"1819. Stephen Fairhurst, a veteran of Waterloo, is weary of war. Wounded in body and spirit from battles both bloody and heartbreaking, he returns to Kersey Hall from a self-imposed exile in Spain. Amid the verdant beauty and quiet stillness of the countryside he yearns for solitude, but instead meets a most unexpected new acquaintance: the unconventional Lucy Durward." "Blessed with an artistic hand, a sharp mind, and an independent spirit, Lucy is a woman unlike any Stephen has ever known. In their newfound correspondence he shields himself from the shadows of the past - and the painful secret he carries." "1976. While her mother spends the summer in Spain with a new lover, sixteen-year-old Anna Ware is packed off to live at Kersey Hall, now a failed girls' school run by her estranged uncle. Hot, bored, desperate for the excitement of London and her girlfriends, Anna looks for a way out, but instead finds a new mentor in Theo." "A charismatic, aging war photographer both worldly and kind, Theo offers an antidote to Anna's loneliness and anger. Yet Theo is not her only solace. Over the course of the summer her curiosity is piqued by a collection of old letters between the former owner of Kersey Hall, Stephen Fairhurst, and a Miss Lucy Durward. As Anna unravels the past letter by letter, she begins to create a heartrending secret of her own - one that will connect her to Stephen in startling and indelible ways."--Jacket.