The Broken Font: A Story of the Civil War, Vol. 2 (of 2)

In the chaos of England's Civil War, lives once ordered by faith and family fracture under the weight of loyalty and longing. Katharine Heywood carries the burden of a dangerous secret, one that has already begun to unravel the fragile bonds of friendship and love. As young Arthur rides toward battle, the novel traces the intersecting fates of Katharine, George Juxon, and Jane Lambert, whose hearts and loyalties are tested by a nation at war with itself. Sherer renders with quiet precision the miseries that civil conflict brings to private families, especially those of the clergy, whose spiritual calling offers no protection from persecution. The broken font of the title becomes a symbol of shattered sacred order, of baptisms interrupted, marriages divided, and a society that has turned brother against brother. This is not a novel of battles and sieges, but of the slower devastation that unfolds in parlors and parish roads when old allegiances crack. For readers who cherish the intimate psychological depth of Victorian historical fiction, Sherer offers a meditation on how war poisons the wellspring of ordinary life.