Like many young women in fifteenth- century England, Susannah Whit- mead is sent away from home to be educated. Born of yeomen, Susannah's mother wants her only daughter to be raised a lady. But Susannah, who finds life at Hurleigh House to be horribly regulated, longs for home. One of her few comforts is a keepsake, a small badge with a curious design consisting of curved lines arching over wavy ones like a stylized bridge across a river. She is not sure of the badge's origins, but keeps it close to her as a link to her family. Susannah is married off to Sir James Weston of Ashdon manor....