A story of love and passion, laced with humour and intrigue.

Stella Ridgeford is a young woman from Devon who already has a feeling that her life is not quite as she would wish it to be.

About to marry John Fairley, a well-set young man who is a partner in his father’s firm of auditors and accountants, the fact is she still yearns for more carefree days when she used to help her own father make, grow and renovate things to sell on local market stalls. Not at all the sort of occupation which would be expected within her present social circle.

A short reprieve from her wedding day comes from an unexpected quarter. Her rich Uncle Willis requests her to go to Yorkshire for two months and look after Jane Reeves, a very close acquaintance of his who lives with her nephew on a farm. This seems ridiculous, except for the fact that he offers, in return, to buy Stella and John their first house.

Finally finding herself at Cragside, a farm in the wilderness on the Pennines, Stella gets on well with Jane but not the nephew, Douglas Grant, who seems exceptionally hostile to her. But thrown together as they are, there dawns an uneasy compromise and a smouldering desire which could either lead to the edge of abandon or be snuffed out forever.

Will Stella’s future lie on the rugged Yorkshire farm, or within the safety of a new home and marriage in Devon?

Born in Halifax, Yorkshire and educated at grammar school, Geoff Mallinson’s first work was with his family’s wire goods manufacturer’s business. His war service was spent in the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm, and he later left the family business for farming.

Married, with a daughter and son, he moved to Devon to run an antique and piano shop with his wife and daughter. It was at this time that his first two books of short stories were published.

He now lives in the Poitou-Charentes region of France; an ideal setting for him to continue with his writing and painting.