A noble sacrifice
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2025-11-13 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #77224 |
Description
"Tabby's Travels" by Lucy Ellen Guernsey is a historical novel written in the late 19th century. Set in early 17th-century Wales, it entwines village life with a haunted hill-castle, a gipsy’s curse, and the arrival of a mysteriously parented child. The focus is on Jack the boatman and the golden‑haired “Little Miss Primrose,” blending domestic warmth, temperance and faith, and a slow-blooming gothic mystery around the lords of Bryn Afon. The opening of the novel follows Jack during a wild flood as villagers murmur about a centuries-old curse on Bryn Afon and a gipsy prophesies doom linked to his bridge. That night a veiled woman hands him a toddler on the bridge and vanishes, leaving a note that bids him raise “Little Miss Primrose,” forbidding strong drink and any approach to the castle; a Black Horseman later brings money and messages from the unseen mother. Primrose thrives, studies with the kindly Master Rhys, and watches a strange red “star” glow in the castle’s window. When the young earl briefly returns, Jack stops anyone giving Primrose wine and, in a candid talk, learns more of the family’s shadowed history while recounting his own daughter’s death and the bridge’s origin. The Horseman later carries Primrose to a secret meeting with a beautiful, sorrowing lady, then years pass; at fourteen, drifting the river in a coracle, she spots a familiar-looking fisherman—hinting that the mystery is about to deepen. (This is an automatically generated summary.)