House of Closed Doors

Heedless. Stubborn. Disgraced. Small town Illinois, 1870: "My stepfather was not particularly fond of me to begin with, and now that he'd found out about the baby, he was foaming at the mouth" Desperate to avoid marriage, Nell Lillington refuses to divulge the name of her child's father and accepts her stepfather's decision that the baby be born at a Poor Farm and discreetly adopted. Until an unused padded cell is opened and two small bodies fall out. Nell is the only resident of the Poor Farm who is convinced the unwed mother and her baby were murdered, and rethinks her decision to abandon her own child to fate. But even if she manages to escape the Poor Farm with her baby she may have no safe place to run to.

Love or independence? Few choices remain for Nell and her new family on the Kansas frontier… Kansas, 1872. Unwed mother Nell Lillington hopes to support her daughter Sarah and friend Tess by working as a seamstress in an isolated seminary. When her only ally among the seminary's leaders dies, she must choose between returning to her old life in Chicago and remaining in charge of her destiny. As her talent as a dressmaker begins to win her commissions, Nell attracts the attention of two suitors: Reiner Lehmann, a wealthy senior student, and Judah Poulton, an impoverished professor. Shocking news from back home and another death at the seminary press Nell to make her decision. A disastrous winter journey, a treacherous game, and an impossible love could finally wrest control of Nell's life out of her hands for good.

For unwed mother Nell Lillington, 1876 Chicago-and her new wealth-offer the promise of longed-for independence. She dreams of a place in society for her daughter Sarah and contentment for her friend Tess. Yet how can she settle in a town where she's far too likely to run into Martin Rutherford and his glittering, faithless wife, Lucetta? Can she resist her love for Martin for Sarah's sake? Martin was doubtless joking when he told Nell that if she got herself mixed up with a murderer for the third time, he'd disown her. But when Martin himself is arrested for murder, Nell's dreams appear to be swallowed up in the new web of secrets she constructs to help him. Secrets that threaten to alienate Tess, Sarah, and even Martin . . . The third book in the House of Closed Doors series will take you to a Chicago teeming with opportunistic new Americans, luxury-loving merchant princes and hard-hearted denizens of the underworld.

Does love conquer all? Nell's not so sure. Adjusting to wedlock isn't easy for a woman whose initial aversion to the married state took her to the Poor Farm. When a tragedy out of the blue prompts her to repay past debts, her charitable instincts threaten to wreck her happy new life. What does she really want-and what does she really need? Attraction to an old friend shakes Tess's world. Can she change his indifference to love? Martin struggles with demons from his own past as he oversees the rebuilding of the store and the creation of a new home. Will his ambitions hurt those he loves the most? Young Sarah faces the antagonist who knows the secret that might ruin her future. Join the beloved characters from the House of Closed Doors series as we bridge the years between Nell's story and Sarah's, interweaving stories of love and despair, darkness and light in the turbulent Chicago of the late 1870s.