A gothic romance of temptation and possession

Barbara Darke - schoolteacher, vicar's widow and natural medium - reluctantly accepts the position of companion to her former pupil Emily, now the bride of young Sir Arthur Haggard. At Haggard Hall, Barbara finds her friend beset by ghostly noises and unexplained deaths.

In a maelstrom of dark spirits and wicked emotions, Barbara battles the family's disapproval to lay Emily's ghosts - both hampered and helped by Arthur's sceptical cousin Patrick, who provokes and attracts her in equal measure. It would be a mistake to trust such a secretive, guilt-ridden man already suspected of driving his wife to suicide, if not of actually murdering her. And it could well be lethal to give in to her own desires, confused as they often are with the lusts of the dead.

But Arthur and Emily are in genuine physical danger from someone at Haggard Hall, and suspicion is falling on the man who haunts Barbara's sensual dreams, Arthur's cousin and heir, Patrick...