Sixteen-year-old Emily Kennedy faces her future with a glad smile and an ever-hopeful philosophy. Her only worry is her delicate younger sister, Lucy. When a tragic set of circumstances force the sisters from their home, Emily is quickly forced to grow into womanhood and take on the responsibilities of an adult. Needing all her strength of will and character to see her through the difficult road she travels, Emily manages to cling bravely to her never-say-die...

Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to work for Lewis & Mariah as an au pair for their four children. As Lucy is coming to terms with her employer's lives, she is unraveling the mysteries of her own sexuality.

When Henry Ireland dies unexpectedly from what appears to be a riding accident in August 1863, the failed landowner leaves behind little save his high-strung young widow, Isabel-who somehow ends up in the home of Ireland's friend James Dixey. A celebrated naturalist, Dixey collects strange trophies in his secluded, decaying manse and has questionable associations with rather unsavory characters-including a pair of thuggish poachers named Dewar and...