Dominic Luke

Abandoned by her father and left in the care of an uncle she has never met, eight-year-old Dorothea Ryan finds herself cast away in a big, strange house in the middle of the countryside. No one seems to want her. Her one wish is to return to her old home in London.

But as time passes and hopes of ever going back start to fade, Dorothea becomes more and more enmeshed in her new life at Clifton Park. She begins to wonder just where home really is...

Northamptonshire, April 1926. Emily lost her husband during the Great War, and now lives with her son Chadwick. Over the Easter weekend, he takes her to visit her beloved family home. But, for Emily, returning to Alleyn Dene dredges up the pain of the past.

The memories soon come flooding back. Of the girl she once was, of her lost innocence, of how life used to be before that fateful night at the ball at Nethercote Hall when she was seventeen. She has kept her secret since that day and has lived with her pain ever since.

Her husband was a good man, and she is blessed that Chad has grown up to be just like his father, but Emily is still waiting for the sun. Now, after a chance meeting with a handsome bus conductor on a trip to London, Emily is finally starting to feel like the clouds might part.