The Early Shelf

Romance, Mystery, Historical Fiction

The Portrait

by Linda Martin

About the book

One woman, two names, two lives.

Synopsis

In 1806, the Countess of Chesterfield vanishes, leaving behind a grieving husband and a mystery whispered across Regency England. Lord Bennett Stanhope mourned his Arabella for years, a ghost of a memory haunting Bretby Hall. But some fates refuse to be buried, and some secrets refuse to stay lost. Five years later, ‘Anne’ lives a quiet, content life as a bookseller’s wife and mother, her past a blank canvas. Yet, a hidden portrait holds the key to a truth more astonishing than fiction. When her true identity is unearthed, two worlds collide, shattering the peace she’s built and resurrecting a love she cannot remember. Suddenly, Arabella is a stranger in her own skin, confronted by a husband she doesn't recognize and a life she cannot recall. Her heart is torn between the tender present and a forgotten past. Can a love lost to amnesia be truly rekindled, or is some devotion destined to remain a beautiful, painful memory? As the echoes of her former life beckon, Arabella must navigate a labyrinth of emotions, choosing between the man who saved her and the husband who never stopped loving her. Will she embrace the woman she was, or forge a new path where two lives, and two loves, must somehow merge?