Chapter One

Imagine a flotilla of longships, brilliantly painted and splendidly gilded. The largest features a giant sea monster, a great figurehead that towers up from the prow as if raring not just to ride the waves but to take on the might of the fiercest ocean. For this journey, only the best, most ornate of vessels will do. Loaded with generous provisions of bread, salted meat and wine, as well as chests containing fine linens, silks, brooches, coins and cups of gold and silver, the ships are launched into shallow water. Then a retinue of courtiers wades out to the vessels through the chilly sea, their tunics tucked up into their belts. One of them carefully carries a girl who clutches her cloak tightly around her and stares back at the shore. She is lifted gently into the master ship where she joins several attendant ladies who have already embarked, some under rather wetter circumstances. The crew is anxious to catch the right combination of wind and tide: commands are shouted, a few expletives yelled, and as 150 or so oarsmen swing into action, sails of ochre hues are released, catching a light breeze that sends the ships dancing over the waves. And so Emma sets off from Normandy to marry the King of England.

She has been told that even with the most advantageous southwesterly wind it will take at least three days to reach the coast of Kent. She is prepared for that. But she is apprehensive at seeing the shores of home receding. Losing sight of land emphasises the aching distance between her own country and the alien territory where she must make her future.

Emma is the siste