Two of the houses at Beldame are still used. The third house, filling with sand, is empty...except for the vicious horror which is shaping nightmares from the nothingness that hangs in the dank, fetid air.The McCrays and Savages, two fine Mobile families allied by marriage, have been coming to Beldame for years. This summer, with a terrible funeral behind them and a messy divorce coming up, even Luker McCray and little India down from New York are looking forward to being alone at Beldame.But they won't be alone. For something there, something they don't like to think about, is thinking about them...and about all the ways to make them die.

    She is without pretext and assumes that a bright future awaits her as the bride of the wealthy Oliver Foy. Too soon she discovers that her life is a masquerade and pretense her only salvation. No one is whom he or she appears to be.Brushing against the concealed identities and hidden motives of others, Emma quickly acquires secrets of her own. When murder compels Emma to flee her husband's Jamaican plantation, she and her faithful friend find sanctuary wandering the Caribbean. Tragedy cuts short their ocean idyll and delivers Emma from her sea roamings. Once again, she adopts another name, another home, another appearance.

    Now it belonged to Arthur Tresize, a returning seaman who purchased the house, the land -- and his fate, with gold ill-gotten from a noblewoman veiled in mystery.Tresize and his family grew richer with each passing year. But strange mishaps and tragic misfortunes befell them with the vengeance of a curse unheeded. Death, betrayal, madness, heartbreak, and murderous hatreds worked their evil through three generations. Until the family's pride and prosperity and all they had built were as broken dreams in the dust.Yet in a young man's passion for a beautiful woman was the promise that the sorrow haunting the Old Priory might now give way to the joy of love.

    The first story is about a witch that turned a whole wedding ceremony into wolves. She likes them coming to her cabin and howling their misery for it soothes her. The following story is about a young lady and a man that are about to have sex on their wedding night. As they get ready, the husband says he needs to stop and relieve himself in the forest. The wife waits and he never returns. Off in the distance you can hear a wolf howling. She then figures her husband will never return and marries a new man. With her new husband she bears children. Her first husband comes back and sees his wife and the story unravels... Later we meet a girl walking in the woods. She was loved by everyone and feared nothing. She made a deal with a hunter; whoever can get to the grandmothers house first wins. If the hunter wins she owes him a kiss. She lets the hunter win because she wants to kiss him. The hunter arrives at the grandmothers house but she's frail and sick, holding a Bible for protection. The last thing she sees is the young man at the foot of her bed.... "See! sweet and sound she sleeps in granny's bed, between the paws of the tender wolf."

    Contents:Foreword"The Hairy Ones Shall Dance""The Black Drama""The Dreadful Rabbits""The Half-Haunted""Vigil""The Third Cry to Legba""The Golden Goblins""Hoofs""Letters of Cold Fire""John Thunstone's Inheritance""Sorcery from Thule""The Dead Man's Hand""Throne on the Threshold""The Shonokins""Blood From a Stone""The Dai Sword""Twice Cursed""Shonokin Town""The Leonardo Rondache""The Last Grave of Lill Warran"

    Only her father, Willoughby Tetford, a self-made millionaire, was shrewd enough to have any misgivings when his lovely daughter left America. Willow herself, innocent, and deeply in love with her new husband, had complete trust and confidence in the future as she arrived at Victorian England. Willow happiness seemed complete when Lady Clotilde Rochford, the matriarchal French grandmother, handed her the keys of the house and told she was the new Chatelaine, Willow believed she held the keys not only to the multitude of rooms of which she was now the mistress but also to love and happiness. And when On her arrival, she is greeted warmly by her four brothers-in-law: Tony, quiet and studious; Pelham, teasing and flirtatious; the spoilt Francis; and the sensitive Rupert.Gradually disillusion set in as Rowell proved to be cruel, unfaithful and greedy. Willow didn't know her dowry had saved the Rockford family from destitution or that the estate was ruled by the ruthless Grandmere who would stop at nothing to protect the family's reputation. Old Lady Rochford obsessed with past events, of which Willow is ignorant, wreaks fearful havoc on Willow's life. Although bitterly disappointed with her life, Willow maintained her beauty and dignity as the years passed. The only thing she did know was that over the years, another man was touching her heart, a man who represented everything that her husband was not, stiring her sould, and arousing passions she could not deny....

    But Pippa returned to find the truth behind her sister's mysterious death. And suddenly the fairy-tale kindgom glittered with evil and danger . . .

    Meg, genteel social butterfly, marries Will, outcast clergyman, only to find she cannot tolerate the life of a rural pastor's wife.

    But she was not the only daughter James Hammond had - there was the quiet sister Nanine and Phoebe, the child of a light-skinned slave. Virgie burned with shame at the thought of Phoebe - sweet-tempered and, except for her dark skin, enough like her to be her twin.Still it was a good world and safe until the Yankees invaded Valcour Island...woman-hungry men whose passion was as savage as the war that had split the country asunder...

    

    There were no happy returns of the day, however, for someone was trying to murder the wise old matriarch. Then time ran out, and as terror enveloped the big house, Beth discovered that she had played right into the hands of a killer...for Death was the uninvited guest at the birthday party....RIEVAULX ABBEY (1975)Letisha Harraton was dead. She had willed her house and her fortune to her grandniece, Jane Warren. But in fact, Letisha Harraton was very much alive -- as Jane discovered when she arrived at the mist-ridden ruins of Rievaulx Abbey and found that the inheritance was a mistake -- a cruel joke, with death itself as the master jester.