The Rector's Daughter — Rosemary Ellerbeck

'She was every inch the parson's daughter, with the clear light of Christian courage showing through. But there was something else: she was a woman of the world too, a woman, clearly, who had lived'.

Sophie Woodville's return to Wenham, the thriving Dorset market town of her birth, is not a happy one. Her secret marriage to George, heir to the Woodville baronetcy, incurred the wrath not only of her husband's family but also of her own. Now George is dead, tragically young, and his widow and two children have come home.

The loss of the Woodville heir is keenly felt by the whole parish, but most of all by his own family. His mother is seriously ill and the wild, indulgent lifestyle of the only surviving son, Carson, has already brought the once venerated family name into disrepute. Worst of all, the estate is in such desperate financial straits that they may have to sell the ancestral home.

Sophie is no stranger to misfortune, and her strength enables the Woodvilles first to forgive and then to lean on her. However she herself is almost brought to grief by a passionate attachment most unsuitable in a rector's daughter. Then rescue for the family fortunes appears in an unlikely form; but at a high price. Carson, the darling of Dorset's maids and scourge of their fathers, must marry for money, just as his father had done ...