The Sign of the Red Cross: A Tale of Old London

In Short

Set during the twin horrors of the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London, this historical novel follows two neighboring families—the ambitious, luxury-loving Masons and the steadfast, pious Harmers—as their world falls apart. When epidemic sweeps the capital, class barriers break down, love is tested, and the characters are forced into acts of quiet heroism or self-destructive panic. Evelyn Everett-Green weaves meticulous period detail with an earnest exploration of faith, community resilience, and moral redemption, showing how shared suffering can strip away social pretension and rebuild human lives from the ashes.

The Story

In 1665, London bubbles with the easy prosperity and hedonism of the Restoration court, a climate that suits Master Builder Charles Mason perfectly. Puffed up by wealthy clients and social ambition, his shallow wife, Madam Mason, schemes to marry off their children into higher circles. She actively thwarts the quiet affection growing between her sensible daughter, Gertrude, and their neighbor's son, Reuben Harmer, considering the trade-minded Harmers beneath their new station. The Masons’ reckless son, Frederick, runs wild with a gang of court rowdies, while the Harmer household, led by the pious Rachel and her brother-in-law, remains rooted in faith, hard work, and civic duty.

When rumors of the plague turn into a grim reality, the two households react in starkly different ways. Madam Mason lapses into paralyzed, hysterical terror, shutting herself inside while her son Frederick foolishly exposes himself to infection during a drunk encounter with a dying man. Smitten with the distemper, Frederick brings the plague into the Mason home, leading to his own death and soon after, his mother's. Meanwhile, the Harmer family takes in their daughter Janet, who has fled a plague-stricken noble household, and organizes strict, practical precautions.

As the death carts begin to roll through the desolate streets, Gertrude Mason—now orphaned and freed from her mother’s social tyranny—chooses not to cower in isolation. Joining forces with the deeply spiritual Dinah Harmer, she becomes a nurse, stepping directly into locked, dying court-yards to tend to the abandoned. Reuben Harmer, working tirelessly in the family business, falls dangerously ill himself and is sent out of the city to recover in the countryside at his aunt's cottage. There, Gertrude is reunited with him, bringing a secret monetary gift from their eccentric neighbor, Lady Scrope, which allows Reuben to set himself up in an honest trade.

No sooner has the pestilence waned than a new disaster strikes in September 1666: the Great Fire breaks out, sweeping relentlessly through the wooden timber-framed wards. The characters are thrown back into crisis. Reuben, his brothers, and the Master Builder work frantically to rescue isolated victims and haul heirlooms to safety by boat on the Thames. Dinah nearly perishes in a burning house while caring for the sick Lady Desborough, saved only at the final second as the floorboards give way beneath her feet.

When the ashes finally cool, over thirteen thousand houses lie destroyed, but the core group has survived intact. Charles Mason, chastened by his losses and cured of his social vanity, is appointed by the Lord Mayor and King Charles II to supervise the rebuilding of four city wards. Reunited in love and faith, Gertrude marries Reuben, while the Master Builder finds lasting happiness by taking the noble Dinah as his second wife.

How It Unfolds

The shadow falls While the city scoffs at early rumors of sickness, Rachel Harmer and the Master Builder debate the news, highlighting the contrast between Harmer piety and Mason commercial ambition.

The contagion enters Janet Harmer arrives at her mother's window late at night from a plague-infected house, forcing the Harmers to initiate a strict quarantine that saves their household.

Tragedy strikes the Masons Frederick Mason’s roistering leads to contact with a delirious plague victim; he collapses on his doorstep, infecting his home and causing his own death and his mother's death shortly after.

Angels of mercy Left alone, Gertrude Mason joins Dinah Harmer and Janet to enter the city’s quarantined courts, risking their lives as volunteer nurses among dying neighbors abandoned by fleeing doctors.

Escape to the fields Young Joseph and Benjamin Harmer are sent away to their aunt’s rural cottage, where they tend gardens and later care for a recovering Reuben, who was brought out of London after taking the sickness.

The night of red skies The Great Fire erupts in 1666, driving thousands to the Thames; Reuben and his father maneuver boats through blinding smoke to rescue trapped residents and transport salvageable goods.

Rescue from the flames Dinah lingers in a burning mansion to protect the invalid Lady Desborough and is rescued from a collapsing floor just before the entire house is engulfed in fire.

Rising from the ashes With London in ruins, the Master Builder is granted a major royal contract to rebuild four burnt wards, and the family celebrates a double union of marriage and renewal.

The People

• Gertrude Mason: A gentle, resilient young woman who yearns for genuine purpose. Initially repressed by her mother's snobbish marital ambitions, she discovers tremendous inner courage during the epidemic, choosing dangerous volunteer nursing over passive safety. She ultimately earns her independence and marries Reuben.
• Reuben Harmer: An upright, hardworking young craftsman. Proud and sensitive to the Masons' social disdain, he relies on honest trade rather than court favors. His devotion to duty nearly costs him his life when he contracts the plague, but his survival opens the door to building a home with Gertrude.
• Charles Mason (The Master Builder): A talented, prosperous craftsman whose sudden wealth initially breeds mild vanity and social ambition. The loss of his wife and son strips away his pretension, leaving him a humbled, practical man who finds redemption in honest reconstruction and marriage to Dinah.
• Dinah Harmer: A deeply spiritual, selfless woman who acts as the moral anchor of the story. Driven by intense compassion, she walks fearlessly into plague houses and burning buildings alike, serving as a surrogate mother to Gertrude before marrying the Master Builder.
• Lady Scrope: A sharp-tongued, cynical elderly aristocrat living near the Harmers. Though she claims to view all humans as fools, her gruff exterior hides a generous heart; she bestows a crucial financial gift on Gertrude and champions Reuben's honest business.
• Frederick Mason: The Master Builder's spoiled, idle son. He runs with violent street gangs and mockingly dismisses the plague, only to panic when infected, serving as a cautionary figure for the fruits of reckless indulgence.

In Its Own Voice

"The vice and profligacy of this great city, and the lewdness and wanton wickedness of the Court, are enough to draw down upon us the judgments of Almighty God. The sin and the shame of it must be rising up before Him day and night."

— Rachel Harmer warns her neighbor of impending judgment as her spinning wheel hums.

"Think not of that, dear child. For what does it matter what befalls the frail mortal body? With whatsoever burial we may be buried now, we shall rise again at the last day in glory and immortality!"

— Dinah soothes Gertrude as the mournful dead-cart rumbles through the streets below.

"Going to keep a shop here?--sensible man. I'll come and buy all my finery when you start business, and sit and gossip at the counter the while... And mind that you never begin to lend money, young man, to any needy young fool."

— Lady Scrope offers her sharp, pragmatic advice while inspecting Reuben's newly acquired premises.

What It's Really About

Beneath its vivid historical set-pieces of burning steeples and marked plague doors, the novel is a moral meditation on what constitutes true worth in a crisis. It pits the fleeting, vanity-driven ambitions of the Restoration era—represented by high-born gallants, house remodels, and social climbing—against the quiet, durable virtues of faith, manual labor, and neighborly charity.

The narrative argues that catastrophe acts as a divine refining fire. Disasters strip away artificial class distinctions: high-born ladies and common shopkeepers die in the same pits, while high court gallants flee in terror and modest artisans stay behind to maintain order. The book asks how a community can maintain its humanity when survival instincts urge isolation, offering practical service and Christian charity as the only meaningful answers to chaos.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy detailed historical fiction like Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year or the atmospheric Victorian retellings of English history will find much to admire here. Evelyn Everett-Green captures the sensory reality of 17th-century London with remarkable texture—from the smell of choking resin fires burned in narrow alleys to check the distemper, to the eerie silence of moonlight falling on empty streets where only watchmen sleep on steps.

The prose carries a distinct late-Victorian period flavor, using slightly archaic dialogue ("methinks," "prithee," "thou") and an unashamedly moralizing tone typical of 19th-century juvenile literature. Modern readers must adjust to its explicit religious worldview, where disasters are viewed as providential chastisements, and its straightforward, good-versus-bad characterizations.

Yet the novel remains surprisingly compelling. The dual sequence of national crises creates relentless narrative momentum, and the depiction of quarantine life, social distancing, and urban anxiety feels strikingly modern. It leaves you with an uplifting sense of human endurance—a belief that even after the total destruction of a city's physical and social structure, life can be rebuilt with cleaner hands and better foundations.