Norah Lofts
The little tavern seemed abandoned when Paulus and his men arrived; Roman soldiers desperate for food and shelter were grateful for what they found. There was more: a female slave left behind, sick unto death and hidden behind the cellar. Paulus kept her secret from the others and when he was injured as the soldiers moved on, Gilda in turn saved his life.So began the saga of the Gildersons, hosts of the One Bull Inn for fifteen hundred years. From wine shop to ale house to secret club and facing transformation again in the twentieth century, the One Bull saw love and happiness, sacrifice, murder, suicide-and miracles. Next to it stood a chapel where lay the body of an ancient and holy British king. It was said that no one who asked for help in prayer at Cerdic’s tomb came away without their miracle and it was true- though often the miracle was what was truly needed, not what had been requested. Woven together through history, the Inn and the chapel guided the Gildersons’ lives until the day when one final choice had to be made; to dispose of the past or to rebuild it in hope just one more time.
