Marie Elena is a young mulatto woman, gracious, the epitome of beauty, highly respected by the de la Flores family and her peers alike. Favoured, Eléna enjoys living a unique and sheltered life on the fine Santa Clara estate in Trinidad. Well versed in the use of local herbs and medicines, Eléna regularly administers medical attention to household members and slaves living on the compound.

The Honourable Barry Wingate is British. On arrival in Trinidad, whilst travelling around on horseback, familiarising himself with the area, Barry accidentally collides with Eléna and is instantly in fascination of her beauty and velvety brown skin. When Barry returns to his quarters, his desires totally consume him to the extent that he is unable to erase the image of Eléna from his memory.

Forcibly suppressing their feelings and emotions, Elena and Barry reluctantly entertain the concept of a romance. They deliberately keep their distance, behaving civilly towards each other during each encounter. Elena dismisses ideas of romancing a white man and a foreigner knowing that life would be more peaceful with a fitting suitor, like the dashingly handsome mulatto, Albert Fontainebleau who is proposing marriage to her. Clutching at possibilities to win Elena, Barry realizes that he cannot remain in Trinidad as he is due to return to Britain where Elena would not be accepted by his family or the British people.

Valerie Belgrave writes, so movingly about the emotional turmoil of Elena and Barry. Maturing, Elena searches within for the truth to enable her to understand and come to terms with her reality. Barry is finding that the longer he remains in Trinidad he is becoming more alienated to Britain. The well rounded secondary characters are all significant to the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Delores
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
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