Dowland S Mill

To Rose Bentley, Dowland's Mill seems a haven of comfort and order after the chaos of her own impoverished farmhouse home, so she is delighted to marry Michael, the owner's son. But once installed in the Mill, she sees a different picture.

The evening Rose Bentley takes a short-cut home across the marsh proves a fateful one. Panicked by the rising tide and struggling on a sprained ankle, it is no wonder she imagines seeing a dead body in a mud-drowned gully. Her rescuer Michael Dowland, the brusque but attractive son of the mill owner, assures her there is nothing there. In the cosy warmth of the kitchen at Dowland's Mill, visions of dead bodies do seem far-fetched, and soon Rose begins to fall in love with both man and house. Once installed in the Mill as Michael's wife, Rose sees a different picture. Despite her gentle manner, Mrs Dowland rules her family with a rod of iron. More worrying to Rose is the change in Michael who is no longer the loving man she married. But Rose is only beginning to discover the truth about the family at Dowland's Mill . . .

When Edward Price-Carpenter arrives in Wyford, Essex, he immediately catches Cassie Jordan's eye. Handsome and persuasive, the young man has come to oversee work on his father's racing yacht, and takes lodgings in the Falcon Inn where Cassie lives with her family. As romance blossoms between them, Cassie finds herself torn between the man she loves and Luke Turnbull, a childhood friend whom she is destined to marry. Though she raises a family with Luke and lives an outwardly happy life, inside Cassie is tormented by thoughts of her lost love Edward and longs for a way to be reunited with him. When tragedy strikes, will Cassie finally learn where her true affections lie?

For Abigail Chiswell, the Colne river front in Colchester, Essex is a second home. With its own sights and sounds - of crowded quaysides, fishing smacks and packed oyster barrels - it means more to her than all the lofty rooms and comforts of her father's home. When she falls for local fisherman Matthew Bateman, Abigail's family loyalty is stretched to breaking point. While Hiltop House represents the pinnacle of her father's wealth and success, for Abigail its very luxury keeps her from the life - and the man - she loves. She followed her heart and gave up a life of luxury. Will she find a way to thrive in the new and unfamiliar world she's facing?