Black Mountain

A Novel of the Holy Grail

Tretower Court near Crickhowell, Wales, was the inspiration for Colin Hay’s home of Cewi Glen in LeAnne Hardy’s Glastonbury Grail series. In the just-released third book, Black Mountain, Colin brings home his bride Alice, but the house has been half destroyed by fire, Colin’s father’s debts still threaten their future, and the mysterious cup men whispered was the Holy Grail is gone. 

 Ol’ Teg o’ the Hills, the witch who lives on the mountain that rises behind Cewi Glen, has the ancient olivewood cup that Colin Hay brought from Glastonbury Abbey when it was closed by King Henry VIII. Forced to flee her mountain retreat by the spiritual powers she has served all her life, Teg travels to Glastonbury and far beyond to learn more of this thing of power she pulled from the ashes of the fire that killed her daughter. Along the way she meets Colin’s fiancée Alice Thatcher, a group of people willing to risk their lives to read the words of a God she despises, and the Lord of the cup—the only One who can satisfy the thirst of her heart. But can she ever truly be free of her past?

 “You’re only a peasant masquerading as a lady,” the vindictive priest of Alice’s old parish told her when she married Colin Hay and moved to Honddu Vale. Alice tries to live up to all that is expected of a lady, supporting Colin as he struggles under his father’s debts, and following all her friend Catherine Price’s instructions on manners. But her womb is cursed, and she can’t perform even the most basic duty of a wife—give Colin a child. How far will Alice go to be a mother? When Goody Tegwyn returns to Honddu Vale, can Alice save her from her enemies?

 “ A powerful pilgrimage, both physical and spiritual,” says Donna Fletcher Crow, author of Glastonbury; the Novel of Christian England. “Magic and faith, myth and eternal truth intermingle in this novel of the Holy Grail. With the beauty of an epic poem, it presents an allegory of the grace of God.”