Rage and Regret

The year is 1865, and Isabella Warpole (18F) has been mistress of Highacre Hall for two years following her mother’s death. Her path toward marrying a young heir from another wealthy family appears uninterrupted until one day, an accident at a mill in the neighboring town puts her own family in danger. From that time on, Isabella and her father engage in a battle to take over the mill and determine the town’s future, and their own. The battle creates fissures between the Warpoles and the parish’s other powerful families, including Isabella’s resentful uncle, and causes Isabella to draw upon strengths and cunning that she did not know she possessed. It brings her closer to her cousin, Arthur, despite the fact that he plans to become a doctor and she fears and loathes medicine to her core. It also forces Isabella to confront her inner darkness, including a tragedy of her own making that she has been trying to forget.