The Wellfields: A novel. Vol. 1 of 3

In a secluded valley where three clear streams feed the land, the ancient White Church under the Hill watches over centuries of pious rites and rugged life. The narrative unfurls the rise of a Cistercian abbey that once dominated the countryside, its grandeur shattered by royal reform and the brutal fall of its proud abbot. From that ruin, the estates pass into the hands of two neighboring gentry families, the Wellfields and the Burnshires, whose union and rivalry shape the village’s destiny.

Against this layered backdrop, the story follows the next generation as old grudges surface and faiths clash—heretical Wellfields versus devout Waddingtons—while new characters arrive, each bearing secrets that echo the valley’s tumultuous past. Early chapters introduce a mysterious “EMS,” a foreign “Frau von Trockenau,” and a diary that hints at hidden motives, all setting the stage for a tangled web of ambition, love, and vengeance that will reverberate through the Wellfields’ estate.