Beschrijving
Rural England, 1882. After impulsively leaving the protection of Jake and Ben at Burling Abbey, Phoebe finds to her dismay that Edward Webster and his sister have no real interest in her. At Crawford Hall, she feels lonely and left out while Edward and Jane enjoy the favors of Jane’s new lady’s maid, Eliza, who is fond of Phoebe and tries to comfort her in increasingly intimate ways.
During a long, sultry English summer, Tom, the groom, falls in love with Phoebe, and she risks the Websters’ contempt by consorting with him in secret trysts. Despite her growing distrust of the Websters, she feels her only possible future lies in going to London with them, but she must go through a dangerous ordeal first.