The True North Series by LTR Durkin

Where His Trauma Found Its Voice, And Her Logic Found Its Heart.Enter the oppressive, melancholic world of Aldwick Park, 1919, where the dust motes drift like ghosts and the silence is a scream waiting to happen. Viscount Samuel Underhill has returned from the Somme, a mute, shell-shocked, and shattered man. He is a ghost lost inside his own home, his mind a hostile territory, condemned by a cruel, grief-stricken father who sees his illness as a moral failure... moreWhere His Trauma Found Its Voice, And Her Logic Found Its Heart.Enter the oppressive, melancholic world of Aldwick Park, 1919, where the dust motes drift like ghosts and the silence is a scream waiting to happen. Viscount Samuel Underhill has returned from the Somme, a mute, shell-shocked, and shattered man. He is a ghost lost inside his own home, his mind a hostile territory, condemned by a cruel, grief-stricken father who sees his illness as a moral failure.His only sanctuary is the cavernous, decaying ancestral library.A Sanctuary Built on Shared SilenceWhen Miss Isabella Sedgewick arrives, a fiercely intelligent, pragmatic scholar hired to catalog the neglected books, she brings not romance, but order.Isabella, hardened by her own war-time grief, sees Samuel first as a problem to be solved, using her logic as armor against the world's chaos.Over slow, claustrophobic days, the two become Silent Companions. The library’s quiet shifts from oppressive to companionable, their proximity an unspoken pact against the decaying world outside.The relationship is a masterclass in slow-burn intimacy, building not on grand declarations, but on small, meaningful an accepted cup of broth, a silent offer of aid with a heavy ladder, and the electric brush of fingers over a fallen book.The First Word is a WeaponThe fragile peace is shattered when the cruel Earl demands Samuel abandon the estate—and Isabella—to marry a cash-rich heiress. This transactional brutality threatens to crush Samuel's fragile, newfound world and force Isabella's logical, heartbreaklingly sensible decision to abandon him.The crisis gives Samuel his voice, culminating in a frantic, desperate race to the train station. His first words of love are not a poetic confession, but a raw, vulnerable admission of absolute "I am lost when you are not there. I... I need the library to be as it was.".The Silent Library is a gothic, melancholic, and deeply intimate romance—a stunning novel of healing that leaves you breathless with the slow-won triumph of human connection over the silencing weight of trauma. Perfect for readers who crave profound character depth and an unyielding, intellectual connection. less

Their Secret Alliance Against a World of Duty, Scandal, and Society's Electric Lie.The war has moved to a new front. Having fled the suffocating quiet of Aldwick Park, Samuel and Isabella arrive in the frantic, sharp world of London's Mayfair, trading one gilded cage for another. Samuel is the reluctant heir, expected to be "sold" to an iron-magnate's heiress. Isabella is demoted to a mere "secretary," exiled to a cold attic room, her status as Samuel’s ally erased... moreTheir Secret Alliance Against a World of Duty, Scandal, and Society's Electric Lie.The war has moved to a new front. Having fled the suffocating quiet of Aldwick Park, Samuel and Isabella arrive in the frantic, sharp world of London's Mayfair, trading one gilded cage for another. Samuel is the reluctant heir, expected to be "sold" to an iron-magnate's heiress. Isabella is demoted to a mere "secretary," exiled to a cold attic room, her status as Samuel’s ally erased.The Social War of the "Ton"The Dowager's Leading the charge is the formidable Dowager Duchess of Alnwick, the system personified. She orchestrates a brutal social campaign, framing Isabella not as a partner in Samuel's recovery, but as a "scheming, clever" vulture taking advantage of a "poor, shell-shocked" man.Weapon of The aristocracy, the "ton," deploy the "polite cut," staring through Isabella as if she were furniture. Humiliations escalate from passive contempt to calculated, public shaming, forcing Samuel to use a small, clear act of loyalty—placing his own suit jacket over her stained dress—to defend her.A Crucial Their one light in the cynical world of Mayfair is Lady Honoria Glynn, a witty, scandalous "Bright Young Thing" who finds the aristocracy a suffocating bore. Honoria becomes their social shield, using her high status and sharp tongue to carve out a rebellious foothold.The Conspiracy of the LedgersWhile Samuel is trapped in drawing rooms, Isabella uses her role as secretary to unearth the the family's finances are in ruin, and the expected dowry is merely a desperate bailout.Radical Working in secret, first with the forward-thinking solicitor Mr. Marsden and then in late-night meetings in Isabella's attic room, they forge a plan. The only way to save Aldwick is to destroy its old break the entail and sell the land to the tenants.Partnership of This secret work solidifies their bond. They are no longer patient and helper, but co-conspirators, their strategic trust more intimate than any society declaration.The Climactic DefianceThe saga accelerates to the grand ball, where the engagement is expected. The stakes are submit to duty and save the family's name, or choose truth and ruin.The As his father prepares a toast, Samuel makes his revolutionary move, walking to the center of the room and holding out his hand—not to the heiress, but to Isabella.The Declaration and His voice clear and public, Samuel refuses the heiress, declares his intent to marry Isabella, and announces his "treasonous" plan to break the old estate model. The Earl’s fury is "You are no son of mine. You are disinherited. Not a shilling.".The Kiss of They walk free, ruined, but united. In the carriage, the adrenaline-fueled terror gives way to an exhausted clarity, sealed with a kiss of desperate "We have begun.". less

To Defeat the Past, They Traded a Title for a Farm, and Class for a Community.Samuel and Isabella are now Earl and Countess of a beautiful, yet completely bankrupt ruin. The old Earl’s death leaves them with a mountain of debt, compounded by a second set of death duties. The manor is cold, the staff is gone, and their "victory" in London has led them to absolute, isolating financial collapse.The Dignity of Dirty HandsThe battle is no longer against society, but against red ink... moreTo Defeat the Past, They Traded a Title for a Farm, and Class for a Community.Samuel and Isabella are now Earl and Countess of a beautiful, yet completely bankrupt ruin. The old Earl’s death leaves them with a mountain of debt, compounded by a second set of death duties. The manor is cold, the staff is gone, and their "victory" in London has led them to absolute, isolating financial collapse.The Dignity of Dirty HandsThe battle is no longer against society, but against red ink.The The couple makes a choice that shocks the they abandon the decaying main house, the symbol of aristocracy, for the small, stone, and practical steward’s cottage. Their new life is built on essentials.The Samuel, the shell-shocked heir, puts on work boots, his hands blistering and raw. He begins the grueling physical labor of mending fences and clearing ditches, finding his true strength and purpose not in his title, but in the soil. The work is grounding and a tangible form of healing.The Brains and the Isabella's pragmatism is their greatest weapon. She is the brain of the operation , managing the ledgers, negotiating with creditors, and fighting bankers with numbers, her logic and intelligence their sharpest defense. They are general and frontline soldier, their strategies entwined.The Final Math vs. IdeologyAs the Aldwick Cooperative—a new model of owner-operated farms—takes root, the past delivers its final blow.The Dowager's The formidable Dowager Duchess of Alnwick returns. Horrified by the "squalor" of their work and their abandonment of their class , she files a petition to have Samuel declared legally incompetent. She uses his documented shell shock and his "irrational" behavior as weapons.A Triumph of The climax unfolds in a tense courtroom hearing, a clash between two different centuries. The Dowager's case is one of ideology, class, and norms. Samuel and Isabella's case is one of math, work, and survival.The Mrs. Mallory's heartfelt testimony , a tenant farmer's grudging respect , and Isabella's meticulous ledgers, which prove the estate's previous insolvency and their cooperative's first profit in seven years, silence the old world. The judge dismisses the "Math has beaten ideology".The Warm, Restored LibraryThe saga closes in 1928, years after the victory. Aldwick is the land is a thriving cooperative , the main house is repurposed as a community school , and the library—their sanctuary—is warm, restored, and filled with the sound of their children's laughter.The Future We Built is an earnest, pastoral, and deeply satisfying novel of mature romance and rebuilding, culminating in a powerful crescendo that proves their legacy is not in their blood, but in the future they built, by hand, together. less