Devon Sagas

A poignant, Edwardian family saga set in a hotel business in Torquay. When laundress Mercy Seaton’s chance meeting with Peter Lisburne at the annual Torquay regatta leads to a whirlwind proposal, she’s swept into her husband’s glittering world at ‘I do’. But all that glitters is not gold, and Mercy’s discomfort in the drawing rooms of Edwardian society leave her adrift in a world she’s ill prepared for. Combined with the onset of war, Mercy’s life becomes an ever-changing landscape of uncertainty.

Hardly out of childhood, Amy Kennedy and fellow orphans Seth, Jay and Daisy are sent from the Lambeth Workhouse in London to the Devon port of Brixham to be taken into service, the girls as maidservants, the boys as apprentices on a trawler. Although her initiation into her job is hard, Amy quickly finds her feet, and shortly her horizons are brightened by an attentive young man, Daniel Newton, the son of a prosperous sea captain.

Maddy Shillabeer’s prospects are limited. As the only woman in a household of men, in a town with precious few romantic possibilities, she’s resigned herself to a life of familial duty. That is, until the arrival of mysterious stranger Patrick Howard. It’s clear Patrick has seen a world Maddy can only imagine, and she’s awed by his charm and beguiling tongue. In no time at all Patrick has skillfully climbed the social pecking order in Duncannon...and worked his way into Maddy Shillabeer’s heart.