A Portrait Is Worth a Thousand Words and Elizabeth Hartford’s portrait spoke volumes to me; even before I saw it in person. Poet, philosopher, storyteller, and sorceress who set her own style, she left behind reams of writing I poured through as a child. Her words and image inspired me, yet she remained a mystery. Nothing evokes that mystery, that sense of her more than the portrait her lover, Judith Cross, left behind. The portrait hangs in Hartford Hall and now my cousin, Fiona Hartford; heiress to all that Elizabeth left behind, is inviting me, another heiress to share in that fortune. There’s just one problem. I’m not an heiress, I’m not even a girl. Yuri, Judith Cross’s descendent and an artist in their own right, can make me look like an heiress, a heroine out of a Gothic novel, if I’m willing to deceive my cousin. I want this so badly, to go to Hartford Hall, to live where Elizabeth once lived; breathe in the same air Elizabeth once breathed. Yuri fears my fate will be like a Gothic heroine if I go, that danger and disappointment await me, but it’s a chance to get closer to my idol. I would risk everything to get closer, no matter what sinster secrets Fiona may be hiding.
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