Gill Hornby

1820. Mary Dorothea is living under the sole charge of her widowed father, Sir Edward, a man of strict principles and high moral values. But when Sir Edward marries Miss Fanny Knight of Godmersham Park, Mary's life is suddenly changed. Mary's new stepmother, Fanny, comes from a large, happy and sociable family, and Fanny's brothers are amusing, handsome and completely charming. As Mary approaches her seventeenth birthday, a bond forms between her and Ned Knight, an understanding that leads, on the last day of the year 1825, to Ned declaring his hand.
Sir Edward's outrage is immediate, his refusal is absolute. The marriage will never take place. There appears to be only one solution ...