The Lady of Rhuddesmere

by Victoria Strauss

Geraint, the bastard son of the wealthy and vengeful Baron of Wallestoke, is sent into service in the household of the lady of Rhuddesmere. He finds that Rhuddesmere is a poor and isolated estate surrounded by many mysteries. The lady, beautiful and sad, seems preoccupied with the past and with her vision of God. Urien, her crippled son, is a brilliant scholar, bitterly opposed to the lady’s beliefs. There are topics that cannot be discussed and places that cannot be entered.

Despite the atmosphere of secrecy, Geraint is content at Rhuddesmere, where he experiences acceptance and affection for the first time. When Urien agrees to teach him to read and write, his happiness seems complete.

Yet disquieting signs continue, and in a shattering moment Geraint learns the lady’s dreadful secret. But when he flees, stumbling back to Wallestoke, he discovers something worse: he may have unknowingly exposed the lady and her household to a terrible fate.

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

I'm the author of nine novels for adults and young adults, including the Stone duology ("The Arm of the Stone" and "The Garden of the Stone"); the Way of Arata duology ("The Burning Land" and "The Awakened City"); and "Passion Blue" and "Color Song," a pair of historical novels for teens. I've reviewed books for SF Site, Black Gate, and Fantasy magazine, and my articles on writing and how to get published have appeared in Writer’s Digest and elsewhere. In 2006, I served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.

I'm an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), and co-founder, with Ann Crispin, of Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group that warns about literary schemes and scams. I maintain the Writer Beware website, blog, and Facebook pages, and I was honored with the SFWA Service Award in 2009.

Reviews

[Cassie M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot as a child. I picked it up in the early 2000's from a thrift store, and enjoyed the mysterious atmosphere and setting. This may be specific to me, but the themes of parental mental illness, poverty, and vitriolic religious experiences were all very relatable to me.