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This dazzling debut novel for fans of Mrs. Poe and Longbourn explores the scandalous historical love affair between Branwell Bronte and Lydia Robinson, giving voice to the woman who allegedly corrupted her son's innocent tutor and brought down the entire Bronte family.Yorkshire, 1843: Lydia Robinson - mistress of Thorp Green Hall - has lost her precious young daughter and her mother within the same year. She returns to her bleak home, grief-stricken and unmoored. With her teenage daughters rebelling, her testy mother-in-law scrutinizing her every move, and her marriage grown cold, Lydia is restless and yearning for something more. All of that changes with the arrival of her son's tutor, Branwell Bronte, brother of her daughters' governess, Miss Anne Bronte and those other writerly sisters, Charlotte and Emily.