When Olena, nubile and much-appreciated guest at the secretive flagellant community that is the Private House, is kidnapped, Supreme Mistress Jem Darke and her lover Julia, chief of the guards, are unusually at a loss as to what to do. But Talia, the fey, submissive but resourceful leader of the forest people, who live a bucolic but perverted life on the House's large estate, has evidence that leads to Madame la Patronne, Jem's rival in the arts of...