When I finished this book, my first reaction was that I did not like it.  But as I thought about it, I did in fact enjoy the book and it was the characters I did not like.  As the story progressed, it was obvious that Nicholas was a pompous, arrogant bigot who would essentially stop at nothing to get what he wanted.  While taking into account that the story is told from Nicholas' point of view, if he is to be believed, Etna was a cold, stand-offish woman, who never should have married this man.  While she was a product of her time, and there were woman who had no choice but to marry men they did not love, she, on the other hand seemed to have options.  While the letters between Etna and Phillip shed some light into her personality, I found it difficult to understand why she would reveal so much to him.  Was she perhaps using him to get back into Samuel's life?