CLARE FLYNN
HISTORICAL FICTION - MODERN THEMES
In the darkness of empire,
their fate was written in the stars...
Ceylon, 1906: Stella Polegate steps off the ship in Colombo harbour. As her father’s unofficial research assistant, she’s thrilled to explore this island of ancient temples and verdant tea plantations - yet painfully aware that her brilliant mind will remain uncredited, simply because she is a woman.
When her father’s doctoral student makes unwelcome advances, Stella’s carefully ordered world shatters. She finds an unexpected ally in Norton Baxter, a principled young civil servant whose growing disillusionment with colonial rule mirrors her own questioning of societal constraints.
Should she accept the limitations imposed upon her gender or fight for the academic future she deserves? And can she trust Norton when every man in her life has sought to control her destiny?
From the misty highlands of Kandy to the bustling port of Colombo, Stella’s journey becomes a defiant quest not only for love but for the freedom to become the author of her own story.
Ceylon, 1908: Stella Baxter returns to the island paradise that once promised her everything — haunted by her father’s death and the brutal assault that left her with a baby she cannot love.
Her husband, Norton, is waiting for her in Colombo. He rescued her from scandal, he sees her worth, and his steady presence offers something Stella had given up on: a chance to heal. At last, she can turn to the work that still binds her to her father, preserving his precious academic legacy.
But the arrival of the Government Agent’s wayward daughter, Cynthia — abandoned by her lover and desperate to salvage her reputation — ignites forbidden desires within Norton’s own family. As secrets unravel and the respectable façade of British Ceylon begins to crack, the fragile new life Stella has built is caught in the fallout.
Soon the mistakes of the past resurface, and Stella must fight to protect not only her father’s legacy but her own future.
