The Seven Sapphires of Mardi Gras — Vickie Britton

Orphaned and utterly alone, Louise Moreland had only one solace: she had inherited her mother's beloved Louisiana plantation, Evangline. Planning to restore the lovely old mansion and make it her home. Louise boarded a steamer for New Orleans. She was eager to meet her Uncle Edward who lived on a nearby plantation, and his adopted ward, Nicholas, a Confederate War hero.

But Evangline was not the place Louise had imagined, the lavish plantation of her mother's fond recollections. It was a charred ruin ... and it was not empty, as she had expected. Brooding, intense, driven, Nicholas Dereux was living in the burnt-out house, tormented by a terrible secret, obsessed by a shocking plan ... and waiting for someone to return to Evangeline -- in time for Mardi Gras. And though he was drawn to Louise as she was to him, it was was not Louise that he was waiting for. And as long as she stood in his way, she was in deadly peril.