The Broom-Squire

A foundling raised in a roadside inn. A broom-maker with money but no heart. A love she cannot speak. When a grieving sailor leaves his infant daughter at the Ship Inn in Surrey, the parish stipends her keep and the Verstage family raises her as their own. Eighteen years later, Mehetabel has grown into a woman who brings light to the dim tavern, until Jonas Kirk, the Broom-Squire, decides he needs a wife. He's older, materialistic, and accustomed to getting what he wants. Meanwhile, Iver, the boy she's loved since childhood, still works in the stable, and the spark between them burns brighter each day. Mrs. Verstage sees opportunity in the broom-squire's attention and pressures Mehetabel to accept. After all, she's 'only a charity girl' with no dowry, no family, no future that doesn't depend on someone else's mercy. What follows is a dark tale of manipulation and violence, one that compares to the work of Hardy and Eliot for its unflinching look at what society costs those born without privilege. This is a story about a woman caught between safety and desire, between the life society offers and the love her heart demands.