Briarly

The very name informs the reader this is going to be a tangled story of lives entwined, of personalities thwarted and divided, of spirits crushed and broken only to pull free from their tormentors. And, in the fullness of time their very tormentors could become the saviours they so desperately need... Crevisham is a quaint small village but no Eden exists without its serpent and Crevisham's comes in the form of Ellis Golding - a man with an axe to grind over past deals which he believes has left him penniless. The now in the story is the 1800s a time when isolated communities existed all over England. Although he has a wife Ellis is more than happy to have a dalliance with beautiful Cordelia Deane who lives in the Briarly of the title caring for her ailing grandfather. And to start with Cordelia is more than happy to while away an hour or two's boredom with this handsome dark angel.... Then a new man enters the scene and suddenly Cordelia's head is turned by the attractive and talented Jed Loggins - come to visit his Great Uncle Diggory. As different from Ellis as chalk is from cheese she believes he is her vision for the future - her knight in shining armour set to whisk her away from all this.... Tragedy, however, seeks to stop Ellis and teach him the errors of his ways and as he recovers from this he finds the calling of a different path. Cordelia meanwhile rushes on with her plan to trap the newcomer, failing to see that Jed harbours a dark and dangerous secret - one that he will hardly admit even to himself. And in the end, it is this very secret that rises up to destroy all Cordelia's new-found happiness and push her back back back on to a much travelled path from her past......