Thank you for the much-needed lessons in patience and for teaching me the joy that comes in the smallest of hugs. Prologue ^ » Miss Emery's School for Genteel Young Ladies Bath, England December 1816 The hillside blared with the trumpet's strident cry. "Ahead! Charge ahead!" cried Colonel Darby. And his troops did so, with Lieutenant Throckmorten leading the brigade against the ruthless and barbaric Mughal hordes. Miss Darby, seated astride Champion, watched the battle from the safety of the hillside, a spyglass to her eye. At her side, her ever faithful wolfhound, Ajax, stood at guard. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched her beloved Lt. Throckmorten rush into the thick of battle, the dust and smoke swallowing him immediately from her sight. Lady Lucinda Witherspoon paused in her reading and glanced up at her rapt audience. While the lights in their dormitory should have been out hours ago, the young ladies under Miss Emery's charge braved both the chill that seemed never to leave their school, as well as Miss Emery's ire, to huddle around Lady Lucinda's bed to hear this final chapter of Miss Darby's Darkest Hour.
