England, October 1911
England, October 1911Rowena Pepperwirth dashed along the lawn of the winter-browned grass of the Hampton House gardens. A gust of wind wrenched her hat from her head but she didn’t stop running to chase it. Terror gripped her heart and blood pounded a violent tempo in her ears.
There was only one thing that mattered. A little girl in a blue dress and white pinafore, who could not be older than three, was climbing onto a stone fountain edge about fifty feet away. A fountain Rowena had seen up close only yesterday and which she knew with dreaded certainty had a very slick ledge…The icy water inside was thickly dotted with lily pads. If the child fell, she could drown as she scrambled to get free of the watery vegetation.
A distant roar filled her ears and her palms s
