She was homeless... alone and penniless. It was the end of an era. Queen Victoria's reign was over and the Edwardian age had begun. Attitudes were changing. But the attitude toward women with blemished pasts remained rigidly the same. Thus the world was a miserable place for Rose Pargeter, an innocent girl unjustly burdened with a "reputation." Then she met Matthew Reynolds and new hopes and dreams filled her heart But they were dreams quickly marred by unspeakable evil--an evil embodied by the beautiful, scheming Veronica Smith....