Miz Lucretia of Falconhurst — Ashley Carter

Old Master Warren lies in bed a-grievin' for his son, Ham, who fled Falconhurst after a black baby dropped from the womb of his lily-white wife. Now the South's greatest stud farm is run singlehandedly by the splendid, raging amazon of a woman who is a slave in name only....

But trouble comes strolling down the road in the persons of distant cousins Vesta and Bower Ledbetter. Sweet-talking poor Master Warren into accepting them into the bosom of his once-grand home, that scheming white woman Vesta arouses the darkest suspicions of Miz Lucretia. As if Lucretia doesn't already have her hands full teaching the farm's newest stud, Satyr, the arts of love, now she must stop wicked Vesta from invading and destroying her world.

Falconhurst itself--its past glory, its future promise, even its crumbling present--is the prize that locks white woman and black in a fierce battle only one can win.