The Lady of Rhuddesmere

Geraint, the bastard son of the wealthy and vengeful Baron of Wallestoke, is sent into service in the household of the lady of Rhuddesmere. He finds that Rhuddesmere is a poor and isolated estate surrounded by many mysteries. The lady, beautiful and sad, seems preoccupied with the past and with her vision of God. Urien, her crippled son, is a brilliant scholar, bitterly opposed to the lady’s beliefs. There are topics that cannot be discussed and places that cannot be entered. Despite the atmosphere of secrecy, Geraint is content at Rhuddesmere, where he experiences acceptance and affection for the first time. When Urien agrees to teach him to read and write, his happiness seems complete. Yet disquieting signs continue, and in a shattering moment Geraint learns the lady’s dreadful secret. But when he flees, stumbling back to Wallestoke, he discovers something worse: he may have unknowingly exposed the lady and her household to a terrible fate.