It Began with a Goose

Sam Tucker is chased from his village after the geese he was meant to be tending escape. He is unable to tell the truth; that he met a man, Thomas Englestone, threatened him, as no one would believe how they met years earlier. After Sam has fled a childhood friend, Walter, finds him and says that a body was found in the geese enclosure. Unfortunately for Walter, seeing Sam put him in the same situation and he too becomes a fugitive. With the reward offered for their capture – dead or alive - Sam knows the only person who would understand his alibi and prove him innocent has to be found. The two of them have small adventures while coming to terms with having to fend for themselves, but when they learn that Englestone is searching for them to claim the reward for himself, their survival depends on them being very much more careful where they are seen. After an incident in a market square a troupe of jugglers offer them protection and aid their quest. Or do they? Only Sam can make the decision of who to trust and then suspects he is being used by them. Moving on, he and Walter enter a village where Walter is injured and captured by Englestone. Sam is now on his own.During the course of his quest he meets several of England’s most trusted and important noblemen and uses their position to his own ends. His covers include being a story-teller, a falconer, and a messenger, and all the time those he initially trusted are near to him. Ultimately he manages to lose them begins to learn the truth, not only of Thomas Englestone and the body in the geese enclosure, but also a fraud by those close to the king who are using his seal for their own financial gain. Join Sam as he progresses from a lazy unwanted youth to having the ear of King Edward I.