Sea Change

'I'll be back soon, my love. Tonight, I hope. ' The last time Eve saw her mother, Sarah Battle - the abolitionist proprietor of Battle's Coffee House - she was climbing into a hot air balloon one ill-fated afternoon when Eve was just a little girl. Missing, presumed drowned, Sarah left behind many mysteries for her young daughter to puzzle over. Why did Sarah flee to America with Eve's father. Why is Eve's guardian Joseph so riven with guilt about the accident. And why is Nursey still convinced that Sarah isn't dead. Regency London is an unpredictable place, enthralled by naval pageantry and gripped by wild terrors of sedition. A spoilt, lonely orphan in the house of her erratic artist guardian, Eve must grow into a young woman with no one to guide her through its perils or explain the contradictions of the adult world. One hundred miles away, in the fishing village of Sowerthorpe, the Reverend Snead preaches hellfire and damnation to his impoverished parishioners and his long-suffering wife. Snead's morality is irreproachable, he even plays host to a beautiful, mute woman pulled out of the sea - and as her protector he keeps a very close watch indeed.