Captive of Sin
On a cold February night in 1821, Sir Gideon Trevithick finds an exhausted, ragged, dirty girl hiding in his horse’s stall at an inn in Winchester. She says she’s Sarah Watson and had been set upon by highwaymen. Gideon sees through her lies, but Sarah, or rather, Lady Charis Weston, England’s richest heiress, thinks he believes her and accepts a lift with Gideon to Portsmouth where she means to hide. She desperately needs to escape Winchester before her evil stepbrothers catch her. Charis tries to escape in Portsmouth, but Gideon is too quick for her. In the end, she accompanies him to his home in Cornwall. In a place so remote, she is bound to be safe, but she isn’t. Gideon’s solution is to elope with Charis to Jersey in the Channel, and return only after she reaches her majority, in three weeks. Charis has her secrets; Gideon, his demons. She thinks her love can save him; he knows his love will destroy her.
Ms Campbell has done an excellent job of building suspense. The first two-thirds of the book are enthralling. One character disappears in the beginning and reappears at the end without explanation. Otherwise, Captive of Sin is a terrific read.
