PORTRAIT OF EMMA

Emma, scarred by smallpox as well as paternal hatred, reluctantly cancels her arranged marriage to Edward Murray when her father defaults on the dowry. She meets Edward again some years later in the household of Silence Southwick whose second husband had been murdered not long before Silence is also permanently silenced. There's her romance--(in fact, two) as well as the coveted portrait of her, next best only to the real Emma. . . . Not just another period pig in a pokebonnet--a different story handled with a semblance of respect for these early New England fives and times.