title: Ruin and Redemption
author: Covens, Emily
description: Did you hear? Mr Ashton of Linton Hall is back, but something is not quite right! After a long and mysterious absence, the handsome Mr Ashton has returned to England from the Far East. He is a mere shell of the man who disappeared into the night following the death of his beloved Rebecca three years before. The dark forbidding cloud that hangs over him cannot even be dispelled by his own young daughter, Eliza, the last legacy of his and Rebecca's doomed union and whom he abandoned to the care of his sister that terrible night. Town gossip and whispers are left unanswered as the sallow and reclusive Ashton hides away and resists all attempts to reintroduce him into society. His sister is not so easily thwarted though and is determined to find him a wife (and Eliza a mother) of good standing - and she has just the woman in mind.