Northwest England, 1844 At twenty-six, Etta Ladd is well considered a spinster. Outspoken, she is regarded as notoriously stubborn when she insists she is only being true to her inner convictions. She is surrounded on all sides by financial, medical and social strife. The family’s inn, an overnight stopping point for coaches has a large single debt hanging over it and full payment is due in less than one month. She is returning home from York, from the house of her last surviving relative, one with money who can easily stop the foreclosure on her inn and with it preserve her way of life. But just up ahead, around the next curve, lies an improbable intersection. There, a curious and dangerous series of events is about to unfold - changing every dynamic of her life. The mystery will bring her fortune and the love of an unlikely stranger or the complete devastation of heart, hearth and home, her very life in peril as every fork in her road becomes fraught with doubt and intrigue most foul. Who is her foe and who is her friend? Three romances swirl inside innuendo, adult content and duplicity.