Murkmere

Book: Murkmere
Author: Patricia Elliott
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: eerie manor, bird worship, and a girl with a swanskin

Aggie is just starting her new job as lady's companion to the ward of Murkmere Manor. Her mother worked there years ago, but no one in the village likes to go near the creepy old mansion any more than they have to. The Master is confined to a wheelchair, and like its master, the house and lands seem to be deteriorating.

Leah was an orphan found at the gates who has been taken in by the Master since he has no children to inherit. She is haughty and willful, but she does love the Master and wants the best for the estate, starting with getting rid of the smooth but sinister steward, Silas Seed, as soon as she's in control. Many of the staff and people in the village think there is something unnatural about her; she's always running off into the dangerous mere and watching the swans. The society worships birds as sacred beings, both good and evil, and her obsession with them frightens average, honest people.

Leah and Aggie are walking in the mere one afternoon when they discover a hidden swanskin, which Leah is drawn to but Aggie fears and seeks to destroy. They gradually discover its true nature and Leah's hidden history, and how it all relates to the dreaded avia people who, according to official Ministration truth, were made half-bird by the Great Eagle as a punishment- or was it a reward?

Haunting, atmospheric, well-written story. Magic seems to infuse the story with its bird-based worldview and the misty, eerie, gothic setting, but only a hint of actual magic appears, and even that is implied.

A companion book called Ambergate tells the story of Scuff, the orphan kitchen girl in Murkmere.