The beautiful house was built for a pirate rewarded by Good Queen Bess for the plunder that he brought home. But tragedy was born within its walls before Thomas Rowhedge even took possession and its memory remained in an icy
atmosphere of despair by the window seat in the hall.

It was home to a witch who could charm animals and a ghost who challenged everything but true love. It was filled with hope and heartbreak for four hundred years. It saw the passing of the Civil War and the restoration of the King. It became rich with an Indian Nabob and poor with a 20th century innkeeper. It tested every soul that entered it and gave no quarter to those it found wanting.

The house was Merravay and it would always call back its own to try and complete the dance of love broken so cruelly as soon as its cornerstone was laid.

**

About the Author

Norah Lofts was one of the best-known and best-loved of all historical novelists, known for her authentic application of period detail to all her books. She was a bestselling author on both sides of the Atlantic.

She was born in Norfolk and taught English and History at a girls’ school before turning to writing full time in 1936. Her passion for old houses and their continuing history sparked off her much-praised Suffolk trilogy, The Town House, The House at Old Vine and The House at Sunset. These were followed by the bestselling The Concubine, The King’s Pleasure, a novel about the life of Katharine of Aragon and Eleanor the Queen a novel about the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Lofts wrote more than 50 books, including historical non-fiction and short stories.

Sir Godfrey Tallboys: A knight-errant at the top of his profession and with little thought beyond the next tourney. A long way from being wealthy but in need of a house for his pretty young wife.

Lady Sybilla Tallboys: A loving wife, tolerant of her husband’s shortcomings—and with a strong desire for a home where she could raise their four children instead of relying on the charity of relatives.

Forethought was rare for Sir Godfrey but he decided to build a house even though it took the last of his money. A magnificent tourney in Spain would make his fortune so, leaving England, he went off to fight.

But tourney turned to treachery and at home he was reported dead. It fell to Sybilla to fend for herself and her children in the hope that, one day, Sir Godfrey would return.

When his ship docked, unexpectedly, in Yarmouth, sailor Arthur Tresize’s life was transformed into a surreal-seeming fairy story of unexpected wealth, a cursed piece of land and whispers of witchcraft.

Buying up the disused land of the monks at Ockley in Suffolk, he built himself a house from the remnants of the old ruined Priory and settled down to raise a family. But the magic and suffering imbued in the stones of the house were not finished with the Tresize family yet.

Norah Lofts revisits her fictional town of Baildon and its surroundings, adding the Old Priory into the histories of Ockley, Clevely, Layer Wood, Muchanger and Merravay. Over the next sixty years the fortunes of the Tresize family mirror the story of the house they lived in, its growth, its decay, the tragedies lived out within its walls and—finally— resolution.

When Daisy Holt is dismissed from her post as a nursemaid she sets off cheerfully into the jungle of mid-Victorian London to make her fortune. Kitty Hammond, proprietress of the 'select establishment' off Leicester Square discovers her and is quick to realise that Daisy’s radiant beauty and talent as a dancer would make her a useful attraction in her ‘respectable’ brothel. 

There it is that Daisy meets the impoverished artist John Skelton. To him she represents the perfect model—his muse. But Daisy falls completely and hopelessly in love with John—a love which will launch her on a stormy career in which luxury, admiration, ruin and suffering all play a part in bringing her to the edge of despair. In the end, with two illegitimate children to care for, her lover lost and a bully controlling her life, she has to leave her tender heart behind in the battle for survival.

New and brutal Norman overlords have turned the world upside-down in Eleventh century England. Eitel, the Lord of Bradwald, is dead in battle and one of King William’s armourers is now in charge; Rolf, a man inexperienced in ruling others and uncertain of his way. When Madselin, the young and proud widow of Eitel comes as a penitent asking to bury her husband’s body, Rolf sees an opportunity to ease his path. If Madselin becomes his wife, she can speak to the people in their language and teach them to obey.

Betrayal, cruelty, unexpected kindnesses and hope pave the way for a future where Normans and Saxons can live together in peace but the road is long, rocky and fraught with difficulties.

When wealthy Penelope Mercer fell in love she would not take no for an answer. So, Adam Woodley, a simple pargeter, who had created the decorations for her father’s new house, was to become her husband. A pragmatic man, he had nothing to lose as the love of his own life had died. This unconventional marriage produced a son and a daughter and it was Sarah Woodley-Mercer who inherited both her mother’s determination and her father’s practical abilities.

She would need both—and more—to survive the aftermath of the English Civil War when, abandoned by her brother, she in turn must marry for expediency in order to stay in her beloved home and protect her people. Can Sarah’s unflinching courage through a bitterly unhappy marriage hold the little household together throughout the years of Cromwell’s rule? And with the restoration of the Monarchy, can she restore her family’s fortunes—and finally experience the love she has been praying for?