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SECRETLY, ROSALIND A Georgian Romance, England, 1764 By Mellyora Ashley Miss Rosalind Swift is racing through a forest in a wedding dress when she spies a man partly submerged in the River Derwent. Startled, she falls off the log bridge, hurts her ankle, and cries out. Barely clothed, the stranger dives to her rescue and conveys her to a pavilion in the woods to bind her ankle. His care for her touches Rosalind, though she knows it is shockingly improper to be carried by a handsome, soaking-wet man who could be dangerous. Furthermore, she is in quite a predicament, missing the wedding. Her Vicar father and strict mother scold her mercilessly over the incident, and confine her to bed. But she and her rescuer, Edmund Ashbrook, communicate secretly. Since Rosalind cannot walk, her sister plays the messenger. She listens at keyholes, and reports to Rosalind the most horrific plans by their mother and friends to rid them of the murderer who moved into the hidden castle on the hill, namely the Honorable Edmund Ashbrook. Rosalind is outraged, for she wants to believe that he is a Christian gentleman of integrity, unlike the judgmental people in her mother’s circle. She daringly takes action to warn him of what is to come, even though she knows nothing of Edmund’s mysterious past. Comparable works include Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Powder and Patch by Georgette Heyer, A Hazard of Hearts by Barbara Cartland