Traitor or Patriot?: A Tale of the Rye-House Plot

In 1683 England, the question of loyalty has no easy answer. The Rye-House Plot was real, a conspiracy to assassinate Charles II and place the Protestant Duke of Monmouth on the throne. Was it treason against the Crown or patriotism against a king drifting toward Catholicism? This novel inhabits that dangerous moral ambiguity through Ruth Rumbold, daughter of a stern maltster, whose quiet life fractures when her father becomes entangled in the conspiracy. What begins as an idyllic May Day celebration, Ruth crowned May Queen, dancing with her childhood friend Lawrence Lee, gives way to creeping dread. A mysterious coal barge arrives. Her father's secrets multiply. And Ruth must navigate a world where the lines between traitor and patriot blur entirely. Lawrence senses the darkening currents around them, but neither young lover can escape the machinery of history grinding forward. This is historical fiction that asks uncomfortable questions about allegiance, conviction, and what ordinary people do when extraordinary times demand impossible choices.