And one day Ferndale would be hers and she would be better able to protect the forest and all the creatures that lived there.
When Phillips acquired a horse for her it changed Tessa’s life.She took to riding like a duck to water—just like her mama, Phillips said.He was a strict taskmaster, making her learn to ride sidesaddle and frowning when she sneaked out and rode astride.But he wasn’t really cross, she could tell.
She wore her mother’s old riding habits, which were, of course, much too big, but she and NannyJune altered them, not very elegantly.But nobody ever saw her so what did it matter?She always stayed within the Ferndale grounds—she’d promised Phillips she would, and she would never break a promise.Phillips would get into trouble if she ventured outside the grounds, she knew.She loved Phillips.He was more like a father to her than her real father.And NannyJune, old as she was, had been her only mother.
And if her life was sometimes a little bit lonely, she gloried in the freedom of it.Ferndale was her own little kingdom and she was its caretaker and its queen.
Then one day, just after her fifteenth birthday she was out riding, and saw a traveling carriage turning into the Ferndale driveway.They never had visitors so, curious, she cantered down to meet it.It was probably someone who’d taken a wrong turn or were lost.
The coach had pulled up, and a groom jumped down to let down the steps.To her amazement, her father and Edgar stepped down, just as she rode up to them.It had been at least two years since their last visit.
“Papa, Edgar, what a surprise!”She tried to think what might have brought them here.Could it be to celebrate her birthday?
Her father and Edgar stared up at her, their expressions blank, as if they didn’t know who she was.“It’s Tessa, Papa.”She lifted her leg over the pommel and slipped to the ground.
Papa and Edgar looked her up and down, as if they could hardly believe their eyes.Then they turned to each other.“Looks like we have another asset,” Papa said.
Edgar nodded.“Will need a bit of cleaning up, but yes.Definitely.”
Tessa stared, puzzled, but they didn’t explain, just went inside.
Asset?What did they mean?Were they talking about the house?People called houses and land assets, but they couldn’t sell Ferndale, she knew.The estate had been Mama’s home before she was married and it had been part of the marriage settlements that when she died it would go to her first-born daughter.Which was Tessa.NannyJune had explained it all to her years ago.
She took her horse to the stables, leaving it to Phillips’s care instead of doing it herself, as she usually did, then hurried inside, hoping for an explanation.
She never got one.
Three days later, the traveling carriage, containing Tessa, her father and Edgar, left Ferndale.Tessa was distraught.Her father had closed the house and dismissed Phillips, NannyJune and the remaining few servants, turned them off without even a pension, even though they’d worked for the family their whole life.
She’d argued and argued, but Papa ignored her, until he got fed up and slapped her—hard, twice—and told her if she opened her mouth again, she would suffer the consequences.She did, of course—insisting that NannyJune and Phillips should have a pension, at least—and he beat her severely, in places where the bruises wouldn’t show.
And now he was taking her away from her beloved Ferndale, and the few people in the world who cared for her, going to who-knew-where for who-knew-what-reason.Papa hadn’t said a word to her since the beating and Edgar ignored her.He’d ordered poor NannyJune to pack a bag for Tessa, and then told her to pack one for herself and be gone by the end of the week.
Tessa stared out of the carriage window, dry-eyed but heartbroken, watching her beloved home fade into the distance.The moment she turned twenty-five, she vowed silently, she’d be back.
Chapter One
