Karen Brooks

"Rosamund Tomkins, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, spends most of her young life in drudgery at a country inn. To her, the Restoration under Charles II, is but a distant threat as she works under the watchful eye of her brutal, abusive stepfather...until the day she is nearly run over by the coach of Sir Everard Blithman. Sir Everard, a canny merchant, offers Rosamund an 'opportunity like no other,' allowing her to escape into a very different...