Helpful Score: 1
This is one of the best of Victoria Holt. Includes scandal, seduction, suicide and murder. One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, and seven for a secret never to be told. This rhyme leads to the key to murder.
Helpful Score: 1
cant put this book down a real must for romance lovers.
A great read.
suspense and romance-in 1992 this was a main selection of two popular book clubs
Riveted to the end.
From the Inside flypage of the book:
One for Sorrow,
Two for Joy.
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy.
Five for silver,
Six for gold.
And seven for a secret
never to be told.
It was a simple childrens rhyme. Yet somehow it held the key to a tragedy that hovered over the seemingly idyllic hamlet of Harpers Green. Though sad circumstances had brought the young Frederica Hammond to her new home in Wiltshire, she held fast to hope and to dreams of a bright future. Frederica was rapidly befriended by her new classmates: gentle Rachel Grey and Tamarisk St. Aubyn, the headstrong but somewhat frivolous daughter from the local estate. Together these three would grow to womanhood. Together they would see the peaceful façade of their surroundings crumble under the weight of secrecy.
There was worldly, handsome, Gaston Marchmont; what motives lay beyond his calculating charm and unrelenting questions? Then there was the arrogant lord of St. Aubyns manor, Tamarisks elder bother, Crispin. Frederica found herself drawn to this enigmatic man. But what could ever come of the strange bond between them, founded in a conspiracy of silence? And finally, there was Lucy Lane and her demented sister, Flora, Crispins one-time nannies. What unthinkable tragedy had made reality so impossible for Flora to bear? And why did a childrens poem act as a constant reminder of a past that could never be revealed?
One for Sorrow,
Two for Joy.
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy.
Five for silver,
Six for gold.
And seven for a secret
never to be told.
It was a simple childrens rhyme. Yet somehow it held the key to a tragedy that hovered over the seemingly idyllic hamlet of Harpers Green. Though sad circumstances had brought the young Frederica Hammond to her new home in Wiltshire, she held fast to hope and to dreams of a bright future. Frederica was rapidly befriended by her new classmates: gentle Rachel Grey and Tamarisk St. Aubyn, the headstrong but somewhat frivolous daughter from the local estate. Together these three would grow to womanhood. Together they would see the peaceful façade of their surroundings crumble under the weight of secrecy.
There was worldly, handsome, Gaston Marchmont; what motives lay beyond his calculating charm and unrelenting questions? Then there was the arrogant lord of St. Aubyns manor, Tamarisks elder bother, Crispin. Frederica found herself drawn to this enigmatic man. But what could ever come of the strange bond between them, founded in a conspiracy of silence? And finally, there was Lucy Lane and her demented sister, Flora, Crispins one-time nannies. What unthinkable tragedy had made reality so impossible for Flora to bear? And why did a childrens poem act as a constant reminder of a past that could never be revealed?
Frederica is brought to the hamlet of Harper's Green by tragedy. She is drawn into the lives of its inhabitants: Aunt Sophie, Rachel Grey, Tamarist St. Aubyn and his brother Crispin, Crispin's former nannies, Lucy Lane and her demented sister Flora. Frederica is drawn into a strange realm where the specter of past and present secrets cast a frightening shadow over her heart. Peaceful surroundings crumble under the weight of seduction, scandal, suicide and murder.
I have not read much by this author but I really enjoyed this book. The plot held my attentionâ¦and trying to figure out the meaning of the clue provided in the jingleâ¦.also the title of the book.
Tragedy brought young Frederica to the idyllic hamlet of Harper's Green. But as she grew from child to woman, she became powerless against her love for the enigmatic Crispin Tamarisk, and drawn more closely to his family's secrets and curses that seemed directed to her....
