Fortune's Wheel

By Carolyn Hughes

First published November 2016

How do you recover when half your neighbours are dead from history’s cruellest plague?
June 1349. In Meonbridge, a Hampshire manor, the worst plague in England’s history has wiped out half its population, among them Alice atte Wode’s husband and Eleanor Titherige’s entire family. Even the household of the manor’s lord and his wife, Margaret de Bohun, have not escaped the horror.
Now the plague has finally left Meonbridge, the community is trying to return to normal life. But it’s a struggle, with so much to do and so few left to do it. Tensions mount between the de Bohuns and their tenants, as the workers realise their scarceness means they can demand higher wages, go wherever they wish, dictate their own lives. It’s what they’ve so long waited for!
Though his lordship takes a very different view…
When the tensions deepen into violence and disorder, and the men – lord and villagers alike – seem unable to achieve any resolution, the women – Alice, Eleanor and Margaret – must step forward to find the way out of the conflict that is tearing Meonbridge apart.