Selbury Quade, a perfect and peaceful six-

teenth-century estate, was built on blood and

cruelty by the ruthless Dame Margery Quade.

Since then, her relentless spirit has hovered

possessively over succeeding generations of

Quades, only to be reborn in her descendant

Imogen Quade. Imogen, an only child whose

parents are halfheartedly grooming her to

assume ownership of the estate one day,

wants nothing more than to possess Selbury.

Only her governess, Miss Annette Duval,

senses the depths of Imogen s obsession

with Selbury. And when a male heir,

Nicholas Quade, is born against all expecta-

tions, not even Miss Duval can bring herself

to believe the lengths to which Imogen, now

a lovely young woman making her debut,

will go to see that Selbury will pass to her

hands alone.

Nicholas Quade, cheated of his inheri-

tance, given up for dead by his heartbroken

father, will follow a very different path until

he sets foot in Selbury again. In the mean-

while, Imogen schemes and destroys to

achieve her heart s single desire, scorning

the love that comes her way, until she learns

that she needs her brother Nicholas after all.

The intertwined fates of Imogen, her

brother Nicholas, and Annette Duval

stretch from Victorian England--the Lon-

don of glittering ballrooms and the dark

alleys of the East End--to the young colony

of Australia, half a world away. The Quade