Gideon Lennox

Gideon Lennox was brought up as part of the Anglo-Scots community in London. 

These were Scotsmen who settled in the English capital in some numbers following the accession of King James to the English throne. However, the old feuding enmity between England and Scotland which had cost both sides many lives and much misery over the centuries, meant they were not warmly welcomed and faced much prejudice from the locals.

Gideon’s father, Archibald Lennox, was a Presbyterian minister from Linlithgow and his mother the orphaned daughter of a London goldsmith. 

From his father, Gideon learned that truth and justice matter and to be honest in his dealings. From his mother, he learned that compassion and kindness matter just as much and to be merciful is better than to be vengeful.

His parent’s marriage was not a happy one, their incompatible natures were made worse by the fact that his father was three decades older than his mother. 

Career choices limited by paternal decree, Gideon spent a year studying Theology at Oxford. But then he was freed by his father’s death to take up the study of law at the Courts of Chancery in London. That made his mother proud but sadly she died of a wasting illness soon after he completed his studies there.

Determined to succeed, Gideon managed to build himself the basis of a successful legal career. But these were troubled times, and he had to navigate a careful route through the rocky shoals of incendiary politics that dominated London in those years. 

It was a particularly hard time for a man bearing a Scottish name when the Scots invaded and occupied parts of northern England as King Charles attempted to impose the Anglican form of worship on his Scottish people. 

Perhaps it is understandable with such pressures all around, that Gideon accepted the offer of well-paid employment in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where the coal cartel, known as the Hostmen, were seeking possible means of legal redress for their losses in the recent Scottish occupation. In addition to good money, it offered a welcome escape from the hot-house of London politics.

But things were little better in Newcastle. Gideon’s natural honesty led him to find fault with their case and their dealings. His employment was terminated without the promised pay and with the threat that their bad report of him could have a devastating effect on his career back in London.

So when he was offered a straightforward job in County Durham which paid well, he saw it as a chance to redeem his fortunes. Surely a godsend. 

Now all Sir Bartholomew Coupland wishes him to do is to find a man and deliver him a message. Yes, the man might be a notorious mercenary commander who is also an attainted traitor, but how hard can it be?

Gideon is feeling confident as he walks into an alehouse to try and find the man he seeks – Philip Lord…