A Thunderbolt Into Nettle

​

Lady Astrid Rimensberger, a headstrong daughter of the lower Silesian nobility, travels to Csjethe, Hungary to retrieve her sister, who has mysteriously ceased all communication with her family after being chosen to attend a conservatory for young ladies headed by that region’s notorious countess, Erszébet Báthory.

After being turned away at the castle gates and subsequently failed by the Hungarian palatine, who promises help he is unable to deliver, Astrid realizes she has no choice but to shed her title and enter the castle in the guise of a servant to continue her search.
 
Once she is granted entry under this ruse, Astrid must maneuver for position within the unfamiliar hierarchy inside the castle, while simultaneously attempting to peel away the increasingly disquieting layers of her new employer's closely guarded secrets.

Lady Astrid will have to cross the steely societal boundaries of class and gender, as well as traverse her own dark inner terrain, to save not only herself, but also the souls of those whom the countess and her attendant witch have sacrificed in service to their perverse legacy.