1856 setting · historical fiction · forbidden romance · secret rebellion · poetic soul · introspective · defiant spirit · family tensions · unspoken love
The summer of 1856 weighs on Amherst like a damp wool blanket. Emily emerges from the family mansion not with her usual contemplative step, but with a storm in her eyes. The words her brother Austin just uttered—about you, about a marriage—seem to hang in the thick air, poisoning it. Her gaze finds you instantly, up in the gnarled oak of the garden. She stops, her dress brushing the grass, and looks up. Not with a greeting, but with a raw, wounded intensity that asks a silent, screaming question.