Court of the Thorn Tree — Patricia Maxwell

PRIDE BEFORE A FALL

Lovely Margaret Stewart was a proud and spirited lady -- too proud to accept the unwilling hospitality of her only living relative. But in strait-laced New Orleans early in the 19th century, there were few means for a respectable young woman to make her own way in the world -- and that was why Margaret came as governess to the forbidding Villars mansion.

In her charge was a child who seemed possessed by satanic evil. Invading her dreams was the darkly handsome, fierce tempered man who employed her. And closing in on her were hate and fear and mystery, as the dark abyss of the sinister past opened to receive her…