The First Seed - Stuart Tanner

ONE SCORCHED PROMISE. A VALLEY UNDER SIEGE. A WAR WITHOUT GUNS.

1832. Silas Grey returns from the Napoleonic Wars to find his family's heritage buried under a decade of aristocratic greed. The Earl of Ashbourne has turned the valley of Ravenswood into a private fortress, erasing the names of those who built it. His father is dead, his farm is ash, and the "White Hunger" has brought the village to its knees.

But Silas is a Sapper-a man trained to dismantle fortresses from within.

When he unearths a scorched 1702 Royal Grant from the ruins of his father's forge, he launches a silent revolution. It is a battle of ancient law against modern tyranny, and ledgers against legacies. At his side is Catherine Vance-the Earl's daughter, caught between the silk of her station and the fire of her conscience.

To save the ridge, they must protect the "First Seed"-a secret buried for a century that has the power to either restore the valley's soul or burn the Vance dynasty to the ground.

In the shadow of the ridge, the loudest weapon is the truth.