There is one catch to her sudden windfall - she must share the wealth with a taciturn and oddly attractive young man who has an entire town stirring up rumors - about murderous secrets and a dark legacy. Now Meg is about to learn the truth behind an old adage: all that glitters is not gold....

    She desperately needed employment, and the fact that she signed her letter of application with initials instead of her full name was only a slight deception. The position at Cheviot Chase was her last chance, and she approached it with high hopes. But Janet’s life darkened the moment she set foot inside the ponderous, dimly lit stone mansion, for the halls of Cheviot Chase were dark and empty, the servants sullen and bitter.What was it about Cheviot Chase that doomed its occupants to tragedy? Already strongly attracted to her handsome employer, Janet refused to admit that Lord Rathbone might have played a part in the sinister events that were only whispered about – even when she learned that his first wife had hurled herself into the sea and his second, a madwoman, had burned down the East Wing. And where was Lady Rathbone now?Janet soon realized that she was no longer a mere observer of the frightening drama taking place at Cheviot Chase. She was at its center. And her very life was in mortal danger.

    Now, at eighteen, her long awaited return to Glengarra Castle in County Down was a bitter disappointment. Once again, she was an exile ... in her own home. Her father was a frail shadow of his former robust self: her brother Hugh, embittered and violent; her childhood sweetheart, hostile to the Kincaids and quick to turn his back on Elly. Naively determined to mend her family's fences, Elly agreed to meet the dark-browed Gavan Mitchell--if only to learn why Hugh was so insistent that she marry the eccentric lord of Bonnie Brae Castle. Powerfully drawn to the brooding, intense Gavan, Elly was determined to ignore the whispered threats, the hints of ghosts and banshees, even the startling sight of a pale woman in her mirror, standing behind her...Then Elly heard the wailing sounds from the Tower. Someone was trying to terrify her ... trying to sap her strength... trying to make her a prisoner...

    As a child she had vowed to never set foot in the tainted towers, but now, destitute and alone, she had no choice but to accept her aunt's grudging offer to take her in, at least for awhile...

    But as she left behind all that was familiar to venture into the unknown, she felt strangely apprehensive. And her apprehension only increased when her arrival at the castle-like Penrose House coincided with the coming of the Black Wind, an event, so the local people said, that presaged disaster. Strange looks, cold welcomes, and most of all, the stern, unyielding, contemptuous manner of her employer, writer-historian Justin Penrose, seemed to conspire to send her home again. But Nicola was determined to stay, even after learning the horrifying fate of the previous secretary, a young lady to whom Nicola bore an uncanny resemblance. Then the 'accidents' began. Nicola had unwittingly stirred up secrets better left hidden. And the Black Wind was blowing once more, about to claim yet another innocent victim.

    So when handsome, brooding Hunter Latimer offered her a post as governess on Dark Thunder Island, Faith didn't listen to his warnings that the place was not for the fainthearted -- and that for long stretches of time she would be alone on the dismal, fogbound island with only a frail and timid woman and her high-strung, sleepwalking child.Emboldened by Hunter's confidence in her, and strangely drawn by the glint of adventure in his dark eyes, Faith approached her new position with a high heart -- only to find herself shunned by the hostile islanders and the darkly taciturn housekeeper of Latimer House. She fell prey to a series of small accidents too contrived to be coincidences, and she realized, finally, that someone was trying to keep her from learning the secrets of Dark Thunder Island. Even the enigmatic Hunter Latimer could not be trusted. For he was at the very heart of the evil that swirled around her...