The Tide Mill
The setting is feudal Sussex in the thirteenth century, a landscape and society that have changed almost beyond recognition. The power of the Church is at its zenith, and the bishop of Alincester is one of the richest men in England. He derives income from the watermills in his diocese: the forces of wind and rain are held to be divine.
Approx. 125,112 words.
were like nothing on land. Even its plants, its samphire, sea-lavender and sea-purslane, even they disdained the loam and rain that ordinary plants held dear and throve on salt and submersion.
Now the tide was flooding again, nearing its height. Ralf paused to inspect the sky. When he looked north, back towards the village, it appeared darker than over the sea. The wind was from the south-east. He decided it would not rain heavily after all.
The path along the top of the dike was well worn but narrow, hemmed in by stems of milfoil and sea-aster which hindered his legs as he passed. To his right, beyond the course of the borrowdike at the base of the slope, the grazing had given way to reed-scrub. To his left lay the broad saltmarsh which edged the harbour; ahead rose the shingle of the beach.
A heron hoisted itself from the borrowdike, laboured into the wind and out towards the water.
Had his gaze not idly followed it, Ralf might never have noticed that someone was in the saltings
