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Tokyo 1876
The swoon-worthiest gentleman in Tokyo’s foreign quarter expects proper spinster Emmy Thurlow on his arm for this year’s Yuletide affairs. He’s a fellow citizen of the British Empire, her brother’s longtime associate, and an aristocrat who shares her irrational hatred of beets.
What more could she want?
Sachio.
The Japanese diplomat’s imminent departure for England has left her a shell of herself, aching for what can never be.
Sachio Miyoshi rues the night he left Emmy under a canopy of fire-red maple leaves after she confessed her love. But he must protect his country from colonially ambitious Western powers. Crossing his British counterpart, Emmy’s brother, is unthinkable. He has no choice but to resist confessing how much he, too, suffers the impossible.
But he can give her a present.
Innocent though it seems, his gift incites a brutal confrontation that lays bare the weight of society’s dictates, just as it exposes the strength of their bond.
Opposing cultures, political uncertainty, recalcitrant siblings, and pompous aristocrats demand Emmy and Sachio accept their obligations. But their forbidden love is a force with which to be reckoned and will challenge their world.
Excerpt from Forbidden
Chapter One
December 23, 1876
Tokyo, the foreign quarter of Tsukiji
Emmy Thurlow was numb. Surrounding her in the Grand Oriental Hotel’s dining room, guests offered toasts, conversed merrily, and sang snippets of holiday songs in French, English, Italian, Russian, and German. They sucked down oysters topped with sea-salty salmon roe and chewed on roasted wild boar with apple and juniper chutney. Unattached men filled every seat around the oval bar, their uproarious conversation raising the din to unbearable heights.
It was a grand bacchanal of Yuletide joy, and Emmy felt none of it.
Winnie leaned forward. Golden curls bobbed and brushed her peachy cheeks. The daughter of an American missionary and Emmy’s brother Clarence’s betrothed, she was always leaning, swaying, and jiggling. “Emmy? Will you be joining us?”
Clarence washed down his boar with a gulp of blood-red Australian wine. “You will join us, won’t you, Emmer?” The familiar, desperate edge filled his voice.
You will give Roderick a chance, won’t you? You will think about what’s going to happen after Winnie and I marry, won’t you? You understand our circumstances are changing, don’t you?
Practically from the moment Clarence had proposed marriage to Winnie, Emmy had been grinding her teeth at his desperation.
Now she had to join them ... where exactly? Of course, at the ball. “I’ll certainly be joining you,” she replied.
Pieces of their conversation had wafted through her veil of grief. They’d been talking about the annual Tsukiji Women’s Society’s New Year’s Eve Ball. It wasn’t as though Emmy could plead a headache and avoid the affair. Clarence would accuse her of not making an effort, and Winnie would insist upon staying home to observe her condition. Then Clarence would fret about Winnie having to play nurse and tell Emmy she was being selfish.
She forced a smile at Clarence and Winnie, then presented another to Roderick Battersby, seated beside her. Presumptive heir to the viscountcy of Palmersford and the last member of their quartet, he had impeccable manners, a charming disposition, and an irrational hatred of beets, something she happened to share. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
Winnie clasped her hands. “The ball will be perfect for their debut.” She glanced back and forth between Emmy and Roderick.
