Yvonne Oram

Rebels' Summer Yvonne Oram

Norfolk 1549 From childhood red-haired Frances Dyball has had a particular heroine: Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII, whose changing fortunes require her to tread carefully through life. Frances, too, faces uncertainty and her life is influenced and altered by five men. Thomas Vaughan is the son of the god-parents who take in Frances and her sister Jane when their mother dies. The Vaughans are landed gentry who raise sheep for the profitable Norfolk wool trade. Frances idolises Tom but a brief romance between them turns ugly and opens her eyes to his failings and her own lack of experience with men. Nicholas Conyers, a London merchant, is the suitor for Frances invited to Norfolk by her god-parents when they become suspicious about her feelings for Tom. However, Nicholas has an affair with Tom's married sister, Arabella, and Frances finds herself helping the lovers run away together. Frans Pietersen is steward to Arabella's brutal husband, Sir William Young. Pietersen becomes obsessed with Frances and, while involved in the search for the runaways he stalks the young woman. Abandoned by her god-parents and trying to avoid the attentions of Pietersen Frances takes work as housekeeper to a Norwich widow who runs her late husband's wool trading business. Matthew Wolf, one time travelling player, is the widow's secretary and he and Frances fall in love. Wiser now, Frances recognises his faults and her own difficult position but when he asks her to marry him she realises he's in earnest. Confident they can share a good future together she happily plans for her wedding. But in the Summer of that year a fifth man enters her life. Norfolk land workers and small farmers rise up in protest against the enclosure of public grazing by sheep farming gentry. Robert Kett leads a small army of these protesters to Norwich and they besiege the city, refusing to disband until their grievances are dealt with. Frances, Matthew, Pietersen, Nicholas and Tom all become involved in Kett's Rebellion - their lives increasingly entangled as the King's forces are sent to Norwich to crush the uprising, sparking public violence and personal revenge.