A spellbinding tale of hidden desires, whispered secrets, and a darkness that lingers behind every locked door.
Yorkshire, 1898.
When twenty-one-year-old Lilianne Loxley is sent to Lord Bexton's isolated estate to work off her uncle's debts, she expects drudgery--not danger. With her gift for mimicry, she becomes Bexton's secretary--and his reluctant forger. Soon she's trapped in a scheme to create a "lost" novel by Emily Bront , a deception that could make--or destroy--fortunes.
The house is full of secrets: footsteps echo in empty corridors, lemon-scented ghosts haunt her sleepless nights, and a portrait seems to watch her every move. Yet it's the living who unsettle her most--especially Wren McAllister, the sharp-tongued maid whose defiance hides a tender heart. Drawn together by loss and longing, Lily and Wren risk everything for a freedom neither has ever known.
As the line between truth and invention blurs, Lily uncovers a shocking connection to the Bront family--and to Bexton himself--that will force her to choose between love, loyalty, and the dangerous power of her own pen.