Treasures on Earth - Jessica Stirling

TREASURES ON EARTH

Perhaps, on that wild winter’s night, fate led Highland drover Gaddy Patterson to the old sheep hut in the Lowland parish of Balnesmoor. For there she stumbled upon the body of a dead girl and her abandoned baby, and her life was changed for ever.

To save the child from the poorhouse Gaddy adopted Elspeth and settled on a piece of land rented from the laird, Sir Gilbert Bontine. Unable to survive on dreams and determination alone she befriended Coll Cochrane, a farmer whose life had been dogged by ill-fortune and a half-mad wife.

Gaddy helped restore Coll’s fortunes – and aroused his passion. But the birth of Anna caused shock and outrage in the tight-knit community where sin was taken seriously, no more so than by the ruthless and cunning parish clerk, Weaver Moodie.

Shunned and reviled, Gaddy and Coll nevertheless carved out a destiny which, as the years passed and the rich pasture lands of the Lennox became a battleground for passion, greed and power, Elspeth and Anna would inherit and fulfil