Lucas

Lucas follows on from the story of Whisper, focusing more fully on the orphan's life before he came to be a middle-aged man rescuing Britney from her world of abuse. In this book, we discover just how Lucas found himself growing up and then taking in the stray waif. When the boy's parents die unexpectedly from sickness, the family's neighbours end up taking him in. Lucas likes the Copperley children, but is afraid of not being welcome in the household when he accidentally overhears their parents talking about him. Quickly, Lucas decides that village isn't for him anymore and chooses to spend a life on the road, constantly drifting from town to town, searching eagerly for his place and somewhere he could belong. During this course of aimless wandering, the boy finally stumbles across Seth and Ruby Rodgers and begins working for the friendly, easy-going couple, eventually being adopted by them. Lucas enjoys running the carpentry business when he's older, but wonders if there is anything else for him, and the sudden arrival of the mistreated, terrified little girl brings even more responsibility upon Lucas' shoulders than he ever thought possible. Lucas loves the child deeply, but his strength of character is severely tested – will Britney ever learn to trust him? Or has the memory of her drunken father been ingrained so intensely within her heart that she will never welcome another man's presence ever again?