New Release – Shadows in the Spring

Christina here and I’m delighted to report that the second of my Roman dual time stories, SHADOWS IN THE SPRING is finally out! It’s a sequel to SHADOWS IN THE ASHES (but can be read as a standalone), and features another former gladiator, Durobelinos or Duro for short. In the first book he was the hero Raedwald’s best friend and the two of them escaped enslavement in Pompeii during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Now he is back in his native Britannia and he has only two things on his mind – being reunited with his family and vengeance on those who captured him all those years ago.

It is also the present-day story of Mackenna Jackson, who is nursing a broken heart thanks to rockstar Blue Daniels. Luckily his former bandmate Jonah Miller is on hand to console her, although she doesn’t know he’s in love with her. Together, they explore Bath, but memories they can’t quite explain flood them both. Could it be a love enduring through millennia or just an illusion?

This was a book I loved writing, and the research for it was easy as it was all mostly based in the UK. There are so many wonderful Roman sites in this country, and plenty of museums with Roman artefacts (see my research posts here, here and here). The British Museum in London, for example, has an extensive collection of Roman items and some of the most amazing treasure hoards ever found from this period permanently on display. There are staggering amounts of silver, as in the Mildenhall Treasure hoard. This plate/dish alone weighed over eight kilos! But my hero doesn’t own anything like that – he’s happy with far less luxury.

In SHADOWS IN THE SPRING Duro returns to his homeland, Britannia, after nineteen years as a Roman slave and gladiator in Pompeii. He’s sick of the Roman yoke and more than ready to be a free man again. He’s hoping to be reunited with his kin, a part of the Iceni tribe (they lived roughly in present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire). Family was very important to the native Britons. They lived in groups with their extended family and each tribe was really just a larger kin-group ruled by a king or sometimes a queen. Children were cherished and everyone shared everything with all the other members of their tribe.

Duro has become used to living in Roman buildings, which were far more advanced than the roundhouses the Britons inhabited. But he’s determined to return to his roots. Unlike his friend Raedwald who has bought a Roman villa complex, Duro wants to live like his ancestors. If roundhouses were good enough for them, they are perfect for him as well, he reasons. He’s delighted to be back in a country where the weather isn’t stiflingly hot, and where everything is as he remembers. It’s something he’s been dreaming of for many years. Here’s a short extract showing his home-coming:-

‘So you were a gladiator? For seven years? How on earth did you survive that long? I’ve heard tell most of them only last a fight or two.’

Maerica’s mouth hung open in awe as she handed Duro a steaming bowl of stew. He accepted it with thanks and breathed in the familiar smell, which brought back so many memories. How he’d missed this. The simple home-cooked foods of his childhood served in a plain bowl – none of that fancy Samian ware they’d used in Pompeii. Cooked with butter rather than olive oil, and served with beer, not wine. No unnecessary spices and strange ingredients either.

Best of all, he could eat whatever he fancied now, although he always made sure not to overdo it. As a gladiator, he’d been on a strict diet – usually consisting mainly of cereals and pulses – to complement the daily training. It was only when he and Raedwald had been out and about in the town of Pompeii that they’d been able to partake of other dishes.

Sitting by the fire inside a cosy roundhouse with his family and tribe members around him. Talking, laughing, sharing the ups and downs of rural life. Something inside him loosened, as if the tight hold he’d had on his emotions ever since his capture at the age of eight could finally be set free. He exhaled and allowed his body to relax.

‘I did my best to win every fight and I trained hard,’ he told Maerica. ‘Also, I had a very good friend, Raedwald. We sparred with each other and made sure we were both in the best shape for every bout. We made a pact as soon as we met to try and escape or buy our freedom, and we worked towards that goal with fierce determination.’ He shrugged. ‘And here I am.’

‘Did you have to fight with lions?’ a little boy piped up, his eyes alight with curiosity.

Duro laughed. ‘No, never. I was the kind of gladiator who fought other men, not animals. We wore special armour and each of us had different types of weapons. The aim was to battle someone unlike yourself, thereby making it more interesting for the audience.’ And more gory, but he didn’t add that as there was no point frightening the child.

‘But you have seen a lion? They exist?’ the little boy persisted.

His mother tried to shush him, as if he was being impertinent, but Duro didn’t mind. He would have been the same at that age, thirsting for knowledge.

‘I have and they do. You’d be surprised at the variety of animals the Romans kill in their arenas.’ He went on to describe some of them, although they didn’t have names in his native Brythonic language. The little boy – and everyone else – hung on his every word. This must be what it was like to be an itinerant bard, he thought, keeping his audience spellbound. He remembered evenings sitting around this very hearth as a child, listening to epic tales of long-dead heroes and their incredible deeds. They’d been told in rhyming verse or sung to the accompaniment of a lyre, the boastful stories conjuring vivid images in the listeners’ minds.

‘Are you sure you are telling the truth? It all sounds unlikely to me,’ his brother Commios sneered.

Duro gave him a tight smile. ‘I can always arrange for you to go and fight there yourself, then you’ll see that I’m not lying.’

Commios sent him a glare. ‘No thank you. One gladiator in the family is more than enough.’

‘Yes, well, it’s not as if I had much of a choice,’ Duro replied with asperity, glowering right back. Did his brother think he’d enjoyed his time away from home? That couldn’t be further from the truth.

He stood up abruptly, taking a couple of breaths to calm down. His brother was annoying him, but he didn’t want to fight. ‘If there is somewhere I can bed down for the night, I think I’ll retire now.’ He looked to Maerica, who indicated a bench at the back of the roundhouse.

‘That one is free. Sleep well, dear boy. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have you home.’ She patted him on the cheek, as if he was a child. He let her, because it was nice that someone appreciated his presence.

Unlike some others.

SHADOWS IN THE SPRING is available now in ebook and paperback. The audio version will be out on 1^st May. Please leave a comment below for a chance to win a giveaway – a signed copy of the book.

Have you ever been away from your homeland for any length of time and, if so, how did you feel upon your return? Do you agree that home is best?