![]() ![]() He motioned to the ramshackle inn across the rutted street where she slaved as a maid for a pittance. At sixty quid a year there’ll be no need for more gambling or thieving to earn our daily crust. The clerk’s position he’s offered me is a stunner of a job. Stark thinks I have a real gift for numbers. Sam dabbed Rosie’s tear-streaked face with the embroidered handkerchief she’d fashioned for him last Christmas. ![]() Stark had made it clear he wanted to be away before the village fully awakened. He dreaded leaving her, but he had to go. He kissed the top of her head, savoring the feel of her in his arms. She’d endured more disappointment and hardship in her sixteen years than a soul should have to bear in a lifetime. Painfully aware she’d been abandoned by everyone else who should have cared for her, he pulled her close and breathed in the light scent of rosewater she’d favored ever since he’d bought a bottle for her birthday last spring. He tried to cajole a smile from her, but the effort was a lost cause. ![]() I don’t know what I’d do without you.ĭon’t be a daft little goose. I’m afraid you won’t come back to me, she whispered. Rose’s slender fingers curled around the frayed edges of his open coat front. Sam Blackstone gazed into the glistening blue eyes of the only girl he’d ever loved.Ī few feet away, Ezra Stark’s magnificent coach stood ready to convey him to London and a new life filled with possibilities-a far cry from sleepy Ashby Croft, with its cob-n-thatch cottages and meandering muddy lanes that led to nowhere. Prologue Devonshire, England November, 1833 ![]()
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