Book excerpt: Their love was as young and hopeful as the new century ... Emily Ramsden knows that her feelings for John Hanley go far beyond teenage infatuation. It is love, pure, strong, and as glorious as the surrounding English countryside, and John shares her passion with all his heart. But soon the young man Emmie adores is violently driven from her, leaving her to struggle beneath the thumb of a brutal, domineering father ... and at the mercy of a man with dark ambitions. Yet, through years of heartbreak and pain, through the crushing trials of a life left in tatters, the memory of a promise will never fade from Emmie's mind. And when all hope seems withered and dead, one word reignites a long smoldering ember, sending a determined woman off on a remarkable search for a once-in-a-lifetime love lost but never forgotten.