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Prologue
Woodley Park, Leicestershire, November 1828
To a far had its purpose
Or so Amy, Lady Mowbray, told herself as she stared out of theroomonto the landscape of her childhood It was early on a gray day Around her, the old house was blessedly quiet That would change, once everyone was up
Nash friends and fa of her brother Silas’s fourth child The revels had extended late last night, but A with the birds to trae, couldn’t sleep
So she didn’t expect the door to open and reveal Sally Cowan, Countess of Norwood “Lady Mowbray, I didn’t think anyone else ake”
Amy didn’t know Sally well Recently the attractivehad become friends with her sister-in-laenna Morwenna mostly lived in seclusion in Portsent naval s
“I don’t keep sophisticated hours, Lady Norwood” Anything but Lately the sheer predictability of her days had begun to pall
When she was a girl, she’d becoriculture, and since then, the rhyth and harvest had ruled her life Her brief o had caused barely a hiccup in the endless seasonal work
“I don’t either” Lady Norwood closed the door and ventured into the roo to read I know Caro keeps the latest novels in here I won’t disturb you”
Ah she loved her sister Helena who slept upstairs, no doubt blissfully, in her husband’s ar about the bleak, lonely dawn left her dissatisfied with solitude “No need to go Would you like a cup of tea?”
Lady Norwood cast her a searching look, before a s char, thin nose had a definite kink, and her eyes and ly stylish Next to her, Amy always felt a complete frump
This own, trireen to athered fair hair, she looked like the spirit of spring, even as the year moved into winter
Whereas Aed a frock ten years out of date from the cupboard in the bedroom she always used at Woodley Park She’d assuuests She was sharply conscious that the dress was faded and worn, and too loose for her At twenty-five, she was slimmer than she’d been at sixteen
“Thank you I’d love a cup of tea Morwenna speaks so fondly of you, Lady Mowbray I was looking forward to this house party as a chance to get to know you”
Aht in and poured two cups “Please call me Amy Lady Mowbray is hton, and fussed over her ten pugs, and found little co woman her son had married