For Love of the Land: or Ariadne’s Second Chance

One night Ariadne sets off with the cat. She feels broken by her son’s violence since the death of his violent father. Driving down the narrow lane to the Inn, where she’ll stay, she has a re-birth experience and what began as a desperate flight turns into an adventure.

Her patients follow her to the country. After the last one has left, she moves to Wales and lives as a recluse, labouring to create a landscape garden and wildlife refuge. She finds an ally in the digger sent to help her, whereas the old schoolmaster constantly objects to her work. When her son hangs himself, the lonely hill and the stars become her solace. Then she builds a castle with the stone unearthed by landscaping. The love of it, the land, the stone and the creatures that come for food, comfort her. But voices still attack her in her head. The schoolmaster dies and a row erupts over his will. Ariadne finds her mother’s letters and goes on Ancestry. What she discovers shocks and scares her but enables her to finally free herself inwardly.

At that moment Jake appears. He turns out to be the love of her life.