Then, the dream changed. Cold green eyes bored into hers from a hidden face. A hood shrouded the stranger, revealing only a pale, thin countenance, with mean, narrow lips compressed in a straight line. In the dream, Philomena heard Samuel, her guardian, speaking quietly, telling her not to be afraid, but her fear was real. Something terrible was happening.

She awoke with a start. She shivered, cold, shaken and bathed in sweat and knew the dream was not the figment of a tired mind. It was a true memory, from long, long ago when she lived with Samuel. Over the years, it had haunted her at night. During the day, she could hold it at bay, and she’d fought so hard against it that now, it only rarely returned.

Philomena had always known she must make a lonely way in the world, with no man by her side, and no hope of love. The stranger with the green eyes at the centre of her terrible secret made any other dream impossible. She shuddered. One day, the stranger would return to destroy any life she made. Her escape to Bristol had been more than just a flight from Joseph. No, she prayed that the man with the green eyes could never find her, hidden on the other side of England.

The man’s existence, somewhere unknown, blighted all her hopes and dreams. Philomena could never find a man to love. She must live alone in the world that could be so cruel to a woman, bound forever to the furtive stranger with eyes full of menace, by ties that could not be broken.

He was her husband. Philomena did not know his name, nor why she had been married to him while still a child, barely eleven years of age. She had hardly understood what happened on the day Samuel gave her a new dress and took her to the cold, unwelcoming church. She shivered with terror beside the hooded stranger, trying not to look up into those green eyes, as Samuel made half-understood vows on her behalf. The man with the cold green eyes, now her husband, disappeared as soon as the short, surreptitious ceremony ended. She never saw or heard of the man again.

That day changed her life forever. Philomena trembled at the memory. She prayed she would never meet the man again, for she feared the cold of those green, cat-like eyes. Growing up, safe under Samuel’s kindly protection, she learned that one day only skills as a dressmaker would keep her from penury. She must build a life as a single, lone woman.

She’d dreamed today of the green eyed stranger, her husband. The dream was a warning. She must put away any ridiculous notions about Lord Thatcham, who in any case was as far above Philomena as the moon. He felt only mistrust and dislike for the newcomer who arrived in foolish disguise. By the by, he had a wife. Philomena was determined to care for no man. She would think no more at all about the Master of the Hall.