Gato by Margaret Elphinstone | Sandstone Press - Contemporary Quality Reading

Gato

Margaret Elphinstone

RRP: £5.95

Historical romance set in the Middle Ages

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Description

An unusual love story set in the Middle Ages, Gato is the story of a young child brought up in a mill. The quiet hardworking lives of the people at the mill are disturbed by the arrival of a wandering Spanish Friar. What is going on between the miller and his wife, and the Friar? The child at the centre of the story tries to understand. The only creatures the child is close to are the mill cats. After the Friar comes, there is always one called Gato, Spanish for ‘cat’. Set in the far past, the people and the places Margaret Elphinstone describes are both real and vivid.

“Sit down. It’s been a busy day. Did you want to see Joan? She’s in the mill, talking to Tom, the merchant’s son. That’s Tom’s cart out there in the yard, with the big dapple grey horses. He came over today with another cart full of grain. The last load of corn he brought has all been ground into flour. Soon we’ll be loading up the sacks of flour for him to take back to the town. But we’ll have our dinner first. We’ll eat as soon as Tom’s finished talking business with Joan, and they come in from the mill.

This is the time of year when everyone comes to the mill. The corn has been harvested, and all the fields are bare. Sometimes the farmers bring their own grain. Often, though, the grain comes from the corn merchant in the town. Tom brings it over in that big cart. Those two horses of Tom’s are twice as tall as my cousin Joan. Tom keeps the horses well groomed. He combs out their manes and tails, and their hairy fetlocks. He polishes their harness until it shines.

Tom looks very fine sitting up there above his horses, driving the huge cart. These days he wears a sprig of blue cornflower in his cap.”