Elmsly Manor has been the home of the Earls of Rathingar for centuries. It is old and outmoded, so it is not surprising that the young and beautiful socialite that the current earl married was not happy there. It was not long after Leonard Barrons, Earl of Rathingar married Anna Smythe, that there first and only child was born, and rumors flew that it had been a marriage to avoid shame, rather then one of love. Soon after Anna began to spend more and more time in London, and it was common knowlege that she was not faithful to her husband. Thus, when she died from falling down a flight of stairs, five years into the marriage, rumor said that he had been responsible, although an inquiry by police found him blameless.
The truth, however, may be stranger then fiction. No one has seen Lord Rathingar between the hours of dawn and dusk since his wife's death, and the people of the local village now avoid Elmsly Manor at all costs. But Leanna, Leonard's daughter, still needs cared for, and educated as befits a woman of her station. This he has hired a governess, from York, a certain Miss Joanna Bronte.
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