Mrs. Dymond

'It seemed so natural to say Yes, and to put her future into this good friend's keeping. What this future contained - where it might lead her in its onward course - she knew not.' When Susanna Holcombe visits her mother in Paris and discovers her new friend Tempy's father, Colonel Dymond, a widower, living nearby, she is delighted to make his acquaintance. For although pleased to be once again with her mother, she feels apart from her - and it is not long before she realises that her hated stepfather not only spends whatever much-needed money he can find on drink and gambling, but is not afraid to use violence. Frustrated by her inability to help her mother, and knowing her mother thinks it would be a good match, she looks to Colonel Dymond as a safe haven. But can she truly love this man so much older than herself? Will their relationship affect her friendship with Tempy, whose yearning for the reckless, disgraced Charlie threatens to come between her and her father? What will her life at Crowbeck Place, Dymond's beautiful house overlooking its own lake in Lancashire, bring? Written by Anne Thackeray Ritchie, the eldest child of William Makepeace Thackeray, this engaging family drama was first published in 1885.