The Terror at Deercliff House — Gwynneth Davies

Patricia had been an innocent, love-struck girl when she was swept off her feet by handsome, fabulously wealthy Steven Howland. But the whirlwind courtship was over. Now Patricia was a bride, come to live with Steven in his old, isolated family mansion, Deercliff House. Now she was a woman, alone and afraid. -- No Longer could Patricia call her body her own, for a demoniac force seemed to have gained control of it, using it as a puppet to perform grotesque acts. No longer could she call her mind her own, for only madness could have produced the visions of terror in this house.

Patricia was on a honeymoon of horror, screaming through nights of fear, and shivering in her dawning knowledge of the hellish truth...


LOVE OFFERING


Steven's family was gathered for their St. Valentine's Day party. It was a family tradition, they told Patricia, and she could not refuse to attend this annual rite.


Patricia looked around her at these face she had learned to fear. Steven's mother, forever cold and hostile. His grandmother, old ill, paralyzed and mute. Her nurse, blond and voluptuous, who seemed to radiate a sensuality directed at Steven alone. And Steven himself, smiling, his gaze on Patricia as she opened the lavishly wrapped package he had given her.

“Just a little token of my affection, my dear,” he said.
Patricia lifted the lid -- and tried to stifle the mind-shattering scream welling up within her.
It is St. Valentine's Day, and naturally the gift was a heart…warm and still dripping with blood…