Kitty Alone

Kitty Quarm is a dreamer born into a practical world. At Coombe Cellers, her aunt and uncle run the farm and store while her father roams the Devon countryside chasing impossible schemes, leaving Kitty adrift in a household that has no patience for her sensitivity. The stars and tides claim her attention far more than the business of making a living. When John, the wealthy farmer's son, crosses her ferry and loses his heart to her, it seems fortune might finally smile. But Rose Ash has marked her claim, and Kitty finds herself pulled between an earnest suitor, her own otherworldly fascinations, and the arrival of a new schoolmaster who sees her as she truly is. Baring-Gould paints the Devon coast in rich detail while dissecting the quiet cruelties visited upon a girl who feels too much in a world demanding she feel nothing at all.