Bride of a Distant Isle

by Sandra Byrd Book 2 in the Daughters of Hampshire series.

First published 2016

Amazon

4.3(1,777)

Teacher Annabel Ashton returns to Highcliffe Hall and finds her cousin Edward determined to control her future and sell the estate. Because Annabel is believed illegitimate and her mother died in a private asylum, the threat of confinement or a coerced marriage carries legal and social force until hidden portraits, letters and jewellery suggest that the accepted family history is false.

A Maltese sea captain offers assistance and a possible escape, but his connection to the dispute makes trust difficult. The novel uses asylum stigma, cross-Mediterranean family ties and the fragile position of unmarried women to build a Gothic inheritance mystery in which faith and romantic loyalty must be distinguished from possession.

Historical Periods

Victorian Asylums and Private Madhouses1837–1901 Victorian Hampshire Country-House Society1858–1866 British Malta and Victorian Maritime Connections1837–1870