Where Did the Bone Man Come From?

It seems a very odd idea--a man in a bone fortress who the warriors use for target practice after dinner by pitching their leftovers in his direction. Did I make this up? No, reader reader, to be honest I made up very little when writing Courting Trouble. Helmstan's story is part of the history / mythology that was circulating in 802 Wessex. As I researched the period I came up with many gems like this one, and I wove them into a tale grounded in the history of this place and time. Helmstan's plight was a way for me to get the idea of the depravity and barbarism of Beorhtric's court across to readers. Egbert's "rescue" of Helmstan also gave an interloper to Court a vehicle to show off how macho he is--or was he acting out of altruism? You'll have to decide that for yourself--

Meet Egbert

The heroine, who has climbed a tree looking for her lost dog, sees a strange encampment hidden in the forest. This is her first impression of Egbert, a character in Courting Trouble.

. . . a tall warrior stepped out. I don’t know what it was about him, but I think I stopped breathing. The servants went about their tasks with increased diligence. There was nothing soft about the man. His muscular frame was covered from shoulder to waist by a shirt made of shiny metal rings. Below that you could see the points of the leather shirt he wore beneath. He wore no helmet. The angles of his cheekbones seemed to provide their own protection. Were his eyes narrow, or was he squinting in the sun? The light glinted off the gold hilt of his sword, and I sensed danger in a primordial way, like a hare smelling a fox. I wondered how many women he had ravished, how many men he had killed.