Chapter 1

My name is Mick and I live in the village of Odell, in Bedfordshire, England. I am a wheelwright, like my father before me. He taught me and I learned well. Our little village was prosperous, and life for us was good. My father and I were two of several remaining Nonconformists, and as such, we occasionally still had problems with members of the Church of England.

One night in the spring, there was a rare thunderstorm approaching. We didn’t have a lot of rain in the center of England at this time of the year and a storm like this was very rare, indeed. I lived in a barrow I’d built into the side of a hill after the deaths of my parents from a flux. The shop my father and I had worked in was built into the same barrow next to my dwelling. I was asleep when there was a tremendous flash of lightning and at the same exact time a tremendous clap of thunder that caused the air in my lungs to rattle.

It was so close I feared that it had struck my shop. I opened the door of my barrow to find a shallow indent in the Earth, directly in front of the door, and in that indent was what appeared to be a human body. I approached it, to find a naked, yellow haired body curled up in the mud before my door, I could see breathing so whoever it was, was alive but not conscious.

Moving closer now, I could see the body had breasts and hair between its legs proving that it was a woman, but so slender and slight was she, that had I not seen her womanly features I’d have thought her a faerie.

Not being one to fear magic or daemons, I picked her up, carried her into my barrow, and set her on the hearth, before the fire, wrapping her with a sheepskin to warm her as quickly as possible. I sat back and watched this small, faerie-like, female, entranced by her appearance. She was still asleep in spite of me gazing upon her with great attention. The storm had passed as quickly as it had arose and in the quiet of the night, with the female unmoving still, I lay down in my bed and fell asleep.

When I awoke, the first thing I noticed was the strange female had not seemed to have moved. I watched her laying where I had placed her before the hearth. Without moving to reveal myself, I also saw that she was watching me from under the sheepskin. Her deep silver-blue eyes were looking at me like she could see things others could not.

The fire in the hearth was burning bright, so I assumed that she had moved to either stoke it or add wood to keep warm during the night while I slept. I stirred to let her know I was awake, and she completely uncovered her head and smiled.

“Good morning,” she said, her voice was high-pitched, soft, and alluring.

“Good morning to you. Are you well?” I tried to keep my voice calm, as well as quiet.

“I am. My name is Angel. Are you Mick? Am I in Odell?”

“I am Mick and you are in Odell. How do you know my name and how did you come to be here?”

“I can’t tell you. All I can tell you is that I was sent to be with you.”

“Sent? Sent by who?”

“I can’t tell you. All I may say is that I am to be your woman and stay with you and be mother to your sons. Would you please kiss me?”

Angel stood with her sheepskin falling away and uncovering her. She stepped to me, while I was stunned by her nakedness and her lack of inhibition, and took my head into her hands. Our lips touched and she moved her tongue along my lips. I felt a slight tingle shoot from my lips to my toes and felt a bit faint, so I took her in my arms to steady myself.

“Allow me to come to bed with you, husband. We have a family to start.”

I refused her.

“I can’t do that, not with you appearing as you did. Are you a witch? A faerie? These are things I need to know.”

“I understand. I was told this might be the case. Very well, Mick of Odell, I will live with you and work with you and be seen with you. In time you will see that I am no witch, nor am I Fae. I am merely a woman who has been sent to be yours.”

That is how I found myself living with a woman, other than my mother, for the first time. Angel was true to her word. She lived and worked with me for months. The other people in the village became familiar with her. When she was asked about her age or from where she came, her answer was always, “I cannot say.”

At first, I took it to mean that she didn’t know and, therefore, could not speak of it. Over time I came to understand that she knew the answers very well but was prohibited from speaking of it. I had my doubts about her and decided one morning to try to allay my concerns. I rose before the sun and walked the few miles into the local wood to speak to the local priestess, Diana.

Coming to the glade where she lived I called out, “Good day, Diana. I seek your counsel.”

She appeared from behind a tree and walked towards me.

“What counsel do you need of me, Mick of Odell? You are a craftsman, well honored and trusted.”

“A woman came to me, she told me her name was Angel and that she had been sent to me to be my wife and bear my sons.”

“You are an unmarried man and one that is most desirable.”

“She appeared in a bolt of lightning.”

The Priestess straightened up and tipped her head a bit to the side.