Shadows of Amanda — Helen Nuelle

Kate Banion was already considered an old maid at twenty, in the South of 1859. Lovely Kate had plenty of suitors but she was no flirt, as her coquettish sister Amanda had been. But now the beautiful Amanda was dead and Kate's parents had taken action--they sent their rebellious daughter to visit her relatives at Amber House, sure that she would catch a husband in this romantic setting.

As Kate journeyed up the Mississippi, its dark secretive waters brought back childhood fears-and the more recent tragedy of Amanda's death in these very waters, as she traveled home from Amber House. But was Amanda really dead? Kate soon found that the old plantation held many shadows, and the truth about her sister's disappearance was hidden within them. Was that why her handsome cousin Dirk Amberton was tenderly passionate at one moment, mockingly cruel the next? Was he jealous of Kate's interest in charming Winston St. John--or determined to insult her until she left Amber House?

But Kate could neither abandon hope of finding Amanda nor resist the lure of Dirk Amberton's too easy charm. She chose to stay--and found that her gentle upbringing had peen no preparation for the fury of love and hate that soon surrounded her.

Hero: Dirk Amberton
Heroine: Kate Banion