The arrival of Major and Mrs. Tenterchilt in Scotland eleven months ago had found their new home in a state of disrepair. Petrovia Lodge had been built forty years earlier as the English had strengthened their hold on the Scottish landscape. It had not been built to accommodate a permanent residence but to signify a controlling power of the people who had lived in the nearby village. It had almost as many rooms as Chanter’s House, but the rooms were small and dark and, after being accustomed to spending their time in the country at the estate house, the lodge was very small indeed.

Arabella was dismayed to find her new room and spent much of her first month staring through tears at her belongings in the dismal grey surroundings. For three nights she had woken the household screaming as mice and rats...

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