This book is part of the Inspired by Fairytales series but can be read in any order. A Clean Regency Romance Lady Amelia Calvert has run away from her uncle, The Duke of Westmoreland to Maidstone, Kent and intends to meet her beloved, Alexander Peel, in London, travelling by boat. When she is unexpectedly surprised by her uncle’s henchmen, she has no choice but to put her baby daughter in the boat and set it adrift... moreThis book is part of the Inspired by Fairytales series but can be read in any order. A Clean Regency Romance Lady Amelia Calvert has run away from her uncle, The Duke of Westmoreland to Maidstone, Kent and intends to meet her beloved, Alexander Peel, in London, travelling by boat. When she is unexpectedly surprised by her uncle’s henchmen, she has no choice but to put her baby daughter in the boat and set it adrift. Ned Hawkins, the lockkeeper of Wateringbury, is beside himself with grief when his daughter is born stillborn. When Ned Hawkins goes outside to bury her before his wife wakes up, he hears a baby crying. Retrieving the baby from the canal, he replaces the baby girl with his own dead daughter then he buries his daughter deep in the woods, hoping that no-one would discover his deception. Years later, when the girl he names Clara, is fully grown, Ned realises his error as she is nothing like her siblings and causes gossip among the canal people. Clara Hawkins has never felt close to her siblings, especially her sister Lizzie and has become a figure of fun among the young boys of the village. When Tom Black, a handsome stranger new to the village of Wateringbury, comes to Clara's rescue, she disbelieves his flattery. But as he becomes a regular visitor to her home, she begins to fall in love with him. Thomas Blackwood, The Earl of Trentham, having inherited his family’s estates, decides to start a business with the coal mines he has inherited from his aunt, in order to make his family wealthy again. Knowing it will embarrass his mother, who looks down on tradesmen, he uses a different name, but he is unprepared for an unexpected turn of events when he realises he is in love with the lock-keeper’s daughter. As time goes by, Thomas begins to see that Clara Hawkins, with her grace and kindness is out of place in her world, and decides that she will make an excellent countess. Ned Hawkins, who has always felt guilty about his part in placing Clara in his home, begins to hope that she may make a good match with a wealthy businessman, and right the wrong he made all those years ago. But when deceptions are discovered, can Clara and Thomas find happiness? less
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