'A ripping tale set in the year of 1210. Full of colour and detail'
Daily Telegraph

The thirteenth-century is just begun and King John has fallen out with the Pope, leaving babies to lie unbaptized in their cradles and corpses in unconsecrated ground. Across a fear-ravaged England, the people are dying in sin.

And into the Norfolk village of Gastmere comes a new Lord of the Manor - the cruel and blood-thirsty Osborn, not long returned from crusading. Spying treachery at every turn, he is prepared on the slightest pretext to damn anyone to hell and the scaffold.

So when Elena, a servant girl, is falsely accused of murdering her child she is convinced her life will be forfeit. But there are others who will defy Osborn's brutal regime to save a girl who once took part in the secrets and strange rituals of the manor . . .