England’s New Forest is a place of mystery, myth and legend. Witchcraft, smuggling, poaching and treachery run through the bloodlines of Rutherfurd’s characters – well-born ladies, lowly woodsmen, sailors and monks, merchant families and proud nobles. There are great deeds and small, cruel laws, the dangers of the Armada and the elegance of the Georgian period.  All these events and people – and more – affect the ancient life of the Forest.