I was struck at the time, and haunted afterwards by the image of the river which flowed past the cottage disappearing down the cracks of the limestone slabs and flowing underground. The great underground river and lakes were always there, flowing in the darkness, all we saw on the surface was the high water mark.

My slightly disturbed sense of awe at this comes out in the novel in the scene of the death of Morach.

Bowes Abbey
The ruins of Bowes Abbey which is destroyed by the reformers at the start of the novel are still beside the river today. But the scene of its destruction are fiction. And Barnard Castle can still be seen today but Lord Hugh and Hugo, and all the other characters are fiction.

There is a separate tower inside the keep at Barnard Castle and archaeologists have identified a paved square before it, but they do not know what it was used for. It was very powerful for me when I realised that the tower was a guardroom and I suggested that Alys was held inside its walls. The square area that the historians cannot yet explain, is where I put the stake and the fire. Perhaps that was its use.

In another odd historical note: I invented Morach's spells after doing research on magic and superstition in the period, on natural magic over the centuries,, and from my own slight knowledge of homeopathy. I published the novel and then received a letter from an archaeologist working on remains at a Scottish hospital who was sure that he had recognised the cures that Morach used, and asked me where I had found the recipes! Of course, I owned up to the story being fiction, but it reminded me how close one can come to the truth by research, thoughtful reconstruction, and creative imagination.