At the Pollards’ Harvest Supper of 1817, Araminta Glover was seduced by Jan Honeywood and the outcome seemed inevitable. Araminta, like so many servant girls, would marry her poor suitor and prepare to raise a large family on nine shillings a week.

But Araminta—seventeen years old—was determined enough to rebel against the pattern of impoverished rural life and, putting marriage and Jan firmly behind her, she accepted the post of dairymaid in the house of the strange Mrs. Stancy—Mrs. Stancy, thrifty, terrifying and vicious—a woman who was not who she appeared to be…

And here began a new life for Araminta Glover…