title: Cinnamon Wharf
author: Brooks, Janice Young
description: SHE VOWED TO BECOME MORE THAN AN ORNAMENT OF VICTORIAN SOCIETY
  
  As a child, beautiful, red-haired Mary Beecham was plucked out of poverty and placed in the lap of Victorian luxury. But her illegitimate birth branded her as a woman apart -- and her brains and spirit made her reject playing a woman's role in a world of wealth and power run by men.
  
  This is her spellbinding story ... of her rise to rule the vast spice trade that united mighty England with the romantic East ... of her searing passion for a man whom it was scandalous to desire... of a marriage that turned into the greatest trial a woman could face ... and of the gamble she took and reward she reaped when she staked all on a love she had never dared dream would be hers.