'You must believe that what I have done for you is better a thousand times than what the world might do.'

With this strange assurance from his father, Medley Plashet faced a life full of riddles. His father was a humble forest guide, so how was it that he had such a friend as fine Kit Crespin? Why did Crespin ride from London, where Tudor reigned now in place of Plantagenet, to speak of 'a warning'? And why, on leaving, did he smilingly hand Medley a flowering sprig of broom, as if it were some symbol?

The time came when Medley found himself utterly alone, his mother dead, his father mysteriously vanished. It was then that Master Lewis Mallory took the boy into his household at Mantlemass, and set him to work there. Medley had always played about the forest with the Mallory children. Now, like him, they were growing up—none more certainly than Catherine.

A twist of circumstance brought Medley news that Kit Crespin was held prisoner in the Tower of London. From that moment he began to unravel the mystery of his situation, and finding his father again, learnt at last the significance of the sprig of broom.

From the dust jacket