Synopsis
**Synopsis**
On a rain-slicked night in 1348, logistics manager Tom Ashwick watches his modern bonded warehouse vanish—and reappear, intact, on a muddy English manor road. He is no longer in the reign of Queen Victoria’s heirs, but in the heart of Plantagenet England, where the Black Death is about to sweep away a third of the realm. Armed with crates of turnip seed, steel ploughshares, willow-bark tinctures, and a dozen leather-bound books on veterinary science, Tom must convince a terrified, plague-ridden village that he is not a warlock but a steward. As the pestilence decimates the aristocracy, Tom’s practical knowledge saves lives, and his quiet rebellion against feudal waste earns him the trust of a pragmatic reeve and a sharp-witted widow. But King Edward III’s endless wars in France demand taxes, soldiers, and grain. Tom’s warehouse becomes the secret heart of a manor’s survival—yet every miracle he offers risks exposing him to Church, Crown, and the ruthless lord of a neighboring fief. Through famine, the Statute of Labourers, and the triumph of Poitiers, Tom must decide: hoard his modern gifts to save his own skin, or spend them to change the fate of an entire generation.
**Main characters**
- **Tom Ashwick** – A pragmatic, guilt-ridden modern warehouse manager, haunted by his own failed marriage, who must learn that logistics is also a form of mercy. - **Mistress Joan of Wykeham** – A young widow and cunning herb-woman, whose knowledge of local plants rivals Tom’s medicine, and who becomes his fiercest ally and sharpest critic. - **Reeve Baldric** – A scarred veteran of Crécy, now a bailiff who sees in Tom a strange hope but fears the Church’s pyre. - **Sir Hugh de Lacy** – The manor’s absentee lord, returning from France with debts and a ruthless hunger for every bushel of grain Tom’s methods produce.
Chapters
- Chapter 1: The Rain on Wykeham Road
- Chapter 2: The Reeve’s Oak
- Chapter 3: The Reckoning of Michaelmas
- Chapter 4: The Pyre’s Fuel
- Chapter 5: The Reckoning of Steel
- Chapter 6: The Reckoning of the Reeve
- Chapter 7: The Tithe of Flesh
- Chapter 8: The Price of Pity
- Chapter 9: The Question of Salt
- Chapter 10: The Reckoning of the Frost