I second Mary Stewart's
Nine Coaches Waiting. I had been thinking of nominating
Airs Above the Ground or
The Ivy Tree, but instead of another Stewart novel, I'll nominate Victoria Holt's
Mistress of Mellyn.
Quote:
Mount Mellyn stood as proud and magnificent as she had envisioned...But what bout its master--Connan TreMellyn? Was Martha Leigh's new employer as romantic as his name sounded? As she approached the sprawling mansion towering above the cliffs of Cornwall, an odd chill of apprehension overcame her.
TreMellyn's young daugher, Alvean, proved as spoiled and difficult as the three governesses before Martha had discovered. But it was the girl's father whose cool, arrogant demeanor unleashed unfimiliar sensations and turmoil--even as whispers of past tragedy and present danger begin to insinuate themselves into Martha's life.
Powerless against her growing desire for the enigmatic Connan, she is drawn deeper into family secrets--as passion overpowers reason, sending her head and heart spinning. But though evil lurks in the shadows, so does love--and the freedom to find a golden promise forever...
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And because I can't possibly leave out the third of the big three, I also nominate
Lost Island by Phyllis A. Whitney.
Quote:
From a New York Times–bestselling author: An island off the Georgia coast holds the memory of a broken heart and the secrets of a woman’s past.
It’s been years since Lacey Ames last saw Hampton Island, where she grew up amid the sandy marshes with her childhood sweetheart, Giles Severn, and her cousin Elise—and where Elise had stolen the man Lacey loved. Lacey never forgot the hurt and betrayal she once suffered at Giles’s grand family home of Sea Oaks, but a curious and compelling summons from Elise prompts her return.
Once Lacey arrives, she realizes how little has changed. Giles is still the handsome charmer she fell in love with, and Elise is still the wily seductress whose succession of lovers has risked a family scandal. But when a series of anonymous harmless pranks turns threatening, Lacey must finally confront the past—and a decade-old secret from one haunting summer at Sea Oaks.
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