Salt and Sea Lavender

His passage to freedom is booked. His family's livelihood is vanishing. And the woman who could save it is forbidden to marry him.

Barnaby Quennell can turn almost anything into a joke: his father's disgrace, the family debts, even the Excise officer counting every grain of their salt. But behind the easy grin lies one fiercely guarded ambition.

He wants to go to sea.

At last, he has a berth aboard an East Indiaman sailing from Portsmouth in September. Then his father falls ill, leaving Barnaby responsible for the salterns, the boiling-house, and the licence that keeps Sea Lavender House afloat.

Leaving was supposed to be the beginning of his life. Now it might cost his family theirs.

Miss Mercy Whitlock has little patience for charm and none for careless accounts. The daughter of a Quaker merchant, she says thee to lords and no to anyone. For two years, she has corrected Barnaby's arithmetic by letter, one exasperating penny at a time.

Then the Excise unlocks the salt store.

Forty bushels are missing. The figures do not agree. And the family could lose everything.

Mercy can untangle three sets of ledgers at once. Barnaby is beginning to suspect she can see through him just as easily. As they search for the missing salt, their familiar disagreements become conversations neither wants to end.

But Mercy's faith and Meeting forbid her to marry him. Barnaby still has a ship to catch. And somewhere in the accounts lies a secret that could destroy the home he is no longer certain he wants to leave.

For once, a clever answer will not be enough. Barnaby must tell the truth about what he wants-and Mercy must decide what she is prepared to risk for it.

Salt and Sea Lavender is a warm, witty Regency romance about a restless young man, a forthright Quaker bookkeeper, and a summer of missing salt and inconvenient love. Book Eight of The Sea Lavender Saga can be enjoyed on its own.

A clean and wholesome romance with a gentle mystery, no explicit content, and a happy ending assured.