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Chapter One

December 21st, 1838

She was home! Catherine Emerson knew it the moment she stepped into the foyer of Deverill Hall as assuredly as she knew her own na oak staircase draped inter pine, boughs laden with red-satin bows and ropes of gold beads; she breathed deeply, taking in the sharp tang of the outdoors brought inside It ht possibly be her favourite scent Five years had been a long time to be away

Of course this wasn’t really her home in the truest sense Her home o miles ahere she lived with her mother and father—quietly The ‘un-quiet’ of the Deverill household was one of the things she loved the most about it It had been a marvel of her childhood to know a fa had ever been quiet about Deverill Hall

To prove it, a loud screaht echoed from the top of the stairs, ‘Catherine!’ Rapid footsteps tapped down the steps in a flurry of brightly coloured skirts, announcing the arrival of the Deverill girls Catherine sed

‘Alyson, Meredith!’ Catherine was caught up in their e at once They’d been inseparable in their youth In the su the grass tracks She’d been such a regular companion, she’d had her own rooood-natured Henry

‘Look at you! How sophisticated you’ve beco back to take in her enseht and for in the latest fashion ‘A white fur rees with you’

‘And engageloith colour, her blue eyes lit like candles She looked positively beautiful ‘I aed! It was allad Meredith had written and given her time to adjust to the news

‘Alyson has news too’ Meredith elbowed her younger sister and gave her a sly look ‘You should tell Catherine’

Alyson, the shyer of the two, blushed ‘Nothing is for certain, but Ja on me since the summer I believe he will speak to Father while he’s here for the Christmas festivities’

‘Oh, hoonderful’ Catherine smiled, but inside she felt a little piece of her hopes cruirls to one and the world she’d left behind had changed Catherine looked up at the staircase, her sense of ho to catch up But instead everyone had moved on

She’d knohere she belonged in the old world—here at Deverill Hall with her friends, her second faed in the new Would there even be room in that neorld where she had to share her friends with husbands and babies and whole new faed the girls any of their happiness, it was just that she’d rather wrongly and unrealistically thought everything would have frozen in ti for her to return

Alyson tugged at her hand, excitedly ‘Finn and Channing are both home’ She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper ‘Finn’s latest mistress threw a dia gift’

‘We aren’t supposed to know’ Meredith laughed ‘but it’s hard not to Finn’s got a cut, just there’ Meredith tapped a finger along the lower part of her cheek ‘Come on, Catherine The boys will die when they see you!’

Or she would when she saw theht, very aware her pulse had speeded up at the prospect More specifically at the prospect of seeing hier brother and bane of her childhood—the secret subject of her adolescent longings She wasn’t certain exactly when her feelings for hied But one summer day he’d smiled at her from across the picnic blanket and she’d been lost Then the fantasy had taken hold She was going to marry him and for ever be a part of the Deverill household in the al and perht down to the dress—she’d wear her grand coat that showed off his eyes There would be flowers, lots of flowers

As for Finn, she supposed he was still his dark, dour self It was no surprise his mistress had thrown a necklace at hiet his attention From what Catherine re else Whenever the five of the who entertained them ild stories Finn would wander off and co Latin phrases as he laid his treasures out on the blanket Then again, Finn had been five years older than she at a tie had seemed to be a chasm