Jenny Overton's 'Creed Country' Quiz

Answer: Vases

Stephen is a quiet, serious loner and his mother worries about him not making friends. He knows Simon and David Wentworth from school and that they are Catholic and have other siblings, and moved to Linacre, a big house in the village of Mays, a few months ago (the book is set in a fictional part of Surrey). Mrs Carey asks him to take some brass vases to the church as his grandmother is doing the altar flowers, and Stephen is annoyed because he is working on a transcription of a document from a collection of papers belonging to the Creeds, a local family.

William Creed, the Earl of Stane, founded the church and was also a vicar there, and was buried in the church graveyard. He had also built up a collection of letters, diaries and other papers from the Creed family. As Stephen explains to Sarah, he had died without any heirs and asked that all his papers be given to the church. He had been planning on writing a family history and had been transcribing the papers, but died before he could complete it, and Stephen has taken on the task. He is particularly interested in a series of papers from the Reformation era.

Answer: 6

The Wentworths are a large and argumentative family who have moved to Surrey from Cumberland, a historic county in the north of England. There are eight Wentworth children: Nicholas, Theo, David, Anne, Sarah, Veronica, Simon and Monica (who is based on Jenny Overton's little sister). Nicholas is in Ireland and Theo is at university, and the other six are visiting the church with their mother. Stephen finds Sarah sitting in the graveyard because she has had a row with the rest of her family, mainly Veronica - the most volatile of the children - and Anne.

They talk about William Creed's headstone and Stephen takes Sarah to see the Creed papers.

Answer: Jacoba

Jacoba Creed is the great grand-daughter of Brook Creed, one of the five siblings from the English Civil War era, and the daughter of Thomas Creed, the Rector of the village of Mays. She comes from a Puritan family and is very religious. Jennet, her cousin, lives at Linacre, where the Wentworths now live, and is engaged to a Scottish man called Alexander Innes. Her cousin Charles comes to visit and kisses her, and gets her into trouble with her father. Charles marries a woman called Magdalena Lucas, whose family are allies of the Creeds (much to Sarah's disappointment, as she was hoping Jacoba and Charles would get together), while Jacoba marries Joshua Pierce; Thomas hopes that the marriage will cure her of her 'giddiness'.

We also learn that Brook was the younger brother of Gilles, the Earl of Stane, and had two other brothers, Anthony - the black sheep of the family, who Thomas Creed had forbidden his family to talk about, and Jennet's great-grandfather - and Quentin, a Catholic priest and recusant, and a sister, Katharine. Jennet later names her son after Anthony.

Answer: Anthony

While Stephen is cold and pragmatic, Sarah is more of a romantic thinker and takes an interest in Anthony, seeing him as an exciting rebellious figure and admiring him for committing suicide, even though it is a mortal sin in Catholicism. Stephen sees history in a more detached manner, while Sarah likes stories. However, although Stephen does not want to admit it, Katharine is his 'favourite' Creed and he even dreams about her. Sarah also believes Anthony helped shelter Quentin from the authorities, though she turns out to be very, very wrong later.

A letter from Master Richard, the Creed siblings' tutor, mentions Anthony being badly behaved and a bad influence on Quentin, often daring him to do dangerous things. In one incident, he dares Quentin to climb the bell tower and both boys are spotted, and beaten when they come down.

Answer: Falconry

Katharine mentions falconry in her letters; she has a falcon called Lux and writes a letter to Gilles thanking him for a hood he sent for her falcon. When she is dying, she bequeaths Lux to Gilles. Stephen and Sarah visit the tomb of Ralph Creed, the father of Gilles, Brook, Anthony, Quentin and Katharine, and see several statues standing around the tomb. One of them is a small figure of a girl with a falcon on her wrist, which Stephen believes is Katharine.

Answer: She falls down a pothole in the river

On the way back from the outdoor pool, Veronica paddles in the river while she waits for Stephen and Sarah to catch up. She is angry with Sarah for spending all her time with Stephen. Stephen and Sarah arrive and Stephen shouts to Veronica, but she doesn't hear him and walks into a pothole, and falls in. Anne is scared of water and unable to dive in, so David and Stephen go into into the water and David drags her out. Stephen points out that swimming in the river is not permitted and there is a sign saying as much, which annoys Simon.

Answer: A tombstone with a Latin poem on it

Monica has been in touch with the local bishop and asked if the new Catholic church can be built on Spur Hill, as the ruins of the Creed chapel are there. Stephen and Sarah have found writing on the pillars, including a reference to treasure, and after Veronica is put to bed, the other Wentworths and Stephen go to look around the ruins. David finds a stone and after some digging, realises it is a gravestone and has a Latin inscription on it which begins with 'Hic jacet Katharina' ('here lies Katharine').

This inscription turns out to be a poem about Katharine, which makes references to the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes. David translates it into English.

Answer: True

Veronica, Monica and Simon go to the bell tower with Stephen and Sarah at Mrs Wentworth's suggestion, and Monica insists on climbing the tower while Stephen visits the museum. Sarah tries to stop her, but Monica ignores her. Veronica calls out to her when she sees her on the steps and Monica gets stuck. Sarah decides to copy Anthony and climb the tower after her, and sends Simon to get Stephen, but Stephen goes to get help because he thinks it's too dangerous for Sarah and Monica to come down by themselves. The curator of the museum and a few other men come to get the girls down and the curator scolds them.

The Wentworths then have to tell their parents, Anne and David the story and Mr Wentworth is angry, with Monica for risking her life, Sarah for trying to play the hero, Veronica for shouting and distracting Monica, and Simon for arguing. Anne tries to comfort Veronica, but Veronica lashes out and tells her she hates her.

Answer: Quentin's trial and execution

John Venn, aka John Benn, is the steward of Robert, Gilles' grandson and the Lord Stane of the time. At Robert's request, he writes a diary of Quentin's arrest and subsequent trial. Quentin is arrested and imprisoned, and cannot be taken to London as he is too ill to travel. Instead, he is imprisoned and tried in the nearby town of Ede; when Venn begs him to recant his faith, he refuses and asks for a message to be sent to Anthony, the only other surviving Creed sibling. He also admits that Katharine died a Catholic and is buried in the same chapel where Quentin hid. Quentin is hanged in Ede and Venn witnesses the execution. Quentin's body is buried under the common highway, as the bishop does not want him buried at the local abbey.

Venn's letter also makes a reference to the 'mark of Cain' being upon Anthony. Sarah realises that Anthony betrayed Quentin and then killed himself out of guilt.

Answer: She told Anne about the Creed letters

Sarah tells Anne about Anthony and Quentin, although she doesn't name names. Anne is the most religious of the Wentworths and wants to be a nun, which is a major source of conflict between her and Veronica. They discuss religion and suicide. Sarah then goes to tell Stephen that permission has been granted to build the new Catholic church on the chapel site, but he is distracted because he is working on a letter from Gilles exhorting Anthony to come home because Katharine is dying.

An argument breaks out when Sarah accuses Stephen of turning Katharine into a character instead of treating her like a real person, and Stephen says that Sarah does the same with Anthony and gives her John Venn's letter to read, which reveals that Anthony betrayed his brother. Stephen accuses Sarah of not having enough conviction and Sarah lets it slip that Anne said the same thing, and Stephen is angry with her for telling Anne, as he didn't want other people knowing about his project.

Later, while Anne, Sarah and Monica are watching the diggers at Spur Hill, Stephen tells Sarah that Anthony refused the reward for handing Quentin over, that Anthony hanged himself, and that he left Linacre to his grandson Richard. He had also mentioned something that needed to be kept safe.

Answer: Where'er You Walk

Veronica enters Sarah in a music contest, much to her annoyance; Veronica plays the piano and wants Sarah to sing while she accompanies her, and picks 'Where'er You Walk'. Simon, a choirboy, is singing in an earlier session and sings 'Feste's Song' from 'Twelfth Night' a cappella, and is one of the winners of his class.

When Sarah and Veronica are called up, Sarah sings badly and makes several mistakes, and then discovers that she and Veronica have to perform a test piece. Sarah is angry with Veronica for not telling her. Sarah has an episode of stage fright and cannot sing, and she and Veronica are disqualified. Veronica is furious with Sarah and Sarah has to leave her to calm down.

Answer: To tell them about Anthony and Quentin Creed's bones

While Veronica is in the toilet, Sarah reads a local newspaper and sees an article about human bones being found in the Linner Valley by contractors who are working on a new road. She figures out that Linner Valley, which is near Linacre, is where the old highway was, and that the bones must be Anthony's and/or Quentin's bones.

After the contest, she leaves Veronica to calm down and goes to the police station to inform the police about the bones and talk to a pathologist. The pathologist is interested in Tudor history and reveals that parts of two skeletons were found. Sarah gives a statement to the police.

Answer: False

Simon qualifies for the final and is awarded a training grant, but says he isn't supposed to accept it because he is already on a scholarship. He also appears in the newspaper, much to his annoyance. Veronica resents Simon because he cares far less about the contest than she did, and because a couple of girls in her class also won prizes. (Marie-France Gazielly, one of the winners, appears in the sequel, 'The Nightwatch Winter'.)

Answer: Anne

Veronica goes down to the river and Anne passes by, offering her a lift, but Veronica refuses. When Anne is driving back, a child runs in front of her car and she tries to swerve, but hits him and accidentally drives off the bridge and into the river. Veronica gets a lift home and orders Sarah to call the police. The driver takes David and Veronica to the river and David and a group of men help get Anne out of the wrecked car. Anne survives, but has to be taken to hospital with Sarah accompanying her, while David is in a state of shock. The boy also survives the accident.

Anne has nightmares in hospital and when she is discharged, she still has trouble sleeping. She wakes Veronica up one night and the two girls go down to the kitchen to talk. Anne admits that she is still undecided about whether she really wants to be a nun, and she and Veronica end up talking into the early hours. Even though Veronica is exhausted, she stays up because she is relieved that Anne is finally talking to her.

Answer: A chalice

David, Sarah, Veronica, Monica and Simon attend the ceremony and Simon sings. David and Sarah lift the gravestone and Father Lawrence notices a wedge between the coffin and the grave wall, and Sarah takes it out to make space for the box containing the bones. Veronica realises the wedge is a package and opens it, and David notices that it contains a chalice. Sarah realises that the chalice must have belonged to Quentin and he hid it in Katharine's grave for safekeeping. It also contains a small box for the sacrament.

Stephen translates Gilles Creed's letter to his grandmother, Lady Margaret de Roos, informing her of Katharine's death. When Christmas arrives and Theo and Nicholas come home to visit, Stephen sends Sarah a Christmas card. He goes for a walk on Spur Hill and runs into the Wentworths, who have returned from Mass; Father Lawrence had mentioned Anthony, Quentin and Katharine Creed in the list of people to pray for. Stephen and Sarah make up and discuss putting the Creed papers into a book.