Throckmorton: A Novel

In a tucked‑away corner of Virginia, the Severn neighborhood clings to a timeless stillness. Its weather‑worn bricks, imported from green England centuries ago, form a moss‑draped church that watches over rolling, fertile fields and brackish estuaries. The community moves at a measured pace, its residents bound by familiar roles—law, medicine, divinity—while the surrounding oaks and willows whisper of a slower, more intimate world.

At the heart of this quiet parish stands the Rev. Edmund Morford, a strikingly handsome preacher whose eloquence masks a restless self‑consciousness. He navigates the delicate balance between his own vanity, his fear of the clever women who surround him, and the lingering allure of the Temple family’s widowed daughter‑in‑law, Beverley, and her sister Judith. Their presence hints at subtle flirtations and unspoken tensions that promise to stir the calm of Severn’s otherwise placid life.