The Bell and the Cane

A Victorian Romance of Rules and Reckoning

The Bell and the Cane
A Victorian romance of rules and reckoning

Book Three of the London Stitch Society series

Berkshire, 1867.
Ellen Grey arrives at Ashdown House under a false name and an honest hunger for work. The manor is ruled by order, proof, and fair discipline, its master a magistrate who believes everything worth keeping can be accounted for. But in a house that keeps its promises as tightly as its secrets, Ellen soon learns that safety has its own cost.

When a scandal threatens to ruin the estate—and expose her past—Ellen must decide whether truth is survival or surrender. Lord Ashdown, bound by duty and haunted by the duel that made him, finds in her a mind as quick as his own and a courage that unsettles every law he’s written. Between them stands a cane once used for punishment, a bell that rings only for truth, and a county ready to watch both.

As the London Stitch Society’s quiet network of women threads through kitchens and courtrooms, Ellen and Ashdown must choose whether justice is something handed down—or something made, hand over hand.

For readers of Sarah Waters and Evie Dunmore—a sharp, sensual story of class, conscience, and the dangerous intimacy of equals.