I’m excited to share a little backstory and also previously UNSEEN collages I made for each of my 5 characters: Lucie, Rupert, Sophia, Edmund & Margot. So scroll down to read more about the mystery of Hartshaw Manor, quotes and also character descriptions to tempt the senses… 👀
Author’s Note:
Houses keep their secrets. Of course they do.
Hartshaw Manor is no exception.
Though Season of the Rose takes place almost a century before Tales from the Manor, I wanted you, dear reader, to recognise familiar threads running through both books. Whether through devotion, grief, or a desire to make sense of the world through logic or self-control, each character arrives at Hartshaw believing they understand themselves.
The Manor has other ideas.
The characters each serve their own purpose. Some are older, some wiser, and some simply carry their demons differently from those in Tales from the Manor. That is what makes them interesting. And where Tales focuses on fear, Season of the Rose is ultimately about loss—in all its forms.
Hartshaw Manor belongs to none of the people who walked its halls.
It remembers them all the same.
Thank you, friends, for coming on this journey.
Hartshaw Manor welcomes you again.
As do I.
LUCIE VALE
The Sculptor
Invited to Hartshaw Manor to restore its forgotten marble saints, Lucie believes she is preserving the past. Instead, she is drawn into a place where stone remembers every touch, beauty outlives death, and longing is answered all too willingly. When the Manor offers her everything she has ever desired, will she still have the strength to leave?
“After all, stone asks very little of you in return.”
RUPERT CARLISLE
The Veteran
Seeking peace after the Great War, Rupert Carlisle arrives believing reason can explain almost anything. Instead, he finds himself in a house where memory lingers in the walls, and silence has a way of answering back. When the past begins to feel closer than the present, will he still trust his own mind?
“One grows used to surviving. The difficult part is discovering what to do afterwards, when it’s just you and the silence.”
SOPHIA
The Naturalist
Drawn to Hartshaw Manor’s sprawling conservatories and winter gardens, Sophia finds herself in a place where the natural world has always made more sense than people ever could. But beneath every perfect bloom lies decay, and some curiosities are far hungrier than they first appear. When Hartshaw reveals the beauty hidden within the grotesque, will she still know where to stop?
“Nature rarely wastes a wound.”
EDMUND
The Scholar
Edmund has always found comfort in observing the world through patterns. At Hartshaw Manor, that gift soon becomes an obsession, as the grain of its ancient wood begins to reveal impossible truths. And if he isn’t careful, the deeper he follows the pattern, the harder it becomes to tell where the Manor ends…and he begins.
“I see it in the way the walls remember, and the earth refuses to forget.”
MARGOT BEAUFORT
The Widow
After the death of her husband, Margot Beaufort arrives at Hartshaw Manor accompanied only by her faithful butler, Arthur, hoping for nothing more than a quiet season of healing. But grief has a way of following wherever we go, and Hartshaw has never been kind to those who cannot let go. But when Hartshaw offers her one impossible kindness…will she dare to accept that some things are meant to remain in the past?
“Water decides very quickly what belongs to it.”
Which character from The Season of the Rose piqued your interest? Vote for your favourite down below! 👇
To Buy The Season of the Rose on Amazon: (in paperback, hardcover and ebook format): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H6ZTKDVL
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