The Gentle Intruder — Irene Hunter Steiner

This is the compelling, quick-moving narrative of two self-exiles: Mark Lessner, cynical, embittered portrait artist, who retreated from a world of adulation and success, and sought solace in oblivion amidst the lonely moors; and Fiona, the young, unmarried mother, the gentle intruder, who unknowingly becomes the inspiration for Mark's greatest painting. Fiona, who's serenity and tranquility evolved from a host of tender memories…

The confrontation between the man who loathed the past but feared the future, and the girl who loved the past so much that she wove a present-day world of fantasy around it, leads to an emotional conflict which is not resolved until each can break with the past and go forward together into the future.