1 Prologue

Briar Blackwoode was the only child of the baronet and baronetess of Moorwick. She was undoubtedly the most inconvenienced by their sudden death. Briar was not the most affected; no, she was definitely not the most affected.

As her father would kindly remind her that she was his only legitimate child, the family estate would go to some distant relative, as it had to her father's second cousin Sir Hedley Blackwoode. Briar suspected that his sudden ascension brought him total happiness for a fortnight. Then, he must've realized that he was inherently broke.

The late Sir Harold Blackwoode could have been better with money, as he was a frequent member at the track and card rooms. Sir Harold was able to run his estate dry in a matter of two years after the succession of his father. There, Briar's grandmama had taken the bull by the horns and arranged a marriage between the baronet of Moorwick and the only daughter of an American tycoon, Ainslee White. Due to American's different views of inheritance, as Ainslee was the only child of a wealthy White family, the marriage between Ainslee and Sir Harold saved the Moorwick Manor.

It was soon discovered by Sir Hedley, something Briar never knew: there was a clause in the marriage contract that the White money would only be available to a White, her, Briar. Therefore, Sir Hedley became a baronet in name only, and none of the wealth. Where Briar was sufficiently wealthy, at least she would be by her twenty-fifth birthday.

"Miss Briar," Her handmaiden Elenor Duncan said softly as she entered her bedchamber.

Those legal bindings had led Briar to where she was that day. In a wedding dress, about to be wed to Sir Hedley, thirty years her senior. At eighteen, Briar was at marrying age, and Sir Hedley would be entitled to the White's wealth. However, this was not how she imagined her wedding day-a forced betrothal by her legal guardian to bring him wealth.

Her mother had always told her that wealth was power. Briar had power as a White; she could choose her husband, and her mother had promised that she would marry for love. If only her mother could see her now, she was sure Ainslee would be rolling in her grave with anger. Briar imagined that her mother was in front of her, brushing her bangs that could never be pinned back out of her face and telling her that nothing was impossible as long as they were together. Briar's fists clenched at her wedding dress' skirts as she bit her lip to prevent herself from crying. Her mother was her favorite person, and for her to do this, even against her will, without her mama, was getting to her.

"Oh, do not cry, Miss Briar!" Miss Duncan said as she rushed to Briar's side. "Your Mama would not want to see you cry on this... j-joyous day." She struggled with the word joyous.

Miss Duncan may be employed to the baronet, but her loyalties lie with Briar. She turned her head from the mirror before her, and her eyes drifted to the open window. Moorwick was a small country town, just large enough to have a baronet, as it did have a small dock that laid work for trading ships. Ships that led to somewhere out of here, ships that led to her freedom.

"Mama..." Briar started. She slowly swallowed as she began to again. "Mama had always wanted to take me to America. She said it was a shame that I never had been." She snapped her head towards Miss Duncan. "I do suggest that maybe it is time I should."

Miss Duncan's thin mouth turned into a smile as she understood what Briar was saying. Miss Duncan nodded her head and helped Briar scrunch up her wedding dress. As they opened the door, Miss Duncan stopped in her tracks. Briar looked in the hallway, scared that Sir Hedley would be there, but of course, he wasn't. He was at the church waiting for her to arrive for their nuptials.

"Miss Briar, I-I do not have enough to get you to America."

Briar's fingers toyed with the bracelet that was on her wrist. The bracelet her mother had given her two weeks before her death. She had thought of selling it before, running away with the money the bracelet had gotten her and away from this life. She never had the nerve to do it before now.

"I-I may." She said ever so lightly.

Miss Duncan's eyes drifted to Briar's wrist and widened with protest. "No! You may not! That is the only thing Sir Hedley has not taken away from you from your mama!"

She grabbed Briar's wrist and led her down the hallway, down the stairs into the servant quarters, and she hastily shoved Briar into the room of the door she was opening up. Miss Duncan closed the door hastily behind them, the light from the window illuminating the room. She ruffled through her drawers and mumbled under her breath as she searched. At last, it seemed she had found what she was looking for a pouch with drawstrings. Miss Duncan placed the purse in Briar's hand and closed her fingers around it.

"It's not much." She said as she sternly looked Briar in the eyes. "It should get you to London. When you're there; ask for a Rosamund Somerville; she should be able to help you from there." Briar looked into her handmaiden's eyes.

"Th-thank you." Tears threatened to spill from her eyes.

"You must work hard, Miss Briar." Her voice was a different tone. "You can make it to America and keep your mama close." She nodded towards her bracelet. "Let's go, we must hurry."

Miss Duncan grabbed her wrist and hurried them up the steps to the carriage, waiting for them to take them to the church. Briar's feet suddenly stopped working as she saw what awaited her. It was a carriage that had killed her parents and had taken her mama from her.

"Miss Briar now is not the time; you must leave." Her handmaiden said in a stern, motherly tone.

It had suddenly occurred to Briar that Miss Duncan had set this up. She had never intended to send Briar to her wedding to the baronet, and she was risking her job on the line for Briar's happiness.

"Come with me." She urged.

Miss Duncan just shook her head. "My life is here, Miss Briar."

The tears were now free-falling from her eyes that she did not put much more of a fight as Miss Duncan shuffled her into the carriage. Once she had shut the door when Briar was in it, Miss Duncan turned her attention onto the driver.

"As we had discussed, Mr. Brown, you are to take Miss Briar straight to Grosvenor Square in London. No stopping. He will surely be on your trail once he finds out what has happened."

Briar heard Mr. Brown reply to Miss Duncan but did not exactly catch what he had said. Her attention was too focused on her handmaiden, former handmaiden. Miss Duncan reached in through the carriage window and squeezed Brair's hand.

"Whatever you do, you mustn't sell that bracelet; promise me, Miss Brair!"

Briar nodded, as her voice did not seem to be working.

Miss Duncan pulled her hand through the window and looked at Mr. Brown. "Now get going!"

The carriage took off at full speed, and Briar never let her eyes off Miss Duncan until she was out of sight, as well as her childhood home.

She was no longer Briar Blackwoode, daughter of a baronet. She was just Briar, no inheritance, no family. Just her. She wasn't sure if she had made the right decision or if this was better than being married to Sir Hedley.

Briar shook her head. No. She would make it to America one day; she would find her grandpapa and her grandmama and be Briar White. She played with her bracelet for the majority of the ride to London.

She was never more terrified in her life.