The Hungry Heart Fulfilled
Book 3 of The Hunger of the Heart Series
Shannon Farrell

Canada and Ireland 1848-1849

Emer Nugent has survived the hell of the Grosse Ile quarantine station in Canada with some help from the Bishop of Quebec and her friends from Ireland, and has embarked on a new life running an orphanage for the Irish emigrant children left parentless by the Famine and terrible fevers which have accompanied it.

She has never stopped loving Dalton Randall, the powerful shipping magnate, but can never forgive what she believes have been his many betrayals of her and her family.

Dalton's father Frederick is actually to blame for many of the deeds against Emer and her friends. He has done everything he can to separate the couple, and is one step away from achieving all his worldly ambitions.

For Frederick has convinced Dalton that Emer is dead, and Dalton is about to cave in to his manipulative father's demand that he marry the daughter of a business rival for the sake of their shipping company.

But a chance meeting draws the passionate lovers together once more. Dalton has never stopped loving Emer, and is determined to build a life with her, and a medical practice they can use to help benefit the poor, no matter what Frederick says.

Outraged that his plans for keeping the two apart have failed, and Dalton has no intention of marrying Madeliene Lyndon so their shipping merger can go through smoothly, Dalton's father has Emer arrested on false charges and transported back to Dublin.

The Ireland Emer returns to is not only still in the grip of the Famine, but also on the brink of civil war. Emer finds herself unwittingly embroiled in the 1848 rebellion, and is put on trial for her life.

Dalton must outwit Frederick if he and Emer are ever to be safe, and must travel half way across the world to try to rescue his one true love from the capital charge of treason before it's too late.

"No you don't, Emer. You're not getting rid of me that easily. I want some answers, and I want them now!" Dalton rasped as he backed her up against the wall until his stomach and thighs pressed intimately against her own.

Emer was sure she was going to faint from desire and fear.

"When I last saw you in August, you were in my bed, a poor governess, making love to me as though it meant everything in the world to you. Now I find you married to your fiance Garvan, whom you swore you never loved, living in a mansion with a troop of male visitors coming in and out of here at all times of the day and night. I want to know exactly what the hell you've been up to, and I'm not leaving here until you tell me the truth," Dalton threatened.

Emer shoved against his chest futilely as she struggled to escape from his tantalising nearness. "What I've done since August ceased to be your concern when you left me on Grosse Ile then, and never once tried to contact me except to...."

She halted before she could say the words "bribe me."

The Hungry Heart Fulfilled
Book 3 of The Hunger of the Heart Series
Shannon Farrell
Setting: Canada and Ireland 1848-1849
Word Count: 83,000
Rating: Sensual
    

CHAPTER ONE

MAY 15th, 1848

Emer tried to force herself to calm down on the ride home in the carriage from the Protestant cathedral for the sake of her unborn baby, and the rest of the staff and children whom she would have to face at Sunday dinner.

Dalton had been there, seen her, shouted her name, tried to run after her...

Dalton was engaged to be married in only a few days time, she reminded herself, trying to subdue the ache of longing suffocating her.

She took a few deep, ragged breaths, and did not dare meet the Bishop's eye.

They were nothing to each other, not even acquaintances. No one could know about their past together, or it would ruin his chances of a good match. She hoped that their departure from the Cathedral had not looked like the headlong flight it had actually been.  What on earth had he been thinking, shouting out her name like that?

And what on earth had happened to him, that she had barely recognised him, with dark circles under his normally vibrant golden eyes, and his silvered hair?

She pressed her hands together, and willed herself to think about her mundane chore list in order to rein in her riotous emotions. She needed to regain her composure, or they would all worry about her and wonder what had happened.

The two girls sitting beside her, Fiona and Fenella, seemed blissfully unaware of the calamity that had just befallen their wonderful friend, and chatted animatedly about all they had heard and seen, while Emer pondered on how much Dalton had changed since he had last seen him, as though he had aged twenty years in only a few months.

But any pity she might have felt for him was erased as she recalled the horrors of Grosse Ile, and the terrible death of her brother Cormac, as well as her other family members.

How could she ever forgive him for that?   And why had he come after her?  To cause even more trouble for her and her clan?

The Bishop did not speak openly of what had just happened, but instead tried to help Emer take her mind off things by asking if they could go over the household accounts as soon as they got back.

"I want to see just how well your little workshops at the back of the orphanage are doing, and see if I can put it to the next Committee meeting that money for supplies and materials to institute such a system in our own parish home would be money well spent."

"Yes, of course, we can do that before dinner.  You are staying, aren't you, Bishop?" she said quietly.

He gave her an encouraging smile. "Of course, I wouldn't miss Sunday dinner with our giant family for anything in the world.  Oh, by the way, Adrian has had to attend an emergency meeting of the fever hospital board in my stead, due to our appointment at the cathedral, so he apologises in advance if he arrives a bit late."

Her auburn brows knit. "What sort of emergency?"

"We need to start hiring staff, for we've received word that the river is free of ice, and so more immigrant ships will be arriving at any moment."

"My goodness, how horrible.  If it's anything like it was last year, it will be a nightmare," Emer sighed, and shuddered. "I only wish I could help."

"You did enough for the poor souls on Grosse Ile last year.  You have yourself and all the children to think about now," the Bishop cautioned as he helped her out of the carriage and up the front steps to the house.

The Bishop was right. Her pregnancy had made her ungainly, and she had her family and child to think about. She rubbed her belly and aching back, and waddled into the foyer with a sigh.

"Run along, girls, and tell Marion you're home safely," Emer instructed as she went into her study.

She removed her hat and sat down at the desk to tally the figures the Bishop had asked for, forcing all thoughts of Dalton to one side as she opened her ledgers.

Dalton was nothing to her now, nothing, and never could be.   The Bishop had every confidence in her. The children were counting on her. She simply could not afford to let them down.

Dalton would not come after her. He had paid her off, end of story. Forget it ever happened, and get on with your life, she counselled herself, and bent her head toward her work once  more, even if her heart refused to stop yearning for one touch, one kiss, one sensual caress...

After half an hour had passed, she heard a tap at the door, and without bothering to look up, said, "I'm glad you're finally here, my dear Adrian.  Marion's cooked your favourite dishes today, and she'd have murdered you if you'd been late."

The palpable silence in the room forced her to glance up. There standing before her was Dalton.

"Mr. Randall," Emer gasped, rising to her feet, while her heart sank. He had found her.

"Mrs. Dillon, I believe." He stood staring at her as though she were a ghost.

She resisted the typically feminine urge to put her hand to her hair to smooth it down. She recollected with a pang just how dreadful she must have looked on the Pegasus all the weeks they had been together as lovers. So there was certainly no need now to worry about her appearance now.

Besides, what did it matter anyway, she thought defiantly.  This was the man who had foully betrayed them all.

They stood staring at each other for several moments, until a movement behind Dalton made her recollect where she was.

With a warning look from the Bishop, who was returning from his inspection of the workshops in the outbuildings, she said with as much composure as she could, "How rude of me.  Please, do come in.  I'm sorry, I was busy writing down some important information the Bishop requested from me.

"Please, Bishop, do come in and help yourself to sherry, and sit by the fire.  It's rather cold for May, isn't it?"

She couldn't believe how easily the mindless small talk came out, but then, hadn't she been feigning indifference to Dalton long enough in order to make sure no one realised how much she had truly loved him?

She felt a complete fraud, but she was determined not to let him know how much his cruelty had hurt her.

Dalton raised his eyebrows at her cool hauteur.  It was as though she had been born in this splendid mansion, had never known a days want in her life, though he knew this couldn't have been further from the truth.

"Er, thank you, sherry would be delightful. Will you have some too, Mrs. Dillon?" Dalton said, clearly confused by the whole state of affairs, and wondering why the Bishop was staring at him so warily, just as the maid had done.

Sissy had been terrified for a moment that Dalton was the same man who had so upset her mistress on Grosse Ile. Despite the silver hair, she realised that this gentleman was much younger, and so she had eventually agreed to let him in to see Mrs. Dillon.

"A sherry would be most pleasant," the Bishop agreed. "Don't get up. I'll be happy to pour for all three of us, my dear."

Emer nodded and thanked him.  Then she bent her head to her task again, and tried to get the swimming numbers to add up as she listened, all her senses painfully heightened by the strain of seeing Dalton again, while the Bishop poured three glasses of sherry and chatted with Dalton about the weather.

Dalton brought one glass over to her, and she assiduously avoided touching his hand as she took the beverage from him.

Then he sat down as closely to Emer as he could, where he continued to stare at her face, which had grown considerably paler since she had first stood up beside the lectern in the cathedral.

He gazed in fascination at her lovely profile and hair, but as his assessment travelled downwards, the bulge of her stomach filled him with anger. After all they had meant to each other, she had actually married Garvan Dillon, and shared a bed with him?

That the child might be his never occurred to him, for Emer at nine months was only as big as most women were at six.  What he had overheard about her in the cathedral, and her thinking he was a man called Adrian when he had walked in, also twisted his guts into knots.

Had she become a rich man's mistress in order to help her family?  Where was Garvan?  But if it were true that she had fallen so low, then why was the Bishop here?

But all of Dalton's burning questions remained unanswered as the Bishop engaged him in small talk about the shipping business and politics, and avoided all mention of what had happened in the cathedral.

She thought all was going as well as could be expected until the Bishop said, "Perhaps while you're visiting, you'd like to have a look around.  Emer has created a lovely home here."

"That would be most er, enlightening," Dalton hesitated, but Emer said quickly, "No, no, I'm sure Mr. Randall is a very busy man, and wouldn't be interested in touring an old rambling mansion where the floorboards jump up to trip you every time you walk past."

Then she rose from the desk with her completed list of figures, and handed them to the Bishop.  "All finished.  I think they're fairly clear, but if you could just look over them for me?"

On a second small piece of paper she had written the words: He's dangerous.  Help me get him to leave before he causes trouble.

The Bishop nodded, and said, "I understand it all perfectly."

He was just about to suggest that Dalton might like to accompany him back to town to pick his brains about the number of immigrants he projected would arrive in Canada that season, when the door swung open and Adrian entered without any announcement from Sissy, thus looking for all the world as if he were the master of the house.

He strode straight up to Emer and kissed her on the cheek, as was his wont, while he apologised, "Sorry I'm late, my dear.  Dratted meeting took forever.  I'll just go wash my hands and join you in the dining room."

He paused for a moment as he saw Dalton, and then stooped to shake him heartily by the hand.

"Dalton, my dear fellow. Delighted to see you, old chap, delighted.  It's been so long.  And to think we've done nothing but chat about you all morning in our meeting, and here you are in the flesh.  Marvellous, really, I am so pleased, eh what?

"Emer, darling, I do hope you don't mind if I invite Dalton to dinner, do you?  I have so much to talk to him about, and he was a particular friend of mine years ago, before he took to globetrotting around the world."

"Well, er, Adrian, I'm not sure, you would have to go ask Cook, and in any event, I believe Mr. Randall was just leaving," Emer stammered.

"Ah well, if you must go.... Another time then, dear fellow.  Must dash now, I'm famished.  Come along, Emer, the children will be waiting. And I'll wager anything you like that you've arranged all my favorites, darling. My mouth is watering at the prospect of your roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. "

"Why don't you and the Bishop go in then, say grace, and I'll join you in a minute, dear," Emer suggested quickly, as she tugged on the bell pull for Sissy as though her life depended on it.

Dalton had little choice but to follow Emer to the front door, where Sissy handed him his hat.

Emer said,  "Thank you so much for stopping in to visit us, but as you can see...."

"Thank you, girl, that will be all." Dalton glowered at the maid.

Sissy scurried away from him as though he was the devil himself.

"No you don't, Emer.  You're not getting rid of me that easily.  I want some answers, and I want them now," he rasped as he backed her up against the wall until his stomach and thighs pressed intimately against her own.

Reviews:

This third novel of the Hunger of the Heart series is no less remarkable than the first two. In this book, Dalton and Emer are reunited at last, and Datlon starts to discover the full extent  of his father's lies and manipulations.

Dalton was set to marry Madeleine Lyndon in four days' time, until he discovers his one true love is still alive. The news shakes his entire world, and everything he has ever believed to be true about himself and his life.

While Dalton is still reeling in shock, one thing is certain: he loves Emer, not Madeleine, and will move heaven and earth for them to be together at last.

Emer and Frederick Randall both race against the clock, she to protect Dalton, he to rid him of the one woman who can ruin all his plans for domination of the Atlantic if the Lyndon marriage and merger don't go ahead.

He kidnaps Emer and her newborn son, with the most appalling consequences.  Emer is deported back to Famine-ravaged Ireland, and this is just the start of her remarkable adventures.

The details of the less well-known 1848 rebellion in Ireland make for fascinating reading, and once again, the strong hero and heroine never fail to fascinate and scorch the pages with their heated passion.
Another fabulous page-turner from this talented writer.
Evelyn Trimborn, Harlequin Hearts

Wow. What a gripping tale.  Dalton and Emer meet again at last, and gradually, Dalton begins to discover his father's lies and machinations against his beloved. Due to the evil Madeleine Lyndon, Emer nearly loses her life. She gives birth to Dalton's child safely, but is left crippled, and feels that things can't get much worse.

She doesn't calculate on Frederick Randall's hatred, for he steals her son and has her beaten and put on trial for arson, and sentenced to transportation to Australia.

Shipped back to Ireland to await the next convict ship for Botany Bay, Emer manages to escape, but it is out of the frying pan and into the fire. For the potato has failed yet again, leaving Ireland open to the kind of revolutionary civil unrest that has been springing up all over Europe in 1848.

Dalton, desperate to find his beloved, must fight to save Emer from imprisonment and execution for treason.
This nail biting third book in the Hunger of the Heart Series is a remarkable conclusion to an already fantastic saga.
Jacinta Carey, The Starbuck Saga
 

Highly Recommended
Under the Covers Reviews
I was thrilled at the prospect of Dalton and Emer finally being reunited at the end of The Hungry Heart, but in The Hungry Heart Fulfilled, Dalton must save Emer and his son William from his evil father Frederick, who will stop at nothing to control Dalton, even if it means kidnapping their child and killing Emer.

Her new set of challenges in some senses is just beginning, for she is crippled, bereft of her beloved and her baby, and becomes embroiled unwittingly in the 1848 Rebellion in Ireland. I was fascinated by the details of the uprising and its leaders, and couldn't want to see how the evil Frederick would finally be foiled and Emer and Dalton's love would at last win through.

Emer and Dalton are an unforgettable couple, and The Hungry Heart Fulfilled is the kind of novel that resonates long after you've finished reading it. This is a wonderful book filled with marvelous characters who come alive on the page, and keep us hanging on their every word and deed. Under the Covers Book Reviews,  Highly Recommended

The wonderful historical saga Hunger of the Heart and the love story of Emer Nugent and Dalton Randall comes to a rousing conclusion in the third book, The Hungry Heart Fulfilled. This is an action-packed page turner with sensual elements that scorch the pages.

Emer is just as engaging a heroine as ever, noble, principled, loving. Dalton really comes into his own as a man who has made many mistakes, not least of which is trusting his father when he tells Dalton that Emer died of fever. The old man cleverly manipulates Dalton into an engagement with the wanton Madeleine Lyndon in order to get their hands on the Lyndon steamships.

When Dalton realizes his beloved is still alive, both Madeleine and Frederick try to get rid of Emer, with the most shocking results.

If ever a couple deserve to be together, it's Emer and Dalton. This page-turner had me on the edge of my seat holding my breath waiting to see what happened next, rooting for this marvellously sensual couple the whole way. Enjoy!
Annabelle Stevens, Love's Sweet Song

Back to The HerStory Books Home Page

© HerStory Books 2010 http://www.herstorybooks.com All Rights Reserved.