Autumn is for love and labor strikes.

Life for Vera Yarde has always been difficult. An orphan, she’s had to support herself since childhood. At one time, she pursued a career as a ballerina, which was ended by a traumatic experience, forcing her to work in factories. Recently, she received a promotion, making her forewoman at the local textile mill, an unprecedented job for a woman. For the first time in her life, food is plentiful and she can afford to live in a quaint countryside cottage, far from smoggy, crowded city streets.

But the unhappy employees stage a walkout, demanding better pay. Torn between the workers to whom she relates and a boss who can take her wages away, Vera leaves the mill without a solution. As she sets out, she stumbles across a soaking-wet, unconscious man who washed up from the river. At death’s door, he goes home with her so she can find out why he was by the mill with nothing but an old newspaper. When he comes to, however, the mysterious man has no memory of anything. Not even his name.

Because he clearly isn’t working class, Vera names him Lord Shawforth. While she is temporarily off work and figuring out how to make employees and employer happy, the pair tries to revive Lord Shawforth’s memory. But as the days pass, the mysterious man fills a hole in Vera’s life she didn’t realize existed. And as they grow closer, deep down, they both know once he recovers, he must go home to a part of the world in which Vera will never be accepted. And neither of their lives will ever be the same.

Tropes you'll enjoy:

• Amnesia

• Class difference

• Wounded hero

• Autumn/Fall

• Forbidden romance

• Forced proximity

• Reformed rake

• Independent heroine

• Pirates

• Labor unions