The Cider Maker's Secret

<p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Herefordshire 1763: the year Parliament's new cider tax threatens to crush England's orchard keepers.</em></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Elizabeth Whitcombe has weathered frost debt and the quiet condescension of men who think a widow should sell her orchard and fade away. But when a Crown assessor arrives to enforce the hated tax she must outwit the law itself armed only with a stillroom's craft and a ledger's worth of stubborn resolve.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Nathaniel Carter has crossed the Atlantic carrying secrets and scars he swore he'd never confess. Drawn not only to the Whitcombe orchard's wild beauty but to the woman who keeps it alive he finds himself risking far more than coin or reputation. When a single forged folio buys them only three days' grace their fates entwine in a dangerous wager of trust and desire.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>As winter grafts turn bare branches toward spring Elizabeth and Nathaniel must decide what they are willing to risk: the orchard they've fought to save the fragile family they are building or the love that could root them both.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Cider Maker's Secret is a slow-burn historical romance of resilience and redemption where hope takes root in wounded ground and the sweetest harvest is love itself.</strong></p><p></p>