The old Suffolk country house of Nethergate provided a welcome refuge for young Isabella de Savigny, fleeing from the terror of revolutionary France. But she was treated with subtle cruelty by Lady Rosaleen Franklin and despised by Martha Pratt, the lady's maid, when she allowed herself to be seduced and abandoned by the son of the house. Utterly at Lady Rosaleen's mercy, Isabella was forced into a loveless marriage with Martha's brother George, a heartless one-armed soldier just back from the wars.
