Excerpt: Ravens Hill (The Atheling Chronicles #5) by Garth Pettersen

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Book details:

Book Title: Ravens Hill

Series: The Atheling Chronicles, Book #5

Author: Garth Pettersen

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Publisher: Tirgearr Publishing

Pages: 308

Any Triggers: some graphic violence, discussion of molestation

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In 1030 C.E. — When Harald, the second son of King Cnute, returns from fighting the king's enemies in Northern Wales, he expects his life to return to normal. He's surprised when he's granted a large landholding—an idyllic life, far from the power-mongering of King Cnute's court, farming in the Midlands, evening walks with his beloved Selia. It’s a gift they cannot refuse, but the king has other plans for Harald and his wife.

On arriving at their new holding, Ravens Hill, Harald and Selia receive a tepid welcome from tenants—belligerent housecarls; a conniving steward; an uncompromising abbess, bitter at not adding their estate to her abbey lands; a priest with roaming hands; and a grieving daughter of the previous landholder who has entered the nunnery.

Harald and Selia wish to improve the lot of their tenant farmers, but they face obstacles at every turn, and Harald’s generosity is seen as weakness.

Trouble brews when they learn the lands come with an unexpected millstone—an unsolved murder.

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Publisher’s Author Page with series links:http://www.tirpub.com/gpettersen

Making no sound, Udele closed the door to her father’s house and stepped out into the moonlight. She scanned the collection of buildings to see if anyone was stirring—she knew her father’s housecarls slept like bearns—even when on watch—and if they rose at all, it would be just to piss onto the scattered rushes that covered the hall’s floor. The two hounds Cyning and Cwēnpadded over, seeking attention. She stroked their heads but said nothing. Udele made her way to the horsefold where she bridled her favorite gelding. Bats flittered above her, catching flying insects, and though the night was warm, her body gave a shiver.

She wore a tunic and long-sleeved under-tunic, a cæppe to cover her head, and a mantle over the shoulders. Udele scanned the broad valley, saw the shadows of clouds crossing the moon travel over the fields of wheat and barley. She remembered her purpose and hurried. He would be waiting.

Udele led her horse down the track from Ravens Hill, and only mounted when she was well away from the large steading. When she thought it safe, Udele urged the horse into a controlled canter, the road visible in the moonlight. The small hamlet of Déorfald lay but a mile distant and their meeting place was not far from there. Déorfald was a small place with mill, bakehouse, and smithy near cottages with small holdings. The place she and Aloc met secretly lay downstream on a wooded clay bank above where cliff swallows burrowed. The thought of Aloc waiting made her heartrate quicken. He was the miller’s son, tall and handsome, and though not of the thegn class like herself, he would make a fine husband. Her father would come to the same conclusion in time. Poor Aloc fretted over Thegn Wulfrun’s disapproval and sometimes he would despair of ever marrying her. But Udele knew she would have him in time.

Garth Pettersen is an award-winning Canadian writer living in the Fraser Valley near Vancouver, BC, Canada where he and his wife board horses.

Pettersen has a BA in History from the University of Victoria and is a retired teacher. His short stories have appeared in anthologies and in journals such as Blank Spaces, The Spadina Literary Review, and The Opening Line Literary 'Zine.

Garth Pettersen's historical fiction series, The Atheling Chronicles, is published by Tirgearr Publishing and is available through most online outlets. Book #4 in the series, The Sea’s Edge, received a first-place Incipere Award. Book #5, Ravens Hill, was released on April 15, 2025.