Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn't have any doors between rooms?there
are no secrets in this house!?Cordelia isn't allowed to have a single friend. Unless you count
Falada her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her
daily rides with him. But more than a few quirks set her mother apart. Other parents can't
force their daughters to be silent and motionless?obedient?for hours or days on end. Other
mothers aren't . . . sorcerers. After a suspicious death in their small town Cordelia's
mother insists they leave in the middle of the night riding away together on Falada's back
leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a
wealthy older man the Squire and his unwed sister Hester. Cordelia's mother intends to lure
the Squire into marriage. Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman
and his kind intelligent sister. And indeed Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from
her mother. How the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to
save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia she will have to face
down a wicked witch of the worst kind.
