The first in a page-turning historical series about survival, love, and family loyalty.
England, 1665. It is five years since King Charles II returned from exile, the scars of the Civil Wars are yet to heal and now the Great Plague engulfs the land. Alethea Hawthorne is safe inside the walls of the Calverton household as a lady's companion waiting in anticipation of the day she can return to her ancestral home of Measham Hall.
But when Alethea suddenly finds herself cast out on the plague-ridden streets of London, a long road to Derbyshire lies ahead. Militias have closed their boroughs off to outsiders for fear of contamination.
Fortune smiles on her when Jack appears, an unlikely travelling companion who helps this determined girl to navigate a perilous new world of religious dissenters, charlatans and a pestilence that afflicts peasants and lords alike…
'It's rare for a historical novel to feel so timely.' - JO BAKER, Sunday Times bestselling author of Longbourn
'Impeccably researched and wonderfully atmospheric, with a heroine you can't help rooting for.' - FRANCES QUINN, author of The Smallest Man
'Exciting and immersive. It took me straight into the heart of Restoration England in all its rich and vivid detail. I was gripped!' - NICOLA CORNICK, international bestselling author of House of Shadows