Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm & Mylte from Aaron Manky.

Listener discretion is advised.

In the early hours of the morning on Good Friday in 1817, when the streets were still dark,

but the faintest glow of sunrise was just appearing on the horizon.

A strange woman wandered into the village of Almensbury to the northeast of Bristol.

She wore strange, mixed-matched clothes, a heavy black stuff dressed with a full fringe at her neck,

a red and black shawl, a large black turban covering her dark hair.

She looked tired, but still her big brown eyes were pretty and bright.

She had very, very white teeth.

A cobbler happened to be outside at dawn and he saw the woman, or was she a girl,

strolling up the main road. He stared at her while she came closer.

And then, to his astonishment, she continued to come closer to approach him.

A beggar, he thought, a pretty beggar, but a beggar nonetheless.

He waited to hear her appeal for money, but it didn't come.

The woman just looked at him and then dressed her towards her stomach and her mouth.

She said something, but it was in a language he didn't understand.

He sighed, it was a stranger and she was hungry. The least he could do was offer her some food.

He invited the woman into his home. By this time his wife was awake, and the cobbler explained

the situation. The cobbler's wife found some bread and milk, which the stranger ate

hungrily, as if she hadn't eaten in days. The cobbler and his wife watched her as she drained

the cup of milk and returned the cup to the table with a satisfied lips smack.

She thanked them, at least it seemed like she thanked them in whatever foreign language she spoke.

...