London, 1778: Olivia Kilbourne leads a sheltered life as the daughter of an officer. That changes abruptly when her father is transferred to Gibraltar. It’s a land marked by the clash of several cultures. Genovese, Maltese, Portuguese, Moroccans, and Spaniards have settled among the British and contribute to the flourishing trade of the British colony.
Living in a foreign land exposes some cracks in the family’s previously ideal world. Olivia’s parents are at odds with one another, and her deathly ill sister Ruby and her brother Stanley seem so be hiding something from her. When Sir John Retallick, a highly regarded officer, begins wooing her, Olivia marries him with the intention of returning to England with him. But then the great siege of Gibraltar begins and John has to go to war. John was really just using Olivia as a means to an end, but he ends up falling in love with her. Still, Olivia suspects that John knows her sister Ruby from before, and she asks him repeatedly if this is true. Finally Ruby tells her the terrible secret from her past…
by Laila El Omari
3-426-50674-2
640 pages, April 2011
