Fantails — Leonora Starr

For some years Alison Hamilton had devoted herself to the young Selkirks, the orphaned children of her cousin, knowing well that by the time they grew up her own chance of marriage would be slight. And when, in the quiet village of Market Blyburgh, where nothing ever happened, Logie Selkirk became engaged to Sherry McAirlie, Alison wondered wistfully whether she was too old to hope for romance. She had, indeed, no premonition of the happiness that was to be hers, just as Logie could not foresee that anything could mar the perfect happiness of her bright new world of wealth and sophistication.