Sophie was only a teenager, but she already had the emotions of an adult woman—at any rate where her stepbrother Robert was concerned.

She had always adored Robert, and her feelings had never lessened with the years. But her whole family—including Robert himself—disapproved, and did everything they could to discourage her affection for him.

It was only the fact that she felt certain Robert really felt as attracted to her as she was to him that gave Sophie any hope at all. In spite of the fact that Robert had now produced a fiancée, Emma Norton, who appeared to have a hold over him with which Sophie could never compete.