Although born and bred in the cosy hamlet of Sommerville Brook, it is not until Honeysuckle Bell is orphaned, in eighteen-thirty-six, at the age of twelve that she begins to realise how her late parents spent their entire lives as unwelcome tenants and were constantly ostracised by their hamlet neighbours.
On becoming Honeysuckle's guardian, Ruth Waldron seizes the opportunity to satisfy her vengeance, which has been eating away at her over the...