Patience and Perserverance — Anne Gallagher

     Lady Patience Shaffer, youngest niece to the Marquess of Dunbury, has been allowed to roam freely on the estates since her arrival. As a child, she played with the dogs and rode horses, helped with chores in the barns, and took care of the chickens. Gangly and unkempt, Patience didn't care a whit about Society or fashion.     After her mother appeared returned from the dead, Patience's lifestyle was curbed considerably, with restrictions placed on her at every turn. Patience could not bear the confinement. Until a seemingly innocuous request to take a trip to the Colchester Market, turned into an argument with her mother and then a horrible accident in the barnyard.     When Patience awoke, the world was a different place, scattered with people she did not recognize. However, those same people seemed to believe that she was someone else. There were hints of another life, far different from who Patience thought she should be, but she pushed them away thinking it couldn't possibly be true. Especially the ones about a forbidden love.     With help from a doctor, fresh air, and her family, Patience's memory slowly returned. There were still missing pieces of her life that she desperately wanted to remember, but the harder she tried, the harder it was to regain them. Until the night of her surprise birthday celebration, when a sudden memory allowed her mind to break free of its curse, and everything she ever was, thought, or did exploded all at once.     And when she realized the whole of her life in that moment, Patience knew two things—she would never speak to her mother again, and she would regret the rest of her life if she did not tell the man she loved she was sorry.