'S
T
ASK

7.
     
T
HE
O
WL
AT
THE
C
ROSSROAD

8.
     
R
ESCUE
, A
FTER
A
F
ASHION

9.
     
A R
OYAL
W
EDDING
F
ORETOLD

10.
   
L
ONG
-S
UFFERING
R
ADISHES
AND
N
EW
C
LOTHES

11.
   
T
HE
P
RICE
OF
A
B
UTTON

12.
   
A P
ARTING
OF
W
AYS

13.
   
U
P
A
NOTHER
T
REE

14.
   
T
HE
U
NLUCKY
L
UNCHEON

15.
   
T
HE
B
RIDGE

16.
   
D
ESIGNS
U
PON
W
OMEN'S
H
EARTS

17.
   
T
HE
T
HREE
Q
UESTIONS

18.
   
T
HE
I
MPRESARIO'S
F
LIGHT

19.
   
S
AVED
BY
G
ILT

20.
   
T
HE
B
EST
C
ONCEALMENT

21.
   
P
LAY
-P
RACTICE

22.
   
T
HE
T
ORTOISE
C
OMB

23.
   
T
HE
F
ELL
R
EFLECTION

24.
   
L
ILY'S
D
REAM

25.
   
P
UGGLE'S
S
PECTACULAR

26.
   
A B
RIEF
AND
H
APPY
I
DYLL

27.
   
T
OASTING
THE
S
TEWARD

28.
   
T
HE
S
IGILANTUM

29.
   
T
HE
C
OMPANY
S
OON
TO
P
ART

30.
   
T
HE
F
INAL
P
ERFORMANCE

31.
   
C
APTIVITY

32.
   
T
IDINGS
FROM
AN
O
LD
A
CQUAINTANCE

33.
   
B
EING
AN
A
CCOUNT
OF
M
Y
L
AST
H
OURS

34.
   
T
HE
R
OYAL
W
EDDING

35.
   
M
IDNIGHT'S
F
LIGHT

36.
   
T
HE
I
RISH
S
EA

37.
   
T
HE
E
NCHANTED
L
AND

38.
   
W
ORD
FROM
A
BROAD

 

PREVIEW FROM KIT AND MORGANA'S NEXT ADVENTURE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT

 

EDITOR'S NOTE

T
HE ORIGINAL
text of this volume is part of a trove of documents discovered in an old sea chest belonging to Levi Bixby, one of my ancestors. The chest had not been opened in 100 years, as the key was lost. It became a family tradition to try any orphaned key in the lock, provided it was of the skeleton type. Whoever found the correct key would own the contents of the chest. Only last year, I found such a key in a box of old silver lobster picks; it proved to be the very key that opened the mysterious chest.

The earliest document found inside is unrelated to this story and dates from 1690. The most recent, also unrelated, is a letter from Surinam, dated 1847. Whether the original author of the manuscript before you was a relative or friend of the family is unknown. Beside the packets of memoirs, there were some curious objects in the chest that appear to corroborate certain passages in the tale.

As a writer, I couldn't let this story languish in obscurity, but neither could I bear to let it reach the public without interference; forgive me for exercising a little editorial judgment here and there, in addition to modernizing the spelling and language to make it easier to read. Many of the illustrations are based upon little doodles furnished in the margins of the original pages.

Any anachronisms or historical errors that have slipped into the text are entirely the result of my own meddling, and I apologize to any scholars who discover them. But this story is not intended as a scholarly work, nor to challenge history as it is known. Rather, I hope readers find this an illuminating counterpoint to what is understood about events of the mid-eighteenth century, and that it helps explain a few obscure points in the established record.

—Ben Tripp

 

PREFACE

by Kit Bristol

G
ENTLE
R
EADER,

This story contains nearly as many dark deeds, treacherous villains, and acts of violence as one might expect to find in a typical morning newspaper. In addition, there is a significant emphasis on heathen magic and demoniacal doings. I cannot recommend that anyone read it.

But it is also a true story. It is a story about bravery, loyalty, and love. Within these pages you will find friendship and laughter alongside the bitter doings of low characters. And, like all redeeming tales, it comes with a moral. But unlike most such narratives, the moral of this story is at the beginning, not at the end.

I shall make no further apology for the strange account you are about to read. Instead, here is the moral of the tale, which should act as a beacon in the darkness to guide you back home, no matter what happens next.

 

The heart is wiser than the head.

 

Here's what happens next.

 

Chapter 1

A PROCLAMATION AT MARKET

I
DROVE THE
little cart into town on a fine June morning. It was a bright day, and the country round about was green and fresh—what I could see of it past the backside of Old Nell, the dappled mare. I had a neatly inked list of things to buy at market, just enough coppers to buy them with, and that was the extent of my cares.