The Perilous Gard – Elizabeth Pope

Read for the Once Upon a Time IX Reading Challenge.

Kate and her sister Alicia are both ladies in waiting to the Lady Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth I) when her sister Mary is still Queen.   Since Alicia is the sweet, innocent one, an imprudent remark of hers is blamed on Kate, and Kate is exiled to the care of Geoffrey Heron, at his home in Elvenwood, also known as the Perilous Gard.

Once Kate arrives, she finds plenty of secrets that no one wish to share with her, including the disappearance of Geoffrey’s young daughter, and the involvement of his brother Christopher with the mysterious People of the Hill.

What’s really great about this book is it reads like pretty straight historical fiction set in Tudor times, but the People of the Hill may or may not be Fae – there’s just enough detail to left to the imagination to leave that as an open question.     Kate really is the center of the story – not any sort of magic.    She’s a great heroine, and I read though this book as quickly as I could to make sure she came out of her experience under the hill alive and well.