Rating: PG
Sex: kisses (I think a sexual interlude is implied, but I'm not sure)
Language: a few Lord's name in vain
Violence: arson, attempted murder, murder, suicide
HEA or Cliffhanger: HEA
Do I need to read books before this one: no
Would I read more of the series: no
I found this story to be repetitive. The same ideas were thought over and over and over. The story didn't have very much dialogue, which means the characters weren't developed very well and especially not in relation to each other. We didn't see the romance grow because we didn't see their interaction enough. Point of view changes abruptly. And we never know if Sarah was doing anything with painting. The only reason I gave this 2 stars was because of the lesson to choose to find your way instead of choosing to be a victim.
----SPOILERS----
Sarah and Mary are each other's best friends as well as cousins, and they vow to never marry. If they do, Mary will give up a lock of her hair, her point of pride. Sarah will give up painting.
New York City, 1886
Sarah is determined to find out if Peter killed Mary. Peter was on the brink of financial ruin, Mary was killed one night while he was in a drunken stupor at the other end of the house, and miraculously his finances recovered. Their son, infant Christopher, was blinded by the glass where the intruder broke through the window. Mary's last three months of journals were never recovered. Sarah's going to tutor 6yo Christopher and pretend to be blind.
Christopher asks to be part of the interview. Two women arrive, Mel Frank and Sarah. Peter is instantly taken with Sarah. Sarah is instantly taken with Peter. She gets the job. Ruth Holland is cold. Mel is trained in Braille.
Ruth is Peter's half sister, almost 40. She's against having a teacher live in the house, against having a female teacher.
Saturday, Sarah moves in. Peter learns from Mel that Sarah "lost" her sight the same time she lost her fiancé. She never had a fiancé.
Peter had been in the process of becoming an adulterer when his wife had been killed. Mary had left his bed and his body was hungry. When they'd married, he'd told her he liked her but didn't love her. She'd tried, but they hadn't had time. His business started failing less than 6mo after they married, and that got all his time. No affection for her. When Mary started sleeping in the nursery, he reapplied himself to his business and brought it back to health. Her money is still untouched, waiting for when Christopher is grown up. Cecile Morgan, widow, invested in his firm. Lovers at times since Mary's death. Mary thought they'd been lovers. She'd hoped her moving into the nursery would bring him back to her.
Ruth comes to visit Sarah, threatens her and tries to get her to leave to protect Christopher.
Cecile wants Peter to stay with her at the meeting, he's tried to get away three times. Finally Peter's home, goes to Sarah's room, hears her crying. Just like Mary.
Sunday, Mel wakes Sarah with gossip. Peter's alibi lives in the house: the maid he was about to have sex with.
Sarah is teaching Christopher Braille, and he says his dad says he's smart like his mom. Peter is watching. She seems familiar to him. He invites them to go on a walk. He makes her agree to first names, and she whacks him in the leg with her cane. Peter buys them all taffy and flowers for her. He tells her she's beautiful and imagines kissing her.
Cecile barges into the house, accusing Peter of not meeting her and a client. He has to invite her to dinner. She wants to meet Sarah.
Sarah has dinner in her room and falls asleep. Something wakes her up. She smells her lilacs and then the fire. She gets out of the room, screams for help, and Peter gets her. She takes Christopher and goes outside while Peter fights the fire. She realizes her tea was drugged. Peter finds them, Ruth takes Christopher, Peter takes Sarah to Mary's room. She begs him to let her sleep. Her eyes tell him she's not blind.
Mel wakes Sarah. She's picked up more clothes for her and a new pair of glasses. They discuss the fire; someone doesn't want them there. Mel leaves, Sarah explores Mary's room. Peter comes in wearing only pants. She gets ideas. So does he.
In the nursery, Peter explains colors as feelings. Sarah has Christopher feel her face and Peter's. Peter invites her to see him. He holds her face. She leaves.
Mel confirms the maid's the alibi. The maid also told her how Ruth introduced him to Cecile. Cecile's mother-in-law claims Cecile poisoned her son months after meeting Peter, then Mary is killed 3 months after that. Sarah discovered Mary's portrait of them has only been folded, that Mary still loved her.
Peter hires a detective. Sarah takes Christopher to the park with Mel; he follows. Someone deliberately tries to run over her in the road. He's a bit romantic that night.
Mel comes to her room. Sarah knows she's being watched by someone outside, and she's got to search the study, so Mel will pretend to be Sarah in the meantime. A woman is watching Sarah through her bedroom window, sees 2 shadows. She's the one causing the accidents.
Sarah goes to the library. He finds her. Kisses her. She tells him her true last name, and he knows who she is. I think they make love, but I'm not certain.
The watcher suffocates Mel, thinking she's Sarah. The watcher opens the window. Peter won't have an alibi. She goes into the hall and Christopher comes into the hall. She doesn't speak. Blind people are just a burden.
Sarah and Peter wake in the library in the morning, and he carries her to his bedroom. Christopher is asleep in his bed, having had a nightmare, so Peter carries Sarah into her bedroom. Mel is in the bed, dead.
Ruth sedates Sarah (Ruth uses laudanum a lot), but Peter has to wake her for the police. He recognizes the difference between Mary and Sarah is pluck and inability to hide feelings.
Sarah thinks the reason the cops don't like Peter is because he had started out in the same class as they, but his father had sent him to college and then left him every penny when he died. She tells them she was in the library all night with Peter, though it will run her reputation.
He asks her to marry him. No. He didn't say he loves her. She's not going to make the same mistake Mary did.
After the funeral, the cops decide a burglar broke in, killed Mel, and left without taking anything. They close the case. Sarah says she needs to leave, Peter begs her to stay, kisses her, and says I think I love you. She says I love you, and I'm pretty sure they make love. She leaves in the middle of the night.
Peter pulls her close, kisses her on the nose, but it's Christopher. Christopher swears the boogeyman was in his room again. He had told the boogeyman he smells like Aunt Ruth, and the boogeyman cried. Peter asks Christopher if he wants a brother or sister, yes of course and is Miss Sarah going to be my new mommy. Let's go ask her right now! Peter sends Christopher to do so, and if she says yes, he gets all the taffy he wants.
Christopher find Sarah in the library. She tells him that his father will have to find my answer to that question. She then confesses she's not a teacher, her last name is different, his mother was her cousin, and that she's not blind. He's glad she's not blind, because he hates being blind. He tells Sarah he's brave cuz he scares away the boogeyman that smells like Aunt Ruth. Sarah believes him that there's a boogeyman in his room. Christopher thinks the boogeyman lives in his closet because he found a book in there that smells like him. Sarah asks Christopher to take her to the book.
Peter goes to Cecile's office because Ruth gave him a note that Cecile was angry and he'd lost the Belmont account. He's certain that, though he's been distracted with Sarah, he would not have ignored or forgotten about Belmont. Cecile tells him she's loved him for a very long time, wants him to be happy, and she asks if he loves Sarah. He says yes, and Cecile says she'll continue to be his good friend. But they didn't have a meeting this morning.
Christopher gives Sarah the book; the scent reminds her of who was in her room before the fire was set. It's Ruth's journal. Ruth hates her father, his new wife, Peter, her father again, Peter again, Mary, and confesses to arranging for Mary's death.
Sarah has Christopher hide under Peter's bed with the journal, and tells him not to come out if Ruth calls. She gets out of the room and then encounters Ruth. Ruth invites her to have tea.
Peter comes home, finds Christopher, reads enough of the journal. He finds the two of them in the parlor, and Ruth sees the journal. She drinks three cups of tea before collapsing.
After Ruth's funeral, Peter give Sarah Mary's journal. Inside it, Mary confesses at the end of that she realized pride has kept her away from Sarah and from Peter and she's thinking about moving back into her room. There's also a lock of hair for Sarah.
Sarah goes to Peter's study to propose to him. He thinks she's come to say goodbye. She says, in light of her reputation, he should marry her. He laughs and asks her to propose again just to be sure.
Years later, it's their sixth Christmas together. Christopher's reading from the Bible to his two little sisters while Peter and Sarah talk about her soon-to-end pregnancy.