The Yellowhammer's Cradle — Sally Spedding

According to ancient folklore in Scotland and northen England, the yellowhammer bird is said to drink a drop of the Devil's blood every May Day morning, but for pretty, young, Catriona McPhee in rural Argyll in 1846, this mere titbit will never satisfy her dark soul. From the day she arrives to work as a maid at Ardnasaig House on the bleak shores of Loch Nonach during the time of the Clearances, she brings a growing fear to those already there. Yet nothing â€" not even her shocking secret â€" will dent her ambition. However, Janet Lennox, the housekeeper's plain, less-educated daughter, harbouring her own tragedy, has other ideas, and soon a dance to the death begins. As winter chills the vast rooms and freezes the bottomless Loch Nonach, who, within that haunted, granite prison, will live, and who will die?