Three Treasures

The time is 1642. England is at war with itself; the bloody Civil War between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. The place is Dorchester, county town of Dorset in the West Country. Royalist and Parliamentarians are converging on Dorchester which is itself a divided town.
Micah Judd, a young apothecary, encounters Elizabeth Whittle, a girl who is unwillingly engaged to the nasty Nicolas Dashwood. At the same time, all able-bodied townsmen are coerced into working on the town defences. There Micah tends a young man hurt in a fall – his name is Denis, and Micah discovers that he and Elizabeth are in love with each other.
In spite of Dorchester’s impressive defences the citizens lose heart, and the town opens its gates to a Royalist army. When the army moves on three people have lost their treasures and ask Micah’s help: Nathan Whittle, whose savings and the dowry money for Elizabeth have been stolen by a Sergeant Barnby; Nicholas’s father, whose wife’s jewels have disappeared; and Lawrence Huatt, who had entrusted his money to his farmer brother-in-law, Jacob Perrin, whom he fears is only pretending that soldiers took it. Mingling with all sorts, rich and poor, loyal and treacherous, Micah bluffs his way through many dangers, risking liberty and life amongst soldiers on both sides, as well as amongst sinister forces in Dorchester itself