The Last Hours

 Trust Minette Walters to make a novel set against the first wave of the Black Death even darker. The Last Hours opened as Sir Richard of Develish prepares to negotiate his daughter Eleanor's marriage to the son of a nearby lord. Sir Richard is a brutal, drunken lout and his vain daughter is no better, frequently venting her cruelty on Thaddeus Thurkell, the bastard sone of one of her father's serfs

Then the plague begins. Sir Richard's retinue falls to it at Bradmayne, and would have brought it to Develish if not for Lady Anne. She ruled the manor through kindness and intelligence, enforcing quarantines and cleanliness so the serfs are healthier (and through her tuition literate) as well as free from the rats we know carried yersinia pests. Lady Anne also had a warning from a messenger, which she altered to prevent panic. With Thaddeus as her new Steward and a council of leading serfs, they lead a peaceful, if anxious life for about two months. then, a mruder and fears of eventual starvation lead Thaddeus and five teenage boys on a mission to find food and news of the outside world. 

From here, Walters uses a dual track narrative. WE see Anne and her council deal with both Eleanor's machinations and dark secrets and with an attack by a marauding lord. Meanwhile, thaddeus and the boys scour the land for supplies and signs of life. For them, it's also a personal journey, with the boys becoming responsible and Thaddeus unknowingly letting his guard down. Walters ends the book on a cliffhanger. Luckily, I already have the sequel so I don't have to wait a year or tow to find out if Anne, Thaddeus, and the council begin to creat a new society in with the scarcity of labor destroys the old feudal system.