His Harlot · A Midsummer's Sin

Goodman Thomas Marlowe needs a wife. He loves his neighbor’s beautiful and sensual bondswoman Rosalind Abramson but for all the wrong reasons. A love based on lustful desires is not a worthy reason to marry a woman. And there can be no sex outside of marriage in Puritan New England. Valiantly, he fights to keep his feelings hidden. Yet he has been a widower for over a year and he burns inside with his fiery passionate desires. He can't eat, he can't sleep, he can't think of anything but his lovely Rosalind. He's reaching a breaking point and facing a painful decision.

Rosalind yearns for the handsome Goodman Marlowe. Yet beneath his kind action lies a cool distance that tells her he cannot forgive Rosalind’s shameful past. She’s determined to deny an infatuation with a man who will never respect her.

Thomas knows he needs a wife. It is better to marry than to burn. However, he cannot focus on finding a bride while the unsuitable Rosalind is always so close and so alluring. Now he’s about to take a teaching position in another town. It’s the perfect escape for a man tormented by unacceptable carnal desire.

Late one night, in the midst of a summer’s hot spell, Thomas spies Rosalind in the woods, clad only in her shift, dancing in the moonlight. It’s really more than a man celibate for three years can bear. Thomas is in danger of falling into a sin so powerful it threatens to challenge everything he thinks he knows about himself and life…

*** SHORT NOVELLA ~~ 21,778 words in length ***

This book is published in British English and uses British spelling.