"So tell me, Marietta," he began as they ate, "where is it you come from? Your accent is very refined for a farmer's daughter."

"I come from a small hamlet in Kent," she replied. "The vicar's wife was my mother's dearest friend and I was educated with her daughters."

He studied her as she spoke and saw the tension that crept into her shoulders and the tightening of her lips. He knew there was something, somewhere in her background that had hurt her terribly. Perhaps it ...